Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 December 2023
93. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to confirm if the NCS hourly/attendance-based rules are his Department’s policy or a restriction placed on his Department by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54566/23]
View answerThe design of the National Childcare Scheme is based on a policy paper published in October 2016 “on the Development of a new Single Affordable Childcare Scheme”.
The policy approach was implemented through the Childcare Support Act 2018 and secondary legislation arising from that Act.
The design of the National Childcare Scheme follows a number of key principles. One of these key principles is that the money follows the child because:
• It further strengthens the link between the provision of funding and the cost of delivery
• It increases the responsiveness of public funding to parents’ changing needs and early learning and childcare requirements
It is not based on any explicit DPENDR restriction but on an overarching imperative that tax payers money should be used as efficiently and effectively as possible.
The overall design maximises the benefits of public monies, ensuring funding is not paid for a service not actually being used by a child.
In practice this means that subsidies for early learning and childcare are paid based on amount of the amount of early learning and childcare parents actually need and that the number of hours used is agreed with their provider.
The agreed hours are then notified to the Scheme Administrator who will pay the subsidy to the provider, subject to overall eligibility.
The scheme also recognises that parents are constrained by commuting schedules, traffic and other individual circumstances. It also recognises that children may miss days or be collected early
The attendance rules for the scheme facilitate the need for flexibility, and allow for considerable changes in actual attendance without financial impact.
Under-attendance is only flagged if the child has typically been attending for less than the registered hours for an eight week period, and no further action is taken unless this under-attendance continues for a further four weeks.
The Scheme also provides for particular exemptions to the attendance rules under certain circumstances to allow for extended absences.
I am confident that the rules strike an appropriate balance between the needs of the sector, the needs of parents and our responsibility to ensure efficient and accountability use of public monies.
