Childcare provision is a major government priority and one to which the Department of Social protection has made a significant response through the development and provision of a range of quality training and qualification measures on Community Employment. There are 2,200 places ring-fenced for childcare on Community Employment programmes. These places are delivered through dedicated CE childcare projects and through the allocation of places to childcare services as part of mainstream CE schemes.
Nationally there are 276 schemes with ring-fenced places for childcare. There is no decrease in the number of Community Employment ringfenced places allocated in 2012.
Forty-one per cent of ring-fenced places are located in the Dublin Region. The South West and the North East Region are the largest providers of childcare ring-fenced places outside of the Dublin region.
A key element in the approval of all CE programmes, including childcare ring-fenced places, is the requirement that such programmes do not displace current jobs or employees or that they are not used to fill vacancies. All applications for CE must be accompanied by letters from local Union representatives that such displacement or replacement is not occurring. In addition there is a National Monitoring Committee that meets at regular intervals to review all CE applications to ensure that the above criteria are being met. The programme is managed within this context at a regional and local level, subject to the availability of resources and the needs of participants and the community.
It should be noted that the Department has a significant role to play in ensuring progress in the area of quality childcare training through Community Employment; providing quality childcare services to local communities through the continued provision of ring-fenced childcare places on CE; and providing progression options into further education/training or employment in the sector.
