My Department implements a number of child care funding programmes that assist parents in accessing affordable and quality child care services. These include the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, which provides for a free preschool year; the Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) programme to support low income and disadvantaged families, and three Training and Employment Childcare programmes - Childcare Education and Training programme (CETS), Community Employment Childcare (CEC) programme and After-school Childcare (ASCC) programme - which provide childcare supports to eligible parents returning to work or to education.
The Programmes Implementation Platform (PIP) initiative was recently introduced by my Department with the objective of reducing paperwork and duplication of effort and to simplify the administration process of all of the programmes. This new development provides a more comprehensive, integrated set of management processes, more efficient work practices, greater visibility and control of funds and commitments and substantially improves the capacity of the stakeholders to dynamically manage service by service and case by case approvals and changes in each of the programmes.
The introduction of any new technical infrastructure does create some difficulties which are often resolved when users become more familiar with the operational processes. I can assure the Deputy that my Department and Pobal are working to further streamline the processes and I am confident that when all users become fully familiar with the system, it will prove to be extremely beneficial and efficient and will significantly improve the situation for service providers.
