Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 5, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following:“ “Act of 1991” means the Child Care Act 1991;”.

Amendments Nos. 1 to 3, inclusive, are technical drafting amendments which are required as a result of amendment No. 14 which seeks to amend the Child Care Act 1991 to enable the regulation of school-age child care services. As a result of amendment No. 14, there will be more than one reference in the Bill to the Child Care Act 1991. Therefore, amendments Nos. 1 and 2 are needed to the interpretations in section 1 of the Bill. Amendment No. 3 is required to ensure clarity on the meaning of "school". The amendment specifies that, for the purposes of the Bill, "school" has the same meaning as it has in the Education Act 1998. This is of particular relevance in the context of amendment No. 14 which amends the definition of school-age service in the Child Care Act 1991 in order that it refers to "school" rather than "a recognised school". The Education Act 1998 states "school" includes both primary education and post-primary education. It is broader than the term "recognised school" as it includes schools which do not receive State funding. This is important as it is intended that the affordable child care scheme should be available on the same equitable basis to school-age children in registered child care settings, regardless of whether they attend a recognised school. Equally, it is not intended that certain school-age child care services will be exempt from registration simply because they are providing services for children enrolled in a school that is not a recognised school, as this would not be in the best interests of children.

Amendment No. 14 provides for a number of related amendments to the Child Care Act 1991. The amendments result from my decision to introduce the regulation of school-age child care in advance of commencing the affordable child care scheme. This will allow school-age child care providers to take part in the affordable child care scheme while providing for quality assurance of all providers who take part in the scheme. The amendments address a small number of anomalies in the 1991 Act in respect of school-age child care. With the regulation of school-age child care to be introduced shortly, several amendments are required to ensure the legislation underpinning the new regulations will be clear and robust. The amendments will provide for three sets of changes to section 58 of the Child Care Act 1991.

First, the current definition of "school-age service" in section 58 of the 1991 Act refers to children enrolled in a primary school, whereas the affordable child care scheme will provide subsidies for children up to the age of 15 years. Accordingly, the amendments extend the definition to refer to both primary and post-primary education and include services provided for children up to the age of 15 years. The amendment also broadens the scope of regulation and funding of school-age child care to services that cater for children under 15 years who are enrolled in any school providing primary or post-primary education, not just recognised schools.

Second, the amendments clarify the overarching purpose of school-age child care and, while quality school-age child care should provide a range of activities that are developmental, educational and recreational, their primary purpose is to care for children where their parents are unavailable. It is not and never was intended that the definition should include either school completion services or services that solely provide activities related to religious teaching such as Sunday schools. Accordingly, it is proposed to amend the definition of school-age service in section 58(a) of the 1991 Act to explicitly specify the primary purpose of school-age services and exclude services solely focused on religious teaching.

Third, amendments are needed to the exemptions from the regulation set out in section 58(c) of the 1991 Act. Section 58(c) exempts childminders from registration if they care for three or fewer children. This provision is interpreted by Tusla as referring to pre-school children only.

Once registration of school age services commences, it will mean that all childminders caring for more than three children, whether pre-school or school age, will be required to register. Unless section 58(l) is amended the regulation of school age child care will bring a large number of childminders within the scope of regulation, including, for example, a childminder who cares for three pre-school children and just one school age child. While it is my intention to move progressively towards the wider regulation of childminding, we are still at an early stage in this process. It is not my intention, in bringing school age childcare into the scope of regulation, to also require the regulation of childminders. Indeed, I am conscious that there may be negative, unintended consequences if we were to require the regulation of childminders before strong supports and a proper pathway have been put in place. That said, the exemption must specify a limit in terms of the number of children. Childminders caring for a large number of school age children are, in effect, school age services, even if operating within a childminder's home. I therefore propose to amend the 1991 Act so that it exempts childminders who care for no more than six children at any one time, of which no more than three can be pre-school children. Childminders who care for seven or more children of any age, or those who care for four or more pre-school children, will then be required to register.

In the medium term I plan to move progressively towards the wider regulation of childminding, and I will be developing supports for this purpose, having regard to the expert group report on childminding that was submitted to me in January. In addition, the amendment I am proposing today will allow registered childminders to remain registered in situations where a change in the number of children they care for or the transition of one of more children from pre-school to school would suddenly and arbitrarily exclude them from registration. If we fail to provide for this amendment anomalies may arise where childminders, through no fault of their own, finds themselves deregistered. It could happen, for example, if a child leaves a childminder, causing the number of children to fall from seven to six. In such a case, as registration is a requirement for participation in the affordable childcare scheme, the loss of registration would cause the ending of subsidies under the scheme for all children in the care of that childminder. We do not want that to happen.

The amendments I am proposing to section 58(l) of the 1991 Act therefore allow childminders who have been continuously registered for at least a year to remain registered, even if they no longer meet the minimum requirements in terms of numbers of children, provided they wish to remain registered and that they continue to meet regulatory requirements.

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