Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 315: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her views on a submission by a school (details supplied) in County Cork in relation to the operation of the new free pre-school year in early childhood care and education. [23130/09]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware I have responsibility for the implementation of the new scheme to provide a free Pre-School year in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), which will commence in January 2010. The ECCE is being introduced to benefit children in the key developmental period prior to commencing school. Services can participate in the scheme on the basis of a number of options. A full or part-time day-care service will be required to provide a pre-school service for 2 hours 15 minutes per day, five days a week for 50 weeks (241 days) per year, in return for the capitation fee of €48.50 per week.

A playschool sessional service, such as a Montessori, will be required to provide a pre-school service for 3 hours a day, five days a week for 38 weeks (183 days) a year, in return for a capitation fee of €64.50 per week. However, where for good reason a sessional service is unable to operate over 5 days, consideration will be given to allowing it to participate in the scheme on the basis of providing the pre-school year for 3 hours 30 minutes a day for 4 days a week. In such cases, a service will be required to provide the pre-school year over 41 weeks (157 days).

Further flexibility is provided for in that, a full or part-time service may choose to provide a sessional service over 38 weeks of a year (or 2 sessional services each day) while a sessional service may choose to provide 2 hours 15 minutes per day over 50 weeks. Also in cases where children attend a full or part-time day-care service for 3 days a week only, consideration will be given to allowing it to participate in the scheme on the basis of providing the pre-school year to those children for 3 hours 45 minutes a day for 3 days a week. In such cases, a service will be required to provide the pre-school year over 50 weeks.

As a free pre-school year, participating services must agree to provide the service in return for the capitation grant. This does not preclude a service from charging for additional services provided these are clearly optional to parents. Optional services can include additional hours, over and above the free pre-school year requirement, and additional services in the form of various one-off, or on-going, activities or services such as outings, birthday parties, specific teaching resources such as dance or music or food. By their nature, full or part-time services will offer additional hours to the pre-school provision and sessional playschools can offer an additional 30 minutes per day. However, services must ensure that all such additional services are offered and charged for on an optional basis and are not compulsory. A parent's agreement cannot be a condition of initial or continued enrolment. It is also essential that appropriate programme based activities must be provided to children not participating in an optional activity where this takes place during the required period of pre-school provision.

It is accepted that not all pre-school services will wish to participate in the ECCE, in the same way that some primary schools continue to be fee-paying rather than join the national school system. However, the Government is committed to introducing the pre-school year as a free and universal scheme. I understand that the United Kingdom provision in relation to pre-school, is based on an entitlement to a free pre-school educational place which must be provided without any additional fees or charges, other than minor amounts for snacks and trips, with providers being paid directly by the local authorities to in return for provision of the free pre-school place.