Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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1119. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reason a childcare centre (details supplied) received an email from her Department regarding extending its contracts until August 2020 in view of the fact all services usually sign its agreements in the summer as the centre did in July 2019; if the case of the childcare centre will be reviewed to ensure it does not miss out on necessary funding as a result in view of same; and if it is the case the centre was not contracted to the funding agreements for the first half of the year. [5008/20]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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In the course of drawing up the 2018-19 contracts for both the Childcare Subvention Plus (CCSP) and Training and Education Childcare (TEC) programmes, the launch date of the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) was still under consideration but was expected to coincide with or begin shortly after the launch of the 2019-2020 programme year.

To address this, the term of the contracts which, in the normal course of events is for one year, was left open to allow for a smooth transition to the NCS scheme. At this time the policy was that all childcare programmes would be replaced by the NCS, previously referred to as the Affordable Childcare Scheme (ACS).

Section 1.10 of the Community Childcare Subvention Plus Programme Grant Funding Agreement 2018-2019, states:

1.10 “Term” means a one year period from the date of commencement of the Community Childcare Subvention Plus Programme on 20/08/2018, pursuant to this Agreement or such further period as necessary pending the introduction of the Affordable Childcare Scheme (“ACS”), or such similarly worded scheme, to be introduced pursuant to legislation to be enacted in 2018 which will replace the CCS Programme.

Subsequent to the signing of the contracts by childcare providers, a policy decision was taken that those children on the CCSP/TEC programme prior to the launch of the NCS could remain, if they chose, on those programmes until their eligibility expires. To accommodate those who chose to remain on the CCSP and TEC programmes, the contracts were further extended to the end of the 2019-2020 programme year, by means of the extension letter to which you refer.Services were given the option to opt out of the extension, although none have.

Services that had contracted to provide the CCSP and TEC programmes in 2018 now remain in contract up until August 2020, provided that each contracted service agrees to the conditions outlined in the CCSP/TEC Programme Extension Letter. The contract extension ensured that no service was funded without a valid contract, or missed out on any funding, for the first half of the year.

If this service provider has any further questions, their local County Childcare Committee would be happy to assist.