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Child Safeguarding ELC
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Dear Service Provider,
In certain exceptional circumstances, a service may apply to retain a child’s funding under NCS/ECCE/the CCSP Saver Programme beyond the standard 4 weeks non-attendance allowed under the scheme/programme rules.
Service Providers wishing to apply for Special Circumstances to retain a registration beyond 4 weeks of continuous absence up until 6 weeks, are required to complete an Exemption Request for Continuous Absence due to Special Circumstances declaration form, downloadable from the Programme Documents section of the Early Years Hive (for ECCE and NCS) and PIP Resources (for CCSP Saver). Please also find the form attached here.
One form will be applicable to NCS, ECCE and CCSP for applying for a continuous absence exemption. The form is to be signed by both the service provider and the
parent/guardian.
Please ensure to include the applicable reasons for the child’s absence and clearly specify absence dates. Once complete, please attach the declaration form to the child’s registration on Hive/PIP for Pobal to process.
Please note absences extending beyond 6 weeks to a maximum of 12 weeks, will require Pobal to seek acceptable proof of special circumstances. Acceptable proofs may include a letter or medical certificate which can be uploaded onto the system by the provider.
Declaration form Checklist:
Regards,
The Early Years Team
As you are aware, ECCE and NCS providers are contractually required to publish their fees lists:
• in an area accessible to parents
• on any online platform maintained by the Approved Provider for the purpose of advertising its service.
In addition, the contract permits the Department to make those fees lists available through its website.
The facility to provide for the publication of fees lists through scheme websites was not available in the first year of operation of the Early Years Hive portal but is now ready for release.
From Thursday 26 August 2021, your fees lists will be viewable to the public through the NCS parent website.
The fees will be those you have entered into Early Years Hive during the Programme Readiness process, so this will require no further action on your part.
This will better inform parents on their choices with regard to Early Learning and Care and School Aged Childcare (ELC/SAC) and increase the transparency of ELC/SAC costs, supplementing the actions providers have already taken to publish those fees lists.
It will also assist City and County Childcare Committees in their role of monitoring certain fees matters.
All services that have fully on-boarded to the Early Years Hive, are open, and have an active Funding Agreement under NCS and/or ECCE, will have their fees published under the Childcare Search on the NCS website https://www.ncs.gov.ie/en/childcare-search/.
The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) wish to advise that Service Providers can again accept confirmation of the acceptance of the ECCE, NCS and CCSP Savers ‘Parental Declarations’ by the relevant parent either by email or by hard copy. This is the written agreement between the parent and the Service Provider.
Parents should be given the option of physically signing the agreement or agreeing to it by email. Parents who wish to avail of the email option should:
• be advised that in regard to data protection, the use of email is a less secure option as this will involve the sharing of personal data over the internet via emails,
• be asked to reconfirm the appropriate email address to use.
The Service Provider should ensure that the correct Parental Declaration issues via the reconfirmed email address to the appropriate family. Providers are reminded that they agree to only process shared personal data for the implementation of the relevant DCEDIY childcare programme.
Parents opting for the email option should be asked to respond to your Parental Declaration email and it should be clear from the email chain that the parents agree to what is set out in their Parental Declaration document. Please see below for instruction on how to email the Parental Declaration.
ECCE – You will have the option to print a Parental Declaration form for each ECCE registration on the Early Years Hive. At this point, choose to save the file on your desktop. This can then be emailed to the parent.
NCS – there is no automated parental agreement available for NCS. Please see this guide on how to create such an agreement. Once you have your template, you can email it to the parent. Please note that a signed copy of the Parental Agreement is required by legislation for NCS.
CCSP Saver - You will have the option to print a Parental Declaration form for each CCSP Saver registration on the PIP Portal. At this point, choose to save the file on your desktop. This can then be emailed to the parent.
Thank you,
Early Years Team
Dear Service Provider,
The code used to identify ELC and SAC services, formally known as the DCYA Ref. Number, has now changed to the Service Ref. Number.
Going forward, you will be asked for your Service Ref. Number when contacting the EYPC and you may have encountered this already.
This change has already automatically taken place on the Early Years Hive and will shortly be occurring on the PIP Portal. There is no action required from service providers except be aware of the new name.
Thank you,
Early Years Team