Featured News

Dear Service Provider, 

The Early Years Hive and the National Childcare Scheme website will be unavailable today (22 June) at 5pm for up to 5 hours due to maintenance.

After this time, you will need to refresh your web browser to access the portal again.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your cooperation.

 

Thank you,

The Early Years Team

Dear Service Provider, 

You are invited to attend a training session for Core Funding 2023 - Year 2.

The trainings have been scheduled for

23/06/2023 @10:00
26/06/2023 @14:30
27/06/2023 @18:30

Please find the GoTo Webinar Registration links below to register for the training.

Core Funding Year 2 SP1
23/06/2023 at 10:00
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8351297019940109141 

Core Funding Year 2 SP2
26/06/2023 at 14.30
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4726452374255652693 

Core Funding Year 2 SP3
27/06/2023 at 18.30
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1636361805809811801 

The content of this training will cover the following topics:

• PowerPoint Presentation covering Core Funding Key Points
• Live demonstration of:
  • Service Profile (Refresher),
  • Application Module Process for Core Funding 2023
  • Core Funding Partner Service Funding Agreement

A recording of the session will be published on the Early Years Hive along with a copy of the presentation once all sessions are completed. We kindly ask that questions on the day are kept to the topics that are listed above.

Thank you for your time.

Kind regards,

The Early Years Team.

Minister O’Gorman Announces New Funding for Children and Young People’s Services to Support International Protection Applicants
From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

Published on 16 June 2023

Last updated on 16 June 2023

• €1,300,000 has been made available to the Children and Young People’s Services Committees (CYPSC) to enhance and expand their delivery of support services to children, young people and families in the International Protection system.
• Up to €50,000 was made available to each of the 27 CYPSC for 2023.

Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, today announced €1,300,000 in funding for the Children and Young People’s Services Committees (CYPSC). The new funding model aims to enable the CYPSC to enhance and expand their delivery of support services to children, young people and families in the International Protection system. Under this model, up to €50,000 was made available to each of the 27 CYPSC for the 2023 period. Proposals were received for a broad range of initiatives to run at local and national level including:

• The expansion of the ‘My Place to Play’ initiative, a family support and early childhood development resource;
• The translation of Tusla Parenting Support Guides for dissemination to protection applicants nationally;
• The organisation of a variety of summer camps/programmes/projects integrating children and young people into Irish communities;
• The coordination of counselling services and trauma informed therapy supports for adolescents;
• The delivery of culturally sensitive parenting programmes.

Welcoming the announcement, Minister O’Gorman said:

“A Cornerstone of A White Paper to End Direct Provision is a focus on meeting the needs of children, young people and families in the International Protection system through the provision of targeted supports. The launch of this new funding model will help enhance those supports by bolstering the good work already being carried out by the Children and Young People’s Services Committees, enabling them to progress new initiatives and expand their delivery of services to International Protection applicants.”

NOTE FOR EDITORS:
This Funding Model arises from section 4.5 of A White Paper to End Direct Provision and to Establish a New International Protection Support Service which commits to supporting the CYPSC to coordinate and deliver services to children, young people and families in the International Protection system.

Dear Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare Providers, Core Funding Hive 

Core Funding Partner Service Funding Agreement 2023 and the DCEDIY Core Funding FAQ 2023/2024

Further to the DCEDIY’s announcement on the 15 June, the Core Funding Partner Service Funding Agreement 2023 and the DCEDIY Core Funding FAQ 2023/2024 are now available on Hive for the upcoming 2023/2024 programme year.

Further information on the Core Funding application process for the 2023/24 programme year will be available in due course.

Best wishes,

The Early Years Team

From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth 

Published on 15 June 2023

Last updated on 15 June 2023

The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’ Gorman, has today published the Government’s First 5 Annual Implementation Reports 2020 and 2021/22.

First 5, the ten-year Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families (2019-2028) was published in November 2018 followed by an initial implementation plan for the Strategy in May 2019.

The reports highlight how the interim target set for paid parents leave – of 7 weeks per parent by 2021 – has been reached; the interim target of a 30% graduate early learning and childcare workforce by 2021 exceeded and the investment target for early learning and childcare – of €970 million by 2028 – has been exceeded five years ahead of schedule.

The Report also outlines key achievements over the period 2020 – 2022, including:

• an extension of paid parents leave and extended entitlements to unpaid parent leave;
• the publication of Supporting Parents, A New Model of Parenting Support Services to improve awareness of, and access to, parenting support services;
• a range of new measures to promote healthier childhoods;
• major reforms to the early learning and care system; and
• a range of measures to help families struggling with the cost of living and to reduce the risk of early childhood poverty.

First 5 focuses on the period of early childhood, from the antenatal period to age five, and takes a joined-up, cross-government approach to supporting babies, young children and their families during these critical early years.

An Open Policy Debate on the First 5 Implementation Plan 2023-2025 will take place on 20 June.

 

Access report here 👇

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOTES

A high-level summary of progress on 2020 and 2021/22 milestones across the First 5 Big Steps are set out below.

i. A broader range of options for parents to balance working and caring

Extended entitlements to paid parents’ leave were announced in 2020. The Family Leave and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2021 extended the statutory entitlement to paid parents’ leave from three weeks paid leave per parent to five weeks, and extended the period in which leave can be taken from within one year of the child’s birth or adoptive placement to two years. In April 2021, a further three weeks of Parent's Leave and Benefit became available to each parent. In July 2022, Parents’ Leave and Benefit increased by a further two weeks, bringing the current entitlement to seven weeks which meets the First 5 target.

The Family Leave and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2021 also amended the Adoptive Leave Act 1995 to enable adoptive couples to choose which parent may avail of adoptive leave and, in doing so, rectified an anomaly in the legislation that left married male same-sex couples unable to avail of adoptive leave.

Furthermore, the phased introduction of an additional eight weeks unpaid parental leave commenced in 2019, and rose from 22 to 26 working weeks in September 2020. The leave is available to a 'relevant parent' of a child, which is defined in the 1998 Act as a parent, an adoptive parent, or a person acting in ‘loco parentis’.

A General Scheme of the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill, which transposes provisions of the EU Directive (2019/1158) on work life balance for parents and carers, was published in April 2022 and referred to the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for Pre-legislative Scrutiny. The Joint Committee issued its Report on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny on 9 June 2022 and the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 was published on 5 October 2022.

The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill, which incorporates the Right to Request Remote Working Bill, will introduces a range of measures to improve family-friendly work practices and support women in the workforce including:

• A right to request flexible working arrangements for caring purposes, for parents and carers;
• A right to request remote working for all workers;
• A right to leave for medical care purposes, both for employees with children up to age 12 and carers; and
• Extension of the current entitlement to breastfeeding/lactation breaks from six months to two years.

The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill has passed all Stages in the Oireachtas in 2023 and was enacted on the 4th of April 2023 as the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023.

ii. A new model of parenting support.

The development of a national model of parenting support services began in 2020, led by the Parenting Support Policy Unit in DCEDIY, in partnership with Tusla, the HSE, and other partners from the community and voluntary sector. Supporting Parents: A National Model of Parenting Support Services was launched in 2022. Supporting Parents aims is to develop a more coherent and strategic approach to the development and delivery of parenting support services so that all parents can access the support they need when they need it.

Plans to consolidate, streamline, and strengthen parenting information resources into a single, coherent platform were brought forward due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the launch of the ‘Parents’ Centre’ platform in April 2020 on gov.ie. Subsequently the Parents’ Centre platform has been merged with the ‘Supporting Children and Parents’ platform, which launched in 2022 and brings together new and existing resources that parents may find helpful. The platform also includes resources for Ukrainian parents in Ireland.

Additionally, two informational social media campaigns were conducted in 2020. The national public information campaign on positive parenting originally scheduled for 2020 was delayed to prioritise other projects in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This campaign was successfully run in 2021.

iii. New developments in child health

A Steering Group was established by the Department of Health in 2019 to commence work on a dedicated child health workforce - one of the major commitments of First 5. As a result of the re-prioritisation of work in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the work on the establishment of a dedicated child health workforce did not progress. However, the Department has recommenced this important work.