Pre-school measure broadly welcomed

THE provision by the state of a year of pre-school education will not cover full-day childcare but the measure was generally welcomed last night.

The €170 million being redirected from the Early Childcare Supplement will contribute e2,400 a year to families for children aged between three years, three months and four-and-a-half years old from next January.

It will be used to subsidise playschool services for giving a child three hours of pre-school provision a day, five days a week for 38 weeks a year.

In return, a weekly grant of e64.50 will be given to service providers for the pre-school education element of their work, and they will not be allowed to charge families for this. However, parents may still have to pay for any additional childcare or childminding facilities beyond the first three hours a day.

Alternatively, e48.50 a week will be paid to childcare services to cover two hours 15 minutes a day of pre-school for five days a week over a 50-week year.

Again, parents can not be charged but the funding will not cover any additional care.

Children’s Minister Barry Andrews said the scheme is expected to benefit 70,000 children every year, and will be run in conjunction with the school year from September 2010.

“The real winners will be the more disadvantaged and marginalised children who do not currently benefit from pre-school care and education,” he said.

The National Parents Council-Primary (NPC-P) welcomed the recognition of the importance of early childhood education by the measure.

“All the leading research shows that access to pre-school has a huge impact in dealing with educational disadvantage that so many children are already suffering when they start primary school,” said NPC-P chief executive Áine Lynch.

Children’s charity Barnardos also welcomed the measure but urged that quality should be the byword for this provision and that emphasis is placed equally on education and care.

The Irish Childcare Policy Network, an umbrella group for service providers and children’s advocacy groups, said it was important that savings on the e480 million annual cost of the childcare supplement should be reinvested in early childhood care and education.

A helpline on the scheme will be open for parents and childcare providers from Monday, April 20 at 1890 30 30 39.