Tusla still waiting for child minders to sign up

A newly introduced tax rebate for parents who use a childminder registered with the State’s Child and Family Agency has not led to any increase in numbers enrolled with the body, its chief executive has revealed.

Fred McBride yesterday said while the announcement in last month’s budget has led to more inquiries about registering for the scheme, it has yet to generate any increase on the agency’s list of childminders.

Just 119 childminders are registered with Tusla. Five counties — Laois, Longford, Leitrim, Offaly, and Wicklow — do not have any registered.

“We’ve certainly seen an increase in the numbers of people querying and asking about registration of services,” Mr McBride told Sean O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio 1, adding that “as yet [we have had] no actual increase in the numbers of childminders”.

He said: “If you have less than four children there is no requirement to register with Tusla, although some do.

“The requirement at the moment is that four or more children, you are required to register and the new scheme may well bring some changes to that.”

Meanwhile, new research published today by the ESRI and Pobal has found that children cared for by relatives at age 3 “have somewhat fewer socio-emotional difficulties and better social skills at age 5 than those looked after by their parents full time”.

The study, which investigates the effects of childcare in early life on children’s socio-emotional development at age 5, looks at the outcomes of three types of non-parental childcare.

The 9,000 children sampled were categorised depending on whether they received care from a relative, such as a grandparent, a non-related childminder, or if they attended a centre such as a creche.

Their outcomes were assessed based on parents’ reports on their child’s social skills — such as ability to share or show kindness to younger children — and their socio-emotional difficulties such as conduct problems.

Children cared for by a non-relative childminder were also found to have fewer socio-emotional difficulties, in particular, fewer emotional and peer problems, than children in full-time parental care.

The authors said there was no difference in the rating of socio-emotional difficulties recorded by parents who sent their child to a creche at age 3 compared to the outcomes reported by parents whose children were in full-time parental care.

Centre-based care was found to have a positive effect on the emotional development of children from disadvantaged groups, according to the outcome ratings awarded by teachers.

Such care was found to be associated with a reduction in total difficulties for children in the lowest social class categories, and with an increase in the pro-social scores for children from lone parent households.

“We find some evidence to suggest that access to centre-based care provides more beneficial effects for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, but the effects are small and are not sufficient to level the playing field. The quality of care received is likely to be crucial,” said Helen Russell, one of the authors of the report.

The report was unable to record the effect of participation in preschool care from the age of 3 as nearly all of the sample had participated as a result of the State-provided free preschool year.