Free childcare for families affected by homelessness

Homeless families are being offered 25 hours of free childcare a week for their young children.

Contracted childcare providers will get a flat weekly rate of €110 for providing care and a meal.

Funding of €8.25m is being provided to fund the scheme, announced yesterday by Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone.

The scheme for children aged up to five, will start next month in Dublin where there are around 850 homeless children who could benefit from it.

Ms Zappone said Focus Ireland would work closely with her department to identify eligible families.

The Dublin-based City and Country Childcare Committee will encourage and support relevant childcare providers to engage with the scheme.

Ms Zappone said the scheme would be extended outside of Dublin and would be demand led.

She pointed out that it was to be available in Dublin initially because 85% (2,110) of homeless children live in the city.

The Community Childcare Subvention scheme has been changed to allow the new childcare provision.

Focus Ireland’s national director of services, Catherine Maher, said the scheme was designed to be as flexible as possible.

She said more families were becoming homeless in Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Kilkenny, and Sligo.

“We are identifying the areas that have the highest concentration of homeless families in the regions at the moment,” she said.

The Children’s Rights Alliance said the provision of free childcare for homeless children was a “welcome stop-gap”.