Tusla simplifies re-registration process for pre-school and school-aged care services

Tusla said there was "most definitely" a likelihood that some services could still miss the deadline. File picture

Tusla has urged almost 3,800 pre-school services and 370 school-aged care (SAC) services to step up their efforts to re-register ahead of an end-of-year deadline.

The Child and Family Agency has contacted all the services that are due to renew their registration this year in recent weeks and will open a new portal today to help services complete the required paperwork.

Some providers have re-registered more recently but with it being required every year since it was introduced in 2019, the majority of providers are due to renew their registration before the end of the year.

Dr Anthony O'Leary, director of quality and regulation in Tusla, said the feedback from those who had undergone the streamlined process was that it took in the order of "10 minutes" to complete.

Dr O'Leary said parents and guardians would see the benefit of services re-registering, not just to ensure high standards were maintained but also in the certification being put on display in the services for the first time.

"We are very conscious of the challenges for services, such as the provision of staff and costs," he said. With this in mind, he said Tusla has simplified the re-registration process, replacing a number of previously-required documents with a declaration.

"We have not seen an increase in the number of service providers closing." 

He said there should be no fears over the 'declaration' element of the process due to the robust inspection regime in place. "We have 60 highly trained inspectors and 90% of them [inspections] are unannounced," he said.

Tusla received 3,037 notifications last year regarding early years services, with the vast majority - 2,755 - related to Covid-19. There were 27 notifications of non-Covid-19 infections disease, 38 instances of irregular closure and 205 reports of serious injury.

A child was reported missing from an early years service on 12 occasions last year.

However, Dr O'Leary said the number of notifications have been falling, both this year and last, and that the number of issues raised in the course of the year was very small compared to the 170,000 children who use the services.

A spokesperson said: "In 2021, we did not remove any services from the registers nor commence prosecution against any services for breach of regulations or operation without registration.

"However, we were involved in court activity with five pre-school services that had been removed from the register at an earlier stage that had appealed the decision. Four of these services had also been prosecuted for breach of regulation."

Dr O'Leary said Tusla was "ahead of the curve" in terms of engaging with the services that still had to re-register with Tusla, but there was "most definitely" a likelihood that some services could still miss the deadline. He said 90% of those Tusla had made contact with in recent months had already responded.

He said the cost was nominal, at either €40 or €80, and that the process would send "a broader message for parents" — "we want to make sure they have confidence in the services".

Inspection reports for each service are already available on Tusla's website.