From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
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Check Against Delivery
Thank you for being here this afternoon.
This morning the Government discussed the outline of our plan for the phased re-opening of early education and childcare services.
Children: Familiar Faces – Familiar Places
Children and families are at the heart of our plan. Re-opening childcare will be as child centred as possible. Their wellbeing, happiness and ability to play with their friends again is what we are focussed on.
As we tip toe towards something resembling our Pre-Covid lives, I am deeply conscious that the past three months have been tough on children.
They have missed playing with their friends, hugging their grannies and grand-dads and the freedom we all took for granted.
Going back to early education and childcare will be strange for them. Many will be away from their parents for the first time in three months.
This is why we want to do our best to re-introduce some familiarity into their lives.
We are recommending as far as possible that children returning to childcare, go back to the crèche they were in pre-COVID 19. Familiar faces and familiar places will help children settle in to their new routine.
It will be different from when they left in March but having their friends around them once again will make it less strange.
Parents will be more comfortable placing their children in the care of the childcare Practitioners that they have come to know and trust.
After all the stress associated with the restrictions it is important that they are happy and comfortable with the first steps in returning to our new-normal lives.
Play-Pods
Many parents of young children are now familiar with the concept of the Play-Pods which are being introduced to keep children as safe as possible.
We know that young children cannot do social distancing. And older children cannot do social distancing in a play context such as we have in our school-age childcare settings.
It is my belief that Play Pods will allow children to play in a natural, spontaneous and creative way.
I am very pleased that the Guidance from the Health Protection and Surveillance Centre indicates that the size of the Play Pod can be in line with the Childcare regulations.
For example, for children in full day care, this means that for children under the age of one, there could be 6 children and 2 adults in the Play Pod.
For two year olds, there could be 12 children and 2 adults in the Play Pod.
The size of the Play-Pods will therefore depend on the age of the children, and it will also depend on the layout of rooms, which will vary from setting to setting.
I know that many clever people have been putting their minds to how children can embrace the Play Pods in a fun way. Many of these ideas will, I have no doubt, be evident when childcare services reopen on June 29th.
The full details of the guidance is being published on the HPSC website this afternoon. It will also be available on the website of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.
Parents
Parents have been champions. The one location is their home and their workplace. Their children have become their pupils. Their lives have become a treadmill of parenting, caring, working, entertaining, worrying and much, much more.
Despite this, some will be anxious about their children leaving their homes and returning to childcare.
This is understandable.
There is a risk. Every time we ease restrictions will bring risk. We need to weigh up this risk against the risk of children not returning to early education and childcare.
Every family is different. Every parent will make a decision based on what is best for their child and their family.
For some parents, not returning to the workplace could plunge their families into poverty.
For some children, the need to socialise with their peers may be important for their continued learning and socialisation.
Parents who have used childcare previously will be aware of the high level of training in infection control that our childcare professionals practice every day.
There will be additional COVID 19 training. Professor Martin Cormican has set out very pragmatic and sensible advice on how to help prevent the spread of the infection.
He has also set out the practical steps to be taken if a child or staff member is feeling unwell and develop symptoms.
In a survey conducted last week on behalf of my Department, a proportion of parents reported concerns about their children’s health as their primary reason that they are no longer planning to return to centre based childcare.
I would recommend that all parents should take the time to read this advice which is contained in his guidance for childcare settings.
It is inevitable that there will be some transmission of the virus in many settings at some point in time. It is the steps we take to limit it that will help us to return to early education and childcare.
Survey of Parents
I referred earlier to a survey carried out last week-end by IPSOS MRBI. It involved 563 households with children under the age of 15.
I wanted to do this so that my Department and I could listen to the voice of parents in determining how we move towards the phased re-opening. This survey will allow us to plan with greater precision.
I intend to publish the results of the survey this afternoon but I would like to make one point about it now.
The data has shown us that while 27% of parents used centre-based care pre COVID, 13% intend to use centre based care when restrictions are lifted.
It is extremely important to caveat this by saying that of those not planning to use centre-based care when restrictions are lifted, a large proportion – 29% - said this was because the service they normally uses closes for the summer period and therefore they have made alternative childcare arrangements.
We know from our own data that approx. 2500 of 4500 services do not open during the summer months, so at most we would expect 2000 settings to open at the end of June
Capacity/Prioritisation of Children
It is not possible to say at this point how many childcare services will reopen and at what capacity.
Childcare Providers have asked that I would publish the public health guidance four weeks in advance of opening. I am doing that today – slightly ahead of that schedule.
I hope it will allow them to assess how many children they will be able to bring back into their services.
Our Childcare Providers will be very familiar with the existing childcare regulations which set out the ratio in terms of the number of adults to children of various ages.
I hope that many will be reassured that the Play Pods are consistent with those regulations.
In addition, we have been conducting research among Childcare Providers across the country. We have had a very high response rate. I would urge those that have not yet completed the survey to do so and to make their voices heard.
In order to provide clarity and certainty for Providers and Parents about the numbers of children returning to childcare, I would strongly encourage them to reach out to each other to establish both the need and the availability of places for June 29th or for later phases.
As I mentioned earlier, we are recommending, as far as possible that children return to their pre-COVID early education and childcare service.
If there are more children that need childcare places than are available, we will ask Providers to determine this locally.
We will ask them to prioritise children who were already in their service whose parents are:
If there is still capacity, we would ask them to facilitate parents who have not used childcare services previously but who now need a place.
We still have some unknowns. However, I feel that we have taken a major step forward on a pathway by publishing our Public Health guidance. This will bring clarity for Childcare Providers and Parents.
Following this publication, we need to determine the number of places childcare services can and will offer in line with the public health advice.
We need to know how many will be reopening on June 29th.
Extensive work is being done on a funding model to support childcare providers. In order to move this forward, we will need information from the sector about their intentions.
For the sake of children, families and our economy, I hope that childcare will be available to the greatest possible extent for the parents that need it as they try to get back to work.
This is a national effort. The Trojan efforts of our frontline workers and the sacrifices of our people have got us this far.
I know all of those who can play a part in getting us to the next phase by helping to protect the livelihoods of families and restarting our economy will do so.
ENDS