10.2 Support for early learning and care settings

10.2 Support for early learning and care settings during COVID-19

Early learning and care (ELC) settings were forced to close in March 2020 due to COVID-19. As with the schools sector, there was an immediate impact on the children who could no longer attend those services and so could not interact, on a face-to-face basis, with the early years educators or the other children in their setting. It also impacted parents, particularly working parents, who had to make alternative arrangements in order to continue to attend work.

From the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) and whole-of-Government supports for the ELC and school-age childcare 155 (SAC) sector ensured that services continued to operate safely from the date when they were permitted to re-open, that staff continued to be employed by services and that the increased costs associated with public health requirements were not passed on to parents.

Since 2020, DCEDIY has been meeting regularly with key stakeholder groups to share information and facilitate discussion on COVID-19 related issues facing the ELC and SAC sectors.

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth provided a range of resources and supports for children, parents and early years educators during the pandemic closure period in 2020

The DCEDIY set up the Pre-school at Home Hub, which provided a range of activities to support and encourage children’s interests and to keep them playing and learning at home. ELC settings were also asked to connect with families to support the children in their setting during the closure period. A range of resources was provided to prepare for the reopening of the ELC and SAC services. Continuing professional development (CPD) supports were also made available to allow early years educators to undertake online training or development activities to help them to meet the demands of their professional roles.

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth put in place a range of financial supports that enabled early learning and care, and school-age childcare services to remain sustainable through the initial closure period in March 2020 and during the periods of restrictions that followed

While services were able to reopen in June 2020, a reduced demand for services, the requirements to meet additional and new infection prevention and control measures, and the uncertainty around the future trajectory of COVID-19 all risked impacting on the potential of services to continue to operate. For this reason, the DCEDIY put in place a range of financial supports to enable ELC and SAC services to remain sustainable through the initial closure period and during the periods of restrictions which followed. Supports were also provided to ensure that staff remained connected to their setting.

DCEDIY and whole-of-Government supports provided for the sector during 2020 included:

■the continuation of DCEDIY subsidy schemes on an ex-gratia basis from 12 March to 6 April 2020

■the Temporary Wage Subsidy Childcare Scheme (TWSCS) from 6 April to 28 June 2020

■a reopening funding package, announced in June 2020, which included a reopening support payment

for DCEDIY-funded service providers opening between 29 June and early September 2020. Also, the COVID-19 capital grant, which contributed towards capital costs associated with the reopening of ELC and SAC services.

155 School-age childcare (SAC) is defined as: any centre-based service for school-going children aged 4-14 years (inclusive), which operates during one or more of the following periods: before school; after school; during school holidays. See Department of Children and Youth Affairs (2020) National Quality Guidelines for School Age Childcare Services. Available at: https://www.gov.ie/ en/publication/b66c5-national-quality-guidelines-for-school-age-childcare-services-guidelines-components-and-elementsseptember-2020/

■the economy-wide support, Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), became available in August

2020, with ELC and SAC employers entitled to access the EWSS, with an exemption from having to demonstrate the 30% drop in turnover that applied to other sectors. A sustainability fund was made available from 24 August 2020.

■a newly designed COVID-19 Operating Support Payment (COSP) for 1 February to 5 March 2021,

that the DCEDIY had put in place on foot of the public health measures announced at the end of 2020. A new strand of the COVID-19 Sustainability Fund that had also been put in place for this period. Both were extended to the end of March 2021.

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, working together with the Health Service Executive, provided an extensive range of public health resources and guidelines to assist services to reopen and operate safely

In addition to the significant financial supports put in place, the DCEDIY, working together with the Health Service Executive (HSE), provided an extensive range of public health resources and guidelines to assist services to reopen and operate safely. These public health supports, which were kept under regular review in the context of changing public health measures, were updated and communicated to services on a regular basis. Where social distancing was not feasible for children of pre-school age, services effectively followed the sector-specific guidance for settings provided by the HSE on infection prevention and control during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the use of ‘play-pods’, with children and adults remaining together in consistent and small groups; this helped to minimise risk of spread of infection within services. Up-to-date guidance and support resources were made available to providers and parents on the First 5 website.

The Inspectorate re-engaged with early learning and care settings following the period of setting closures

In September and October 2020, inspectors made contact with early learning and care (ELC) settings that had been inspected prior to their closure in March. Between October and December 2020, inspectors also started the process of re-engagement with the wider ELC sector.

During 2020, inspectors developed a series of webinars, entitled Insights: Quality in Early Years Education in order to further support settings. The webinars were designed to share the findings, ideas and examples of effective practice that had been gathered during inspection visits to thousands of diverse ELC settings across Ireland since 2016. In recognition and support of the need for strong partnership across all learning contexts including home, ELC/preschool and primary school, each theme in the Insights webinar series contains webinars for parents, early years educators and teachers in primary schools.

Figure from page 289