Please see below updates for week ending 25th March, 2022.

The team at Wicklow County Childcare Committee are available as a source of support, information and advice, so please feel free to contact us with your queries on 0404-64455 or email info@wccc.ie 

For individual staff contact details, please click the button below.
 
Information is regularly posted on our Facebook and Instagram pages and the latest news section of our website.
 

We would like to thank you for your co-operation in relation to the survey regarding capacity to identify any potential places for Ukraninan children. We fully realise that there are many asks on your time  and this is another one to add to the list but the DCEDIY are trying to ascertain where there are early learning and care places for these children who are now entering the country daily.  It is an unprecedented situation we find ourselves in and we know from talking to many of you that you are willing to help in any way you can and some of you are already facilitating Ukranian children.  As the numbers are due to increase significantly in the coming weeks and months there will be a much greater demand and we will be keeping you informed of what the DCEDIY proposed plans are in relation to this as soon as we become aware of them.

TESS have prepared a guide for parents and carers regarding how to apply for school places.  The document is available in English and Ukrainian and will soon be available in Russian.

We have also included links below to two communication templates which services may find helpful.
 

WCCC provide a Jobs Board service for all early years and school age childcare services in our county.  We can advertise your vacancies on our Facebook page and website.

If you would like us to advertise your vacancies please send a copy of your advert to info@wccc.ie

The Transition Fund which will be available to providers between May and August of this year.

The Transition Fund is intended to provide financial support to Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) providers in the period of time between the end of the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme in April and the introduction of the new Core Funding from September.

The Transition Fund will make a payment to providers in respect of the weeks they are open between 2nd May and 29th August 2022.   The primary conditionality that services must agree to in order to access the funding is that their fees should not increase above those which were charged in September 2021. Services will also be required to be on the Tusla register and be contracted to provide one or more of the DCEDIY funding programmes on February 1st 2022 in order to avail of the Transition Fund.

A weekly value has been determined for each service based on 7% in their calculated income capacity. The calculated income capacity for a service has been calculated based on:

From 4th April, services will be asked to complete a simple application on the Early Years Hive to indicate the weeks they are open between May and August and will receive the funding in respect of these weeks subject to agreement with the Terms and Conditions.  Payments will commence at the end of April with applications received on or before 22nd April paid on 29th April.  Payments will be made monthly in advance for weeks open.

Starting at the end of April, up to four payments will be made if services are open for the full duration of the funding programme.  
Further information will be made available to Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare providers prior to when the Transition Fund application process opens.

Services that have an approved AIM Level 7 application but are availing of EWSS to employ additional staff member in the pre-school room:

We would like to remind services availing of EWSS that Pobal must be notified at least 10 working days in advance of the date they wish to reinstate AIM Level 7 funding.

To reinstate AIM funding, service providers are required to submit a service request on the Early Years Hive and enter “AIM Funding” in the subject line and select the following criteria: 

In the description of the request, enter all relevant AIM level 7 application IDs, and advise of the date you will cease your EWSS funding and the date you wish to reinstate AIM funding.

Changes to sessions, session ratios, attendance and/or external support since the approval of the application must be communicated to Pobal through submitting a Change of Circumstances Review via Hive. Please click here to see a video demonstration.

Services that have not submitted an AIM initial or second year extension application as they are availing of EWSS to support the wages of an additional staff member in the pre-school room:  

Service providers are strongly encouraged to submit the required application form as soon as possible. 

This will allow the application to be processed and if approved, minimise the risk of a break in funding between EWSS and AIM.  As per the AIM programme rules the backdating of AIM Level 7 payments is not permitted. 

Where possible please inform Pobal of the date you intend to implement AIM Level 7 funding on your application.  A guide to submitting your AIM Level 7 application can be found here. 

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth working with the National Library Service, will initiate an action called My Little Library. In this action over 61,000 4 & 5 year olds who are going to school in September will be invited to their local library to pick up a bag of books and join the library.

First 5 My Little Library will offer a book bag with books and resources to every 4 and 5 year old going to school in September. The children will be invited through their ELC or special pre-school. The objective of this action is that all children starting school in September 2022  will have story books in their home and be members of their local library. 

The project will work like this:

We need your help to ensure that every 4 and 5 year old starting school in September gets their invitation, collect their books and join the library. As this project is universal and a large undertaking, we wanted to get the word out before the official launch in late March and provide an overview of the project. The objective is that all children starting school this year will be a member of their local library and will have story books in their home. This initiative is a huge undertaking and we especially want to make sure that all children living in disadvantage get their book bag and join their local library.

The Core Funding Ready Reckoner is now available for use on the Early Years Hive. The Ready Reckoner is a lightweight calculator to support services in estimating the indicative value of their Core Funding.

A recording of the Core Funding Ready Reckoner sectoral training webinar and answers to the questions asked during the webinar can be found on the Hive under the Recorded Webinars heading.

A copy of the Core Funding Ready Reckoner FAQ document can also be found on the Hive.

We wrote to you in February last year about the new parents’ feedback process developed to enable parents to share their views about the service their child attends. This process provides a way for parents to share their positive experiences of their child’s service and to contribute to the inspection process in a meaningful way. It also continues to ensure that when significant concerns are identified and raised these are reviewed promptly and taken into account when planning inspection activity.
 
The process has been in place since last spring and we are now taking the additional step of asking providers to put up a poster in their service on the day of inspection, advising parents of how they can submit feedback. The poster was always part of the plan, but we delayed implementing because of the Covid pandemic.
 
You can find information about the parental feedback process on our website along with the template feedback form
 
You can also access our updated Feedback and Concerns eLearning course.
 
From April onwards, we will be requesting that you facilitate this initiative when an inspection is taking place by putting up the poster that will be provided in a prominent place where parents can see it.

Wicklow County Childcare Committee are involved in a potential training programme in conjunction with County Wicklow Children and Young People’s Services Committee.
 
The training programme involves an Occupational Therapist, Dr Dorothy Armstrong working with services who have children on the autism spectrum.  The format of the training and the content will be dependent on the responses received to the attached questionnaire and what you as practitioners would like to see covered.
 
If you are interested please complete the questionnaire in the link below and return it directly to Dorothy by Monday 28th March.  The number of places will be limited but if there is a very high demand it may be possible to operate a waiting list and run further programmes in the future.

Transitions Webinar – Supporting the Transition from ECCE to Primary School

Wicklow Children’s and Young People’s Services Committee (CYPSC) would like to invite you or a nominated member of your staff to attend a virtual information webinar, entitled ‘Supporting the Transition from ECCE to Primary School in Wicklow’.

The purpose of the webinar is to provide information about the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth’s (DCEDIY) upcoming ‘Let’s Get Ready’ Campaign as well as how to support children and families in the transition to primary school, including through Tusla’s Child and Family Support Network. It will also be an opportunity to build links between Early Years Services and primary schools.

The webinar will be held via Zoom from 1.30pm- 2.30pm on 4th April for West Wicklow
 
The webinar will be held via Zoom from 1.30pm- 2.30pm on 6th April for East/South Wicklow.

As part of the Aistear update, the NCCA is seeking the views of early childhood practitioners, setting managers and parents. The questionnaires are an opportunity to give your views about what is working well with Aistear and what might need enhancing or updating.