Kathleen Funchion Highlights NCS Delays Hitting Providers and Parents

The Minister, this question is in relation to if your attention has been drawn to the fact that there is a gap in funding which is causing significant difficulties for providers and families and the delay between an application being made to the National Child Care Scheme and then public processing this application and as the National Child Care Scheme does not backdate payments this means that either the parents or services are paying the full price until the application is fully processed. I think it is somewhat a similar issue to our Deputy with more raised in relation to administration issues. Thanks Minister. The National Child Care Scheme was launched in November of 2019. There are currently 33,700 children accessing NCS subsidies and in addition there are children benefiting from the legacy schemes as well. The online application process was designed to be accessible and user friendly, though I acknowledge not everybody found it so. I do acknowledge that and I suppose the flexibility of the NCS means that the scheme is designed to recognise that each family's childcare needs are different and depending on the particular application type and the family circumstances of an applicant, the processing and processing time, it can vary between applications. So, for income-based applications, the quickest way for a parent to have their income assessed is to use the fast-track option which is online. Fast-track assessments gathers information from Revenue and from the Department of Social Protection for the most recent year that full income information is available. A parent can choose not to use the fast-track assessment if they want, for example, maybe if their income has decreased very significantly in the previous tax year or if they want to opt out of automatic assessment. This will require the parent to upload documents to support the application. The NCS does advise parents who choose this option, this upload option, that the assessment will take longer to process than fast-track assessments. Applications take longer to process where the scheme administrator is waiting for further documents to be submitted by the applicant. The subsidies can only be paid once an application is successfully completed. A CHIC code, which is a child identifier code, has been registered with the childcare provider and the parent has confirmed on the system that all details are correct. And it's a key aspect of the scheme that all claims are paid in arrears based on the attendance of the child. And this is a key financial and governance control to ensure we are maximising the benefits of public money and that the investment is following the child. So, once the process is completed, parents and providers can access subsidies of up to €200 per child per year, per week, for many years. And I believe that the process being adopted here is in general fair to parents and providers. Is there not a way, Minister, of looking at this, and maybe it is an administrative issue, that when an application is received and they can see that a child has started a service, I mean, that's all very verifiable. And one thing providers and staff working in the sector will tell you that there's no charge to paperwork and forms to be filled in. So, in terms of accountability, they certainly are up to standard there. So, is there not some sort of way that it can be looked at and backdated? Because what's happening, what I'm being told anyway, what's happening by both providers and by some parents in certain instances, is that they're applying, it's taken whatever length of time it's taken. In the meantime, they're either paying the full fees or in certain cases, the childcare providers are trying to take the hit. So, which is definitely not sustainable. And I mean, I know there's a sustainability fund, but I don't think that that was its purpose in fairness. And it just seems to be really a kind of a crazy situation. And I think it goes back to potential issues with the scheme. You know, I mean, I would have a lot of questions over how the funding is, you know, we want to see increased funding firstly, but in general about the funding, but that definitely needs to be looked at. Thanks, Deputy. I suppose ECE is a flat rate per child. The really good thing about the NCS is that you can tailor the subsidy to the particular child. The NCS will allow greater subsidies goes to those children who are most in need because of their familial circumstances. So the amount that each provider is getting has to be linked to that particular child. And that's done through the CHIC code. And that's why I suppose that it is a more complicated system than was used under ECE. But it's because the result and the actual support provided for each child is far more tailored than with ECE, where everybody, every child, no matter what the income of the parent gets the same. And I think it probably does tie back to what Deputy Whitmore mentioned earlier on. We did have problems this year and we do accept that. And I would hope that in future years when we don't have a pandemic and people are more familiar with the system, many of these can be addressed. I mean, the CHIC numbers, I actually, we're not going to get to, but I do have a question in about them as well, because there seems to be an issue with the registration of those numbers. And now that's, there obviously is issues. And look, any new system is going to have issues and feeding problems. Everybody accepts that, I suppose. One, it's good to acknowledge and that there's some sort of accountability for that. But I suppose the key thing is for providers here in this situation and for parents, what should they do in the interim if parents can't afford to pay the fees? You don't want providers leaving themselves short by trying to pay the fees. So, I suppose that's really the crux of the question. What advice would you give people in this situation? Who can they contact and actually contact somebody that will deal with this in terms of the money? Like, who's going to pay in the interim? Because I don't think it's fair for parents, but I also don't think it's fair for providers that are hard pressed. And I don't think something like the sustainability fund should be used for something like this either. So, I suppose that's really the crux of it. Who is going to take up the responsibility while there is feeding problems? Thanks. Well, look, I suppose in the context of, you know, as I mentioned before, my department is providing a very substantial amount of money to all childcare providers across the country in terms of taking a huge amount of the need to pay staff away from them right now through the employee wage subsidy scheme and through the predecessors to that across the rest of this year. Hopefully, that exact system won't be needed next year, assuming we move away from the current COVID situation. But look where there are problems, both PUBL and the city and county childcare committees are available there to support parents to the extent that they can. But I suppose it is a consequence of creating a very responsive and a very child and family centred payment like the NCS, that there has to be some link and some link to ensure that the correct payment is going to the correct service as per the needs of this particular child. Okay, go to mind.