Creche charging for child's place during closure.

neris

Millem wrote: »

If crèche doesn’t sign up......do they still get the ecce fees from the government?

No the money for that and other schemes is used to pay the staff.

If the creche dont sign up they dont get ecce funding either but they can charge parents or ask for contributions.

Theres still alot of confusion about it and the possible repercussions for services into the future so services arent going mad to get into it

Millem

neris wrote: »

No the money for that and other schemes is used to pay the staff.

If the creche dont sign up they dont get ecce funding either but they can charge parents or ask for contributions.

Theres still alot of confusion about it and the possible repercussions for services into the future so services arent going mad to get into it

Ok I just heard I don’t need to pay anything from next week.

So basically if they don’t sign up they get nothing?

salmocab

Millem wrote: »

Ok I just heard I don’t need to pay anything from next week.

So basically if they don’t sign up they get nothing?

Yeah pretty much

salmocab

salmocab wrote: »

Wouldn’t think so, I understand that that’s stopping for all but they left it in place a bit longer than planned to give time to sort out zappones plan

Is it because she took the long way around?

neris

Deleted User wrote: »

Is it because she took the long way around?

No. It's because she hadn't a clue what she was doing and still doesn't

salmocab

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Is it because she took the long way around?

Neris answered quite well above me

neris

Has anyone received anything from their creche or preschool to say they are signing up to the new funding scheme for staff wages?

salmocab

neris wrote: »

Has anyone received anything from their creche or preschool to say they are signing up to the new funding scheme for staff wages?

The funding scheme still hasn’t been finalised, think COB today might have been the new extended date but the providers have some legal issues with what they have to sign up for, mainly a clause that says the government can make any changes to the scheme they want.

Cakerbaker

neris wrote: »

Has anyone received anything from their creche or preschool to say they are signing up to the new funding scheme for staff wages?

We haven’t heard anything about the wages / fees since the scheme was announced at the end of March. They had asked for 50% fees to help cover wages but when the scheme was announced they emailed to say they wouldn’t be charging anything.

We have gotten a few emails since then just to say they hope everyone is well / with links to videos the crèche staff made saying hi / links to some online resources for the kids.

Batholemow Cubbins

Nice that your creche don't just send messages looking for money. We have asked for an update on ours, someone on our group Whatsapp posted the link to the news article on Independent.ie talking about the payments for creche and the person who owns the creche just wrote back
"Yeah have to read through a 32 page contract first"

She was very quick asking for money when it suited her, now the ball is in her court she seems to be unable to do anything. Infuriating. I think this situation is going to mean that creches will be closed until the middle/end of May at the very earliest, I would say she is thinking about whether she is going to re-open at all so no way I will be giving her any money until things are sorted out. Her attitude really annoys me. I think I'll be moving my kids to another creche at the end of all this anyway now.

Dravokivich

neris wrote: »

Has anyone received anything from their creche or preschool to say they are signing up to the new funding scheme for staff wages?

In my opinion, that's an internal matter for their business and employees.

physioman

Dravokivich wrote: »

In my opinion, that's an internal matter for their business and employees.

Think the agreement is that they have to either refund people the fees they paid for the two weeks in March or not charge people for 2 weeks later in the year. Not sure of other details but suspect we will find out today or tomorrow once creches sign and send back their contracts

salmocab

physioman wrote: »

Think the agreement is that they have to either refund people the fees they paid for the two weeks in March or not charge people for 2 weeks later in the year. Not sure of other details but suspect we will find out today or tomorrow once creches sign and send back their contracts

Don’t think that’s in it at all from what I’ve read.

Millem

physioman wrote: »

Think the agreement is that they have to either refund people the fees they paid for the two weeks in March or not charge people for 2 weeks later in the year. Not sure of other details but suspect we will find out today or tomorrow once creches sign and send back their contracts

I think it only comes into effect from the 6th April.

neris

physioman wrote: »

Think the agreement is that they have to either refund people the fees they paid for the two weeks in March or not charge people for 2 weeks later in the year. Not sure of other details but suspect we will find out today or tomorrow once creches sign and send back their contracts

They have to hold the places of children who were in the service on March 12th when they closed. They have to refund any parents who made a payment after April 6th. Its all very confusing

Toastytoes

Sorry this is OT but I’m reading that it’ll possibly be September before crèches reopen for “non-essential” workers (imo we’re essential to the economy!), how are you going to manage realistically? We’re both still working full time from home and we’re really struggling. I don’t know how we’re going to keep it up till September.

How are other people managing or going to manage if this goes on till September?

Daz_

Toastytoes wrote: »

Sorry this is OT but I’m reading that it’ll possibly be September before crèches reopen for “non-essential” workers (imo we’re essential to the economy!), how are you going to manage realistically? We’re both still working full time from home and we’re really struggling. I don’t know how we’re going to keep it up till September.

How are other people managing or going to manage if this goes on till September?

We have gone the au pair route

Pawwed Rig

Daz_ wrote: »

We have gone the au pair route

We had a girl line up to come from Germany until this all blew up. Now her exams have been postponed until August but she was still willing to come but it is uncertain if she will be allowed. 2 weeks quarantine in each direction wouldn't really suit too many people.

Daz_

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

We had a girl line up to come from Germany until this all blew up. Now her exams have been postponed until August but she was still willing to come but it is uncertain if she will be allowed. 2 weeks quarantine in each direction wouldn't really suit too many people.

Lots of Au Pairs already living in Ireland that need a new family

maxsmum

We have hired a girl who was in my son's creche and he knows still from afterschool in the creche. We figured things wouldn't change much when the Govt make their announcement tomorrow. My mother minds him usually during holidays and obviously that's a no go now. So we are hoping she'll stay with us until September. It's cash in hand for her plus her Government payment so we are all happy with the arrangement. It will make things tighter financially but we will manage. We looked at childminders online and they cost a fortune, we would have had to take a mortgage break. Funnily we made the decision the same day HSE announced I could effectively get paid if I couldn't organise childcare, but I am itching to get back to work and some sort of normality.

Pawwed Rig

Daz_ wrote: »

Lots of Au Pairs already living in Ireland that need a new family

Are there? We would be looking for a live in arrangement from June to end of August. Slightly difficult if they are already here and so have to leave where they are living for 3 months and then find somewhere else in Sept. Also if it doesn't work out and then they have nowhere to go in June or July.

lazygal

Au pairs aren't for full time work though, you couldn't have the same hours as with a creche. I'd be worried about what happens if they get sick etc. Then you have the logistics of doing their tax as they're a classed as an employee.

Toastytoes

maxsmum wrote: »

We have hired a girl who was in my son's creche and he knows still from afterschool in the creche. We figured things wouldn't change much when the Govt make their announcement tomorrow. My mother minds him usually during holidays and obviously that's a no go now. So we are hoping she'll stay with us until September. It's cash in hand for her plus her Government payment so we are all happy with the arrangement. It will make things tighter financially but we will manage. We looked at childminders online and they cost a fortune, we would have had to take a mortgage break. Funnily we made the decision the same day HSE announced I could effectively get paid if I couldn't organise childcare, but I am itching to get back to work and some sort of normality.

Someone from the crèche would have been our preferred choice too but there was no one available when we asked. I had a look at the online childminder resources too but there aren’t that many in our area it seems.

Both my own and my partner’s occupations were included in the list of essential workers when it was published back in March ( tho our offices closed voluntarily so we’re wfh) so I’m wondering if we will actually be considered essential too when they stated to reopen crèches.

Hopefully we’ll know more tomorrow.

Toastytoes

Has anyone had any correspondence from their crèche regarding phased reopening from end of June?

One of my friends got a message from their crèche to let them know they would start reopening June 29th.

We emailed our crèche as hadn’t heard from them in months and was told expected phased reopening for front line workers in June but if reduced ratios in place “lots of people” will lose their places.

As I understand it 29th June replies to essential workers, not just front line and that crèche places had to be guaranteed to avail of the government scheme currently in place.

Are individual crèches going to be allowed to make up their own rules as regards who is facilitated once they reopen I wonder.

salmocab

Toastytoes wrote: »

Has anyone had any correspondence from their crèche regarding phased reopening from end of June?

One of my friends got a message from their crèche to let them know they would start reopening June 29th.

We emailed our crèche as hadn’t heard from them in months and was told expected phased reopening for front line workers in June but if reduced ratios in place “lots of people” will lose their places.

As I understand it 29th June replies to essential workers, not just front line and that crèche places had to be guaranteed to avail of the government scheme currently in place.

Are individual crèches going to be allowed to make up their own rules as regards who is facilitated once they reopen I wonder.

I’d say there is far too much to be ironed out on that front, essential worker is far too loose a term. What if one parent is essential but one isn’t? What if too many people claim they are essential as that bar is set quite low but is moveable and the crèche can’t follow guidelines.
I’d say the answer to your question is nobody knows how it’s going to work yet.

Toastytoes

salmocab wrote: »

I’d say there is far too much to be ironed out on that front, essential worker is far too loose a term. What if one parent is essential but one isn’t? What if too many people claim they are essential as that bar is set quite low but is moveable and the crèche can’t follow guidelines.
I’d say the answer to your question is nobody knows how it’s going to work yet.

Agreed there is a lot up in the air yet it seems, but I’d at the very least expect crèches to be doing some kind of analysis or fact gathering about who on their books falls under the essential workers heading (as defined by the government already) to get an idea of where they are. Surely they need to be doing some planning for reopening given it’s only 6 or so weeks away.

There has been no correspondence regarding clarification of who is even considering themselves essential. Maybe they will have enough places for all or maybe they won’t, but they won’t know that without actually asking us so they can at least come up with the numbers.

It’s seems like the first step to me but maybe I’m missing something.

kennethsmyth

Guys its simple you won't be able to do social distancing with kids and just like the restaurants if creches are not allowed to have a reasonable level of capacity they simply won't open again as the costs to run it for less children do not make economic sense. This is one area that social distancing will have to be overlooked but hygiene and other safety measures increased instead.

salmocab

Toastytoes wrote: »

Agreed there is a lot up in the air yet it seems, but I’d at the very least expect crèches to be doing some kind of analysis or fact gathering about who on their books falls under the essential workers heading (as defined by the government already) to get an idea of where they are. Surely they need to be doing some planning for reopening given it’s only 6 or so weeks away.

There has been no correspondence regarding clarification of who is even considering themselves essential. Maybe they will have enough places for all or maybe they won’t, but they won’t know that without actually asking us so they can at least come up with the numbers.

It’s seems like the first step to me but maybe I’m missing something.

If they ask who’s essential everyone will claim they are, they need clarification before they get anyone’s hopes up I’d think and the list as stands is far too loose.
This has another farce from Zappones department written all over it and crèches are right to do nothing until everything is worked out.

neris

If youve been paying attention to the scheme that the incompetent minister tried to ram through this week you,ll know they dont have any plans or ideas of how they will get creches to reopen in June & to who. The creches are waiting for guidelines and instruction from the dept before they have to figure it out themselves and plan. If you think a creche is going to reopen to a load of kids at one time your deluded and I think it,ll be a long time before children will be doing the same times and days as before.

Also the creche operators know about as much as parents as everything is released in the media and creches arent getting information thats not available to parents. So if your creche arent updating you it more then likely means theres nothing to update

cherryghost

Considering the information coming out about kids not being superspreaders, the idea of lack of social distancing in creches doesnt seem to be such a big deal anymore. Forcing kids at 2-5 to social distance, and play on their own will be mentally distressing and scar the child for life.

I would be cautiously optimistic of slow reopening. It is vital that if people/government want to get the economy back on track towards where it was, backbone services such as childcare MUST start opening.

Japan should be taken as a clear model. It's a very simple-to-follow model. Parents do not enter the building. Their masks are disposed of outside (or handed back to parent if it is re-usable). Kids temperatures are checked before entering rooms. Some have taken up app monitoring so they have quick and easy access to monitor temperature history. Buggies are wiped down and stored. Kids hands are washed, kids feet are even sprayed with disinfectant, all before setting foot in their respective rooms. Any child with sypmtoms is sent home for a week. Inside the rooms there is no social distancing but regular cleaning (which imo most creches do really well in this country already).