Creche charging for child's place during closure.

neris

There is no requirement to reduce capacity in a setting (total number of children). However, a service may need to reduce capacity in some rooms in order to comply with the maximum size of a ‘play-pod’ [size to be confirmed] and to prevent contact between ‘play-pods’.

 A large room may contain more than one ‘play-pod’ provided there are partitions that prevent physical contact between the ‘play-pods’, and provided the layout complies with the Early Years Regulations and with fire safety requirements. Particular attention needs to be
given to any shared entry or exit points to reduce contact between pods.

These are from a document the DCYA sent to providers today. Theres no mention in it on how fees and payments will be done or by whom. Talk amongst some provider groups is they may not open in June as it wont be viable financially and also there is concern among staff that they will be be forced to work reduced hours so will have to seek full time jobs elsewhere.

pc7

It really is looking like an absolute cluster fook, nightmare for Creche’s, staff and families.

Millem

Does anyone know will the Government still pay the non contact time for the ECCE this summer?

salmocab

neris wrote: »

These are from a document the DCYA sent to providers today. Theres no mention in it on how fees and payments will be done or by whom. Talk amongst some provider groups is they may not open in June as it wont be viable financially and also there is concern among staff that they will be be forced to work reduced hours so will have to seek full time jobs elsewhere.

At least it’s a start, I’d say there’s a lot more to come. There’s probably a certain amount of kite flying going on too.

neris

Millem wrote: »

Does anyone know will the Government still pay the non contact time for the ECCE this summer?

Looks like all Govt payments/subsidies are off for the time being and it,s all on the wage subsidy scheme

Pawwed Rig

neris wrote: »

Looks like all Govt payments/subsidies are off for the time being and it,s all on the wage subsidy scheme

Ecce is not paid on the summer afaik.

Millem

neris wrote: »

Looks like all Govt payments/subsidies are off for the time being and it,s all on the wage subsidy scheme

Ok thanks that is very unfair considering out Montesorri teacher has taught for so many weeks.

JimmyVik

I see on the BBC news website that South Korea have had to close the schools again.

cherryghost

A very small % of schools closed again, 200, due to an infection cluster in a warehouse nearby that was not covid compliant.

Nothing to do with infections in schooling at all.

salmocab

Crèches are starting to get some direction in the past couple of days about how they can reopen. Apart from the obvious hygiene they have been told that ratios and The amount of children per square meter isn’t changing, however the Pod size will affect this anyway. Think it said 2 staff per pod. A few other bits that someone in the know might have a good explanation for too.
I would think if numbers are lower due to pods then the state are going to have to continue to make some contributions.
Might be done short term pain if people try to hold off paying until September if they already have the summer sorted for child minding.

Black_Knight

Our creche let us know a few weeks back that they were reopening on the 29th June, and if we wanted to avail of a place on the 29th June onwards (essential worker) we'd have to pay €50 a week in June. I was told it isn't a deposit, isn't refundable, it's just a fee. Didn't sit right me with at all. We paid a deposit for our daughters space when she first went to them.
If we don't start paying from the 29th June, they should consider our space gone, and our deposit is now theirs, but they just seem to want an extra €200 for each child during June.

Going to ring them now and find out what's the story since everyone is back to creche from the 29th.

rainemac

Speak to your county childcare committee too. Ask the creche if they signed up to the childcare wage subsidy scheme, if so they signed to say your child's place would be available on reopening and that they would not charge parents during the time of closure. Cant see how they would legally charge ye.
Really annoys me how some creches take the piss, others that might be struggling, struggle on silently.

Black_Knight wrote: »

Our creche let us know a few weeks back that they were reopening on the 29th June, and if we wanted to avail of a place on the 29th June onwards (essential worker) we'd have to pay €50 a week in June. I was told it isn't a deposit, isn't refundable, it's just a fee. Didn't sit right me with at all. We paid a deposit for our daughters space when she first went to them.
If we don't start paying from the 29th June, they should consider our space gone, and our deposit is now theirs, but they just seem to want an extra €200 for each child during June.

Going to ring them now and find out what's the story since everyone is back to creche from the 29th.

cherryghost

We got a mail this morning, end of June for essential workers, and everyone else if there is space. No fees.

But I did suggest to start with half day for our kid instead back on full day, as my OH still doesnt have her job back (But is heavily pregnant, so at this stage we do not think she will be back in work any time soon anyway)

salmocab

cherryghost wrote: »

We got a mail this morning, end of June for essential workers, and everyone else if there is space. No fees.

But I did suggest to start with half day for our kid instead back on full day, as my OH still doesnt have her job back (But is heavily pregnant, so at this stage we do not think she will be back in work any time soon anyway)

The no fees bit sounds like a stretch, as far as I can see the government have given no Update on how the fees bit is going to work.

cherryghost

salmocab wrote: »

The no fees bit sounds like a stretch, as far as I can see the government have given no Update on how the fees bit is going to work.

Sorry, I meant no fees referring to post earlier about a creche asking for 50 quid a week in June to keep their spot (which is completely ridiculous)

salmocab

cherryghost wrote: »

Sorry, I meant no fees referring to post earlier about a creche asking for 50 quid a week in June to keep their spot (which is completely ridiculous)

Ah right I was thinking that was odd.

Siobhan82

I'm quite suprised that this kind of gob****e is legal. Or maybe it's not, does anyone know?

salmocab

Siobhan82 wrote: »

I'm quite suprised that this kind of gob****e is legal. Or maybe it's not, does anyone know?

What are you asking here?

cherryghost

salmocab wrote: »

What are you asking here?

If charging for the time the creche isnt open, legal, I would assume.

salmocab

cherryghost wrote: »

If charging for the time the creche isnt open, legal, I would assume.

Ah right, not sure about legal but certainly seems to be against the system that the creche have signed up for.

appledrop

Our creche contacted us with questionnaire to see if we would want to take up place again for our child from 29th June.

It will be interesting to see what is going to happen + how/when they are going to reopen.

salmocab

appledrop wrote: »

Our creche contacted us with questionnaire to see if we would want to take up place again for our child from 29th June.

It will be interesting to see what is going to happen + how/when they are going to reopen.

From what I can see it looks like they will be open with almost business as usual for 29th July, the pod thing seems to be about keeping kids separate from other groups but essentially there won’t be much change from the kids point of view. Probably take a month before the numbers are back up which might suit some places as they smooth out their systems.

youcancallmeal

We got email from our creche today that they are open for everyone from 29th June. I'm confused about this, doesn't say anything here about childcare reopening to everyone on the 29th? Maybe something has been communicated to childcare providers that wasn't released to the public

physioman

youcancallmeal wrote: »

We got email from our creche today that they are open for everyone from 29th June. I'm confused about this, doesn't say anything here about childcare reopening to everyone on the 29th? Maybe something has been communicated to childcare providers that wasn't released to the public

It was originally suppose to be essential workers but it's open to everyone now

salmocab

youcancallmeal wrote: »

We got email from our creche today that they are open for everyone from 29th June. I'm confused about this, doesn't say anything here about childcare reopening to everyone on the 29th? Maybe something has been communicated to childcare providers that wasn't released to the public

Yeah its everyone now.

youcancallmeal

physioman wrote: »

It was originally suppose to be essential workers but it's open to everyone now

Is there anywhere official that is explained? I guess the citizens information site I am looking at hasn't been updated yet

Shybride2016

youcancallmeal wrote: »

Is there anywhere official that is explained? I guess the citizens information site I am looking at hasn't been updated yet

DCYA press release from a couple of weeks ago. About half way down it explains the change.

https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/23b25-minister-zappone-announces-decisions-and-guidance-to-support-the-reopening-of-childcare-services/

DOD555

Has anyone received a partial refund of their March Creche fees by any chance, or even asked their Creche about it (I did but got a silly excuse that didn’t even make sense). Annoys me that we paid for a full month (22 days) and only received childcare for 9 of them. We had to pay €100 per day for the remaining 13 days in March to arrange alternative childcare. We had some of the Creche girls working for us and they said they got fully paid for March but not since. Which is all fair enough but then the Creche can come along and apply for a portion of their staffs March salaries back under the assistance scheme. So, for March anyway, it seems to me that the Creche owners are the big winners and the parents are the ones been screwed. Prices already increased €100 in January so I was already peeved with them.

Liverpool2014

DOD555 wrote: »

Has anyone received a partial refund of their March Creche fees by any chance, or even asked their Creche about it (I did but got a silly excuse that didn’t even make sense). Annoys me that we paid for a full month (22 days) and only received childcare for 9 of them. We had to pay €100 per day for the remaining 13 days in March to arrange alternative childcare. We had some of the Creche girls working for us and they said they got fully paid for March but not since. Which is all fair enough but then the Creche can come along and apply for a portion of their staffs March salaries back under the assistance scheme. So, for March anyway, it seems to me that the Creche owners are the big winners and the parents are the ones been screwed. Prices already increased €100 in January so I was already peeved with them.

We asked about it but only response we got was that "Full fee is expected". No reasons given. We argued about it and was told deposit will be used to cover it. To add to that, we have a 2 year old who was suppose to start mid March with the same creche that her sister is in and guess what before she starts the creche was shut as part of the national wide Covid19 lockdown. What do you think the creche attitude in this case? 50% of March fee was expected for my 2 year old as they have kept her place. We also argued that we did not even get a chance to use the service and how can we be expected to pay in this case. But that is no good to them and we were told deposit will be used to cover that.

Anyway, really think some of them are taking the XXXX.

JimmyVik

Liverpool2014 wrote: »

We asked about it but only response we got was that "Full fee is expected". No reasons given. We argued about it and was told deposit will be used to cover it. To add to that, we have a 2 year old who was suppose to start mid March with the same creche that her sister is in and guess what before she starts the creche was shut as part of the national wide Covid19 lockdown. What do you think the creche attitude in this case? 50% of March fee was expected for my 2 year old as they have kept her place. We also argued that we did not even get a chance to use the service and how can we be expected to pay in this case. But that is no good to them and we were told deposit will be used to cover that.

Anyway, really think some of them are taking the XXXX.

Just on principal I wouldnt give that shower another penny and would move.