Report highlights childcare deficit

http://www.mychildcare.ie/news17102009_2.asp

A new report on the provision of childcare for school-going children has found that there are waiting lists for more than half of the services in Dublin city.
Dublin City Childcare Committee surveyed 168 providers of school-age childcare in the city. Schools were the biggest providers of after school services, followed by community groups and private operators.
The survey found that the current supply of places was "clearly not meeting demand". It found that many services did not have dedicated outdoor play spaces and said the lack of availability of appropriate premises was "a serious difficulty" for providers.
"In particular, the issue of obtaining planning permission was identified as long-drawn out and quite often unsuccessful," the School-Age Childcare in Dublin City report said.
It called for regulations and guidelines to aid the development of the sector and said training for school-age childcare workers should be made more widely available.
This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times by ALISON HEALYhttp://www.mychildcare.ie/news17102009_2.asp