School-age childcare places inadequate, survey finds

http://www.mychildcare.ie/news17102009_3.asp

The LACK of childcare for school-going children in Dublin city has been highlighted in a new report from the Dublin City Childcare Committee.
It surveyed 168 providers of school-age childcare in the city and found that more than half of them had waiting lists for the 5,215 places they provided. Committee chairwoman Anne Conroy said the waiting lists were significant in many cases. "It wasn't just a waiting list of two or three. In lots of places they had 20 or 30 per cent of their number of places on their waiting list."
The survey found schools were the biggest providers of after school services, followed by community groups and private operators.
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.
Ms Conroy said there was a growing demand for the introduction of standards and regulations for the sector.
"Why is it okay for a three-year old to go to an earlier service that has standards, that's regulated and inspected and for the six- or seven-year-old to go a school-age after school programme that's completely unregulated with no standards?" she asked. "The answer is, it's not."
Minister for Children Barry Andrews said he had given almost no thought to this sector as his department was focused on the provision of pre-school childcare up to now. School age childcare was an area that was now "ripe for policy development", he said.
Mr Andrews said after-school services had developed in an unplanned way but a clamour was building for regulation and standards in the sector. "And it's probably now the time to do that . . . My office is very keen to do that."
The report also calls for more widespread training for school-age childcare workers, because of the different skills needed to work with older children.
Joan Whelan from the Ranelagh Multi-Denominational School said the advantages of after-school care for children were "huge" but it cost money to provide the service.
Her school employs three full-time staff and other part-time workers to provide after-school care from 1.10pm-6.15pm.
"You can't provide a quality service on the cheap," she said. "It's not just a matter of throwing back the old desks and chairs and making a nice big space and letting the kids in there to play."
She said financial supports were "absolutely crucial" to running the scheme.
Ms Whelan also said the school had noticed the increasing financial pressure on parents using the service in recent months. "We're noticing the squeeze at the moment . . . people needing places at short notice . . . people taking three days where they would really like to have their kids in for five."
This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times by ALISON HEALY
http://www.mychildcare.ie/news17102009_3.asp