Donegal County Childcare Committee. Photo:- Clive Wasson
Donegal County Childcare delivering for children and families
A report presented at Donegal County Childcare’s recent AGM held in Letterkenny, boasted the successful delivery of an impressive range of activities to sustain, support and develop the early childhood sector across the county.
Avril McMonagle, County Childcare Manager reported that there are 4,615 children attending early childhood services across County Donegal with over 3,500 of these participating on one of more of the Government childcare funding programmes that support childcare.
Avril highlighted the introduction of a new funding programme to support children with disabilities to attend pre-school education, as a hugely welcome and significant early childhood policy development.
During the presentation she commented: “For a very long time now we have been calling for additional supports for children with disabilities to be able to fully participate in pre-school education.
“I am personally delighted that 2016 will see the introduction of a support model to help overcome the barriers that so many have experienced in getting access to a high quality, fully inclusive mainstream pre-school provision in Donegal.”
In 2015 Donegal Childcare administered 7 different funding programmes and grant initiatives to support the sustainability of 145 early childhood services and 45 Parent and Toddler Groups operating across the county.
As a result of the Capital Funding grant alone –98 early childhood services in the county were awarded almost €760,000 to carry out essential works and upgrade IT equipment.
The early childhood workforce consists of over 800 people working in crèches and pre-schools and the cost of full day care ranges between €125 – €175 in privately managed services and between €130 – €175 in community based services in the county.
It was highlighted that these costs still act as a barrier to low and middle income working parents – and to women in particular.
Contributors to the meeting praised the work of the organisation and numerous commendations were made regarding the professional and unyielding performance of the organisation over the years.
In particular, DCCC’s multi-faceted communications strategy and data collection systems received high praise. The timely and efficient manner in which DCCC provides information to stakeholders is now well recognised – not only a local resource in Donegal, but as a national resource across the country.
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