Damning report lifts lid on State’s childcare failings
OVERCHARGING parents and failing to meet staff ratio requirements are among a litany of key failings revealed in a damning report on childcare.
More than two-fifths of childcare services being funded by the State were found to be significantly non-compliant with requirements.
The report said the risk rating was “firmly in the red” for early years schemes, which provide free and subsidised childcare across the country.
It also warned Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone that serious compliance issues, including the possibility of fraud, were likely to continue for several years as legacy issues were dealt with.
The compliance reviews examined almost 3,000 childcare providers in receipt of State funding nationwide.
Fifteen “high risk” cases were found, where there were major concerns over financial controls, including the possibility of fraud.
Other cases involved charging for hours that were ineligible, having no records available for inspection and children not attending for an appropriate amount of hours.
The review covers six named childcare programmes, catering for more than 150,000 children and which last year cost around €416m.
The best-known and biggest of them is the early childhood care and education scheme, which provides free pre-school care for young children.
The report was submitted to Minister Katherine Zappone in February, but a redacted version has now been obtained under Freedom of Information.
A cover letter from the department’s assistant secretary-general, Bernie McNally, gave a frank assessment of the various early years schemes.
Ms McNally said it could be years before all the problems with them were dealt with.
She told Ms Zappone: “As you know, we have been working intensively on measures to improve long-standing legacy issues relating to governance, compliance and financial
‘Very serious legacy issues may remain live and continue to pose significant risk in the medium term’
accountability.
“But we have made it clear that even with this work, our risk rating in this area is likely to remain firmly in the ‘red’ for some time to come.”
Ms McNally said risks were being reduced and that the new affordable childcare scheme would make it easier to ensure compliance nationwide.
The executive summary of the report said that when it came to dealing with compliance issues “the journey really has only begun”.
It continued: “Very serious legacy issues may remain live for some time and continue to pose significant risk in the medium term. Whilst every effort will be made to deal with these legacy cases … substantial risk will remain until they are fully closed off.”
In a statement, the Department of Children acknowledged compliance issues with schemes that it funded.
It said: “The introduction of a compliance framework to manage instances of major non-compliance in a consistent manner is a significant improvement.
“Additionally, the department has contracted the company Crowe to assist in the development of financial templates and training tools to assist childcare providers with financial and governance reporting and related tasks.”