Summer camp rules relax as parents look for childcare
RESTRICTIONS on summer camps are being eased as parents grapple to organise childcare for their return to work.
A previous recommendation that children be placed in pods of 15 has been scrapped and the ratio of children to coaches is being increased.
The Expert Group on Return to Sport, which was established by Sports Minister Shane Ross last month, has decided to ease restrictions on summer camps.
Under the previous guidelines for under-12s, it was recommended there be a ratio of one coach to every four children.
However the group said this should be increased to one coach to every eight children. For over-12s, the ratio is one coach for every 10 children.
This will come as a relief to sports camps as they warned prices would double if they had to hire additional coaches to comply with the advice of one coach her four children, as set out previously.
Summer camps will now be able to use indoor facilities, however this must be done with “strict protocol and acknowledging the extra risk associated with indoor activity”.
They will also be able to “allow a certain degree of contact” in sports, with organisers responsible for observing good contact protocols off the field and be aware of the “intensity, duration and nature of the activity that involves contact”.
Summer camp operators called for an urgent revision of guidance for children returning to contact sports in the coming weeks.
In a letter to the Department of Tourism, Sport and Transport, the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association had called for an “urgent revision” of the guidelines for children in sport.
James Coughlan, a summer camp operator in Tallaght and Coolock, said he received 200 emails and calls on Tuesday from parents due to return to work next Monday and are worried about childcare.
“We’ve been receiving about 200 calls and emails every week but it blew up on Tuesday,” he told the Irish Independent.
“Parents are frantic now.
‘Parents are frantic. Grandparents are not supposed to be used’
Granny and grandad are not supposed to be used and are supposed to be keeping a low profile.
“Sports summer camps are a healthy form of childcare for many parents in the summer.”
A spokesperson for the department said it was conscious the Government’s decision last Friday, to allow the resumption of sporting activities, has “implications for the sport and physical activity sector more generally”.
They said, with that in mind, the expert group “considered the issue of summer camps at its latest meeting with its key messages being communicated to the sector by Sport Ireland”.