Tusla Commences Registration of School Age Childcare Services

Tusla - Child and Family Agency today commences registration of school age childcare services for the first time, in a significant step forward in ensuring quality school age childcare for thousands of working families.

In December 2018, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr Katherine Zappone, TD, signed the Childcare Support Act (Commencement) Order 2018, bringing into force key amendments to the Child Care Act 1991 in relation to the definition of school age service.This paved the way for regulations which will provide, for the first time in Ireland, for the registration of school age childcare services.

It is now a requirement for all providers of a school age childcare service to register with Tusla. This will encompass services for children aged 6 to 15 years who are attending after school care. Once registered, school age childcare services will be able to participate in the forthcoming Affordable Childcare Scheme launching in late 2019, and families availing of these services will be able to access the financial benefits provided by the scheme.

Whilst the regulations will be enacted on and from 18th February 2019, existing service providers will be afforded a period of three months to 18th May 2019 to complete their registration.

The Early Years Inspectorate is the independent statutory regulator of Early Years Services in Ireland and has overall responsibility for regulation in this area. The overall purpose of the service is to promote the quality, safety and appropriate care of children by robust inspection of the sector.

Tusla is asking providers who wish to register to advise them if they have not already done so. This can be done by simply emailing sac.registration@tusla.ie and advising name (provider only), the name and address of the service, a contact phone number and email address. Applications for registration will be made via an online portal. This can be accessed by creating an account with the school age registration team. 

A copy of the regulations, an explanatory guide, and a Q&A document can be found at: https://www.dcya.gov.ie/cat/EN/Childcare/221.htm

Queries can also be emailed to sac.registration@tusla.ie. Alternatively, local County Child Care Committee Teams will be happy to assist.

Speaking about the launch, National Service Director Children’s Services Regulation, Fiona McDonnell said: “The development of statutory regulation for school aged childcare is an exciting step in assuring parents that services for their children will meet the highest standards of care.  The application process for providers has been developed to be as user friendly as possible and there will be teams of officers available to support all applicants.”