Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 November 2016
259. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of unannounced visitations to child care facilities that took place in 2015 and 2016 in each Tusla service region; her views on whether the centre based child care facilities should receive at least one unannounced visit by Tusla inspectors per year; and her Department's and Tusla guidelines on the number of unannounced visitations there should be. [35382/16]
Amharc ar fhreagraTUSLA has responsibility for the inspection of childcare services. Inspection is carried out to monitor compliance with the Child Care (Pre-School) (No 2) Regulations with the aim of ensuring the health, safety and welfare of children enrolled in pre-school services.
Budget 2017 provided €1 million to enhance the level of inspection of child care services provided by Tusla and the Department of Education and Skills and my Department will be engaging with Tusla to facilitate the recruitment of additional inspectors in 2017.
The detailed information sought by the Deputy is not currently available in my Department in the format requested. However, I have requested Tusla to provide the information which will be supplied to the Deputy no later than 10 working days. I have asked my officials follow up on this to ensure delivery as a matter of urgency.
The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 42A
Tusla has responsibility for the inspection of childcare services. Inspection is carried out to monitor compliance with the Child Care (Pre-school) (No. 2) Regulations with the aim of ensuring the health, safety and welfare of children enrolled in pre-school services.
Budget 2017 provided €1 million to enhance the level of inspection of child care services provided by Tusla and the Department of Education and Skills and my Department will be engaging with Tusla to facilitate the recruitment of additional inspectors in 2017.
Tusla currently does not collect data in respect of unannounced visits. They are currently in the process of building a comprehensive ICT framework which will assist in data collection and collation, however, it should be noted that it has been Tusla policy to carry out inspections on an unannounced basis heretofore.
I can confirm that Tusla undertakes unannounced inspections for the majority of inspections. With the commencement of registration as detailed in the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016 the requirement is that all new early years services when registering with Tusla must be inspected prior to opening the service. This pre-registration visit is scheduled with the provider with all other inspections remaining unannounced. In a few instances it may be necessary to schedule a time with the registered provider regarding a complaint investigation to ensure that the relevant staff are available for interviewing. The legislation requires that an early years service is registered every three years however Tusla is working towards ensuring services receive an inspection every 18 months.
