The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman T.D., today announced two new funding schemes, worth €800,000 and aimed at supporting staff and expanding the use of technology in community and voluntary organisations working with children, young people and their families.

The two schemes form part of the Department’s What Works Initiative, which looks to maximise the impact of prevention and early intervention to improve outcomes for children and young people, and is funded through Dormant Accounts.

Alongside the two funding schemes, the Minister also launched a new Learning Strategy for the What Works initiative.

The Learning Together Fund is open for applications from today (April 9th), and will support professionals working in children, youth and family services with their learning requirements, peer interaction, project collaborations and knowledge dissemination. There is a total of €200,000 available under this fund and organisations can apply for a maximum of €20,000.

Rethink Ireland have been allocated €600,000 in funding for the ‘Children and Youth Digital Solutions’ Fund, which will open for applications on 15th April 2021 and aims to help projects supporting children and young people’s services to become more efficient, transparent, inclusive and accessible by means of the innovative use of technology.

Launching the funding schemes, Minister O’Gorman said:

“These funding measures will make an important difference to the lives of children, young people and their families. They are designed to provide practical support to services focused on providing high-quality prevention and early intervention services for children, young people and their families, while encouraging the sharing of learning and collaboration. We know that by intervening early in a child’s life, or early in the onset of difficulties, we can improve lives and address the impact of disadvantage.”

CEO of Rethink Ireland, Deirdre Mortell said:

“The Covid-19 pandemic has made our society become even more reliant on technology to learn, work and socialise. Technology has the ability to connect us to community, to learning and to new ideas. Unfortunately, the pandemic has also exposed the digital divide and the challenges some young people face in terms of accessing and using technology. Therefore, it is timely that today Rethink Ireland is launching the Digital Solutions Fund.”

Finally, Minister O’Gorman announced the publication of the What Works Learning Strategy. This strategy is intended to improve the knowledge and skills of professionals working with children, young people and their families to use prevention and early intervention. It sets out how learning is being supported under What Works, and what the initiative will achieve in this area overall.

Minister O’Gorman said, ‘I am pleased that this strategy has been published. It sets out how we can develop more learning opportunities, ultimately to improve outcomes for children and young people, especially those who are vulnerable. I know learning under What Works has had a significant impact already in supporting prevention and early intervention across the children’s sector and wider system through events such as our Festival of Learning , but also that there are further opportunities and needs to address in this important sector.’

More information on these funding measures, and the Learning Strategy, is available on the What works Website.

This section provides helpful information and guidance on children in settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Children have rarely been the person who brought COVID-19 into a household when household spread has happened. Children seem more likely than adults to have no symptoms or to have mild disease. Symptoms in children include cough, fever, runny nose, sore throat, diarrhoea and vomiting. It is important for parents and for those who deliver early learning and care and school-age childcare to accept that no interpersonal activity is without risk of transmission of the virus. However public health advice is that reopening is appropriate.

• FAQs for Parents- 2nd Feb 2021 [Download Here]
• ELC and SAC setting advice for Parents, [Download here].
• If your child does not feel well.If your child has symptoms of viral respiratory disease, even if they are mild, they must not attend a childcare setting. Likewise parents who have respiratory symptoms must not take their child to a setting or pick them up. Parents must not take their child to a childcare setting if a parent or anyone else in your home is suspected of having or known to have Covid-19. If your child becomes ill while attending a childcare setting, you must collect them as quickly as possible, contact your GP straight away and follow HSE advice
• Parents may be asked to complete a declaration.Parents may be asked to make a verbal or written declaration on returning their child to a setting after an absence to confirm that they have no reason to believe the child has infectious disease and have followed all medical and public health advice they have received with respect to exclusion of the child from childcare services.Requiring assurances/certification from medical practitioners prior to attendance at childcare or prior to return to childcare after an absence is not appropriate as it places an unnecessary demand on the healthcare system and there is no reason to expect it to increase the safety of childcare services.
• Is it safe for children to return to childcare?
• hand-washing and ensuring that children learn good hand-washing techniques
• respiratory hygiene and ensuring that children learn good techniques
• ensuring good cleaning procedures in settings
• washing toys regularly
• spending more time outside with the children
• grouping children together in smaller groups with the same staff members (‘play-pods’)
• Parents should follow the drop off policy.
• What should I do to prepare my child in returning to crèche/preschool/childminder or starting for the first time?
• What is a Play Pod?
• Do not bring any toys from home.
• Masks/Social Distancing.
• Supporting your child’s transition to primary school
• Teaching new skills to children
• Guidance on supporting your child for their return to early learning and care (Barnardos).
• Working together with your child’s setting (DCEDIY).
• FAQs for Parents, (DCEDIY)
• City/County Childcare Committee (CCC)
• Short animated video on returning to childcare for children, (DCEDIY) [Watch here].

Click here to follow the link to the website : https://first5.gov.ie/guidance

The DCEDIY launched a series of very short videos (the longest is 31 seconds) to help remind us all of the key messages around Covid-19.

Click in below for Dealing with Covid-19 symptoms  short video

Dealing with Covid-19 symptoms

 

 

 

Please note: the Out of Hours Helpline will not be open on Good Friday however it will be open this Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday