Early Learning and Care and School Age Capital Programmes

Early Learning and Care and School Age Capital Programmes

Playing Outside Grant 2021

 

The deadline for application closed at 5pm on Friday 10 September 2021.

Funding totalling €5.5 million is available to help childcare services to improve their outdoor playing area, in line with current public health guidelines.

The amount of grant which is paid to each Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare Service is based on the number of individual children registered in a service on one or more DCEDIY programmes on the 3 May 2021.  The number of individual children registered will be taken from records held on  the Early Years Hive Portal and  the PIP systems hosted by Pobal.

To be eligible for funding, you must have had at least one registered child on one of the following schemes at 3 May 2021:

• National Childcare Scheme (NCS)
• Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)
• Community Childcare Subvention Programme Plus (CCSP)
• Community Childcare Subvention Resettlement (CSSR)
• Community Childcare Subvention Resettlement Transition (CSSR-T)
• Training and Employment Childcare (TEC)

Payment of the grant

Payments to approved applicants will commence from Friday 25 June and will occur weekly thereafter. Applicants will be paid 100% of their grant allocation, and will receive their payment within 10 working days of submitting their application.

The amount of funding each service is allocated under The Playing Outside Grant 2021 is as follows:

Number of children registered on DECDIY Programmes	Grant Allocation €
1-49	€1,000
50-99	€2,000
100+	€2,500

CO2 Monitors

Please also note that the Playing Outside Grant 2021, can now be used to fund a CO2 monitor for your service.

CO2 monitors can provide a useful indicator that areas or rooms may not be adequately ventilated. They can be used to judge ventilation in a room, taking into account the impact of activities, outdoor weather and window openings.

If you have already applied for this grant, you can use the funding to purchase a CO2 monitor, or, if you have purchased a CO2 monitor in the eligible expenditure window (1 June – 30 November 2021) this will now be counted as eligible expenditure under this grant.

If you have not yet made an application under the Playing Outside Grant 2021 and intend to purchase a CO2 monitor with grant monies, please select VENTILATION from the list of eligible expenditure on the grant application.

Further information

If you need more information please raise a Service Request on Early Years Hive using the following categories as appropriate:

Programme

POG (Playing Outside Grant)

Category

• Payment
• Application Form
• Program Clarification
• Technical Issue
• Review Eligibility

Subcategory

• General

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