Garda Vetting Update – School Age Childcare Services

The Childcare Act 1991 (Early Years Services) (Registration of School Age Services) Regulations 2018 sets out the following Garda Vetting requirements.

Before you register your school-aged childcare service, you will need the vetting disclosure (completed Garda Vetting) from the National Vetting Bureau in respect of:

• you, as the (proposed) registered provider;
• the person who will have day-to-day charge of the service (if this will not be you);
• each director, if your service is a corporate body;
• the ‘second person’ whom you are required to have available in cases of emergency if you are operating your service by yourself.

You will also need police vetting for any of the above persons who have lived outside of the Republic of Ireland for longer than six consecutive months, where this is practicable.

The Regulations state that it is also your legal responsibility to make sure that each employee, unpaid worker, and contractor in your service is suitable and competent to meet the needs of the children. You must consider the following when recruiting staff:

• references from the person’s previous employer(s), if any, and particularly from their most recent employer, if any;
• references from reputable sources where the person has no previous employers;
• Garda Vetting for the person;
• where the person has lived outside of the Republic of Ireland for more than six consecutive months, police vetting from the country where they used to live, where this is feasible.

You must carry out these checks before you take on staff and before anyone is allowed access to or contact with a child attending your service.

For more information about the registration of school-aged childcare services, please click here. 

For information on how to be Garda Vetted through Early Childhood Ireland see our Garda Vetting Section.