EYES Update 20 July 2021

This week the team look at an important clarification regarding summer camps. The team also looks at the once off EWSS Eligibility Review form, new international travel rules and Fire Safety Certification for the re-registration process.

Early Times Weekly

Early Childhood Ireland’s Early Years Employer Service (EYES) can be contacted Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm, by phone on (01) 405 7103 or by email on eyes@earlychildhoodireland.ie. The EYES team is here to help with a range of issues related to the running of an Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare service.  If you have a query outside of these hours, please send us an email and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Do you have a question for the Early Years Employer Service team?

Please submit your question to the Early Years Employer Service team below.

Summer Camps

There has been a number of queries regarding summer camps. The Department has confirmed that as ELC and SAC services are permitted to operate without restriction and in line with public health guidance at present, the running of summer camps as part of that provision is also permitted.

EWSS – Eligibility Review

While all Tusla registered early learning and care and school age childcare providers who commenced trading since 1 November 2019 are exempt from the turnover rule for the EWSS, there is a requirement for ELC and SAC services to confirm on the Revenue Online Service, on a one-off basis before 30 July, that they are exempt from the requirement to complete the monthly employer Eligibility Review Form. We would encourage providers to log into their ROS and complete this or alert their payroll provider or administrator to this requirement.

The sector will continue to have access to the EWSS until 30 September 2021, with the arrangements for Quarter four to be confirmed.

International Travel – New Rules from 19 July

Providers, staff and parent/guardians should be aware that as of 19 July, new rules around international travel have been introduced. Anybody travelling abroad should be aware of these changes, which you can read about here. Any staff or parent/guardian planning to travel, should check with government sources for the most up to date advice at the time of travel, both departing and returning. In particular they should determine if they will be subject to quarantine rules on return, and should factor this in when considering a return to work, or to early learning and care or school age childcare.

Re-registration: Fire Certification and Risk Assessment

As part of completion of the re-registration process, providers will have to submit documents confirming their compliance with Fire Safety regulations. What you submit is dependent on the date your service was established, and you may need either a Fire Safety Certificate or a Fire Risk Assessment.

If you are unsure about your Fire Safety Certificate, it is usually granted by the local building control when the plans and specifications for a new building or proposed certain alterations to an existing building are assessed by a Fire officer for compliance with Part B (Fire Safety) of the Building Regulations. So it would be worth checking with the person who constructed your building, your landlord or the local authority. In some cases you may have been issued a Fire Regularisation Certificate, which may have conditions attached which must also be submitted to Tusla.

Fire Risk Assessments should be completed by a “competent person”, which can either be an architect, a chartered engineer or a building surveyor. You can search for a competent person in your area by following the links set out above. Fire Risk Assessments should be completed against the Fire Safety in Preschools 1999 document.

If you have not started this process yet, we would advise you to begin as a matter of priority, as the deadline remains 1 November 2021. Full details on these requirements can be found here.