Early Childhood Care and Education(ECCE) Scheme Compliance Process
In 2010, childcare services participating in the Early Childhood Care & Education (ECCE) Scheme will be subject to an on-site compliance visit by Pobal on behalf of the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (OMYCA). This will involve a compliance
visit to approx over 4,000 services throughout Ireland.
What do I need to know about the ECCE Compliance Process?
1. What is meant by Compliance?
2. The purpose of the On-site Compliance visit.
3. Preparing for the On-site Compliance visit.
4. During the On-site Compliance visit.
5. After the On-site Compliance visit.
1. What is meant by Compliance?
It is a process to verify, through an on-site visit, that the conditions of the ECCE Scheme are being complied with as detailed in the ECCE grant funding agreement. Failure to comply with the on-site compliance visit, and to provide information (see point 3, below) on the day of the visit, may result in the service being deemed non-compliant and in breach of contractual requirements under ECCE.
2. The purpose of the On-site Compliance visit is to:
- Confirm existence of the pre-school service.
- Verify that the actual number of ECCE places in each service corresponds with the number approved by OMCYA.
- Check the qualifications of staff delivering the pre-school service.
- Verify compliance with the approved Fees Policy.
The on-site visit is not an audit of accounts, books or financial records of the service or an examination of the service's corporate governance.
3. Preparing for the On-site Compliance visit:
- Services will receive an email/letter from Pobal, normally one week in advance of
- the on-site visit, to advise of the scheduled visit (sample notification letter). A
- follow-up telephone call from a Pobal staff member will be made.
- Information/documentation to be available to Pobal on the day of the visit is as
- follows:
- Attendance records commencing from January 2010.
- Copies of childcare/early education qualifications of staff delivering the preschool service.
- A copy of the Fees Policy approved by the local County/City Childcare Committee.
- Fees records commencing from January 2010.
- Pobal will advise City/County Childcare Committees of scheduled on-site visits in respective counties.
4. During the On-site Compliance visit:
- The on-site visit will comprise a compliance check on the three fundamental
- elements of the ECCE Scheme, i.e. service provision (operating weeks/days and
- attendance), staff qualifications and the approved fees policy.
- Each visit will be of approx 30 minutes duration.
- The service will be required to ensure someone is available to accompany the
- Pobal representative for the duration of the visit.
- The service will be required to sign-off on the information collected in the course
- of the visit.
- If there are any discrepancies between the information gathered during the visit
- and the data supplied to Pobal by the OMCYA and/or CCC, this will be noted on
- the visit report (sample form).
5. After the On-site Compliance visit:
- Pobal will provide a copy of its report to OMCYA.
- The Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (OMYCA) will followup with services deemed to be non-compliant.
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