DCEDIY – Announcement on Transition Funding

Transition Fund announcement

The DCEDIY emailed all Service providers yesterday (24/3/22)  to advise about the Transition Fund which will be available to providers between May and August of this year.

The Transition Fund is intended to provide financial support to Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) providers in the period of time between the end of the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme in April and the introduction of the new Core Funding from September.

The Transition Fund will make a payment to providers in respect of the weeks they are open between 2nd May and 29th August 2022.   The primary conditionality that services must agree to in order to access the funding is that their fees should not increase above those which were charged in September 2021. Services will also be required to be on the Tusla register and be contracted to provide one or more of the DCEDIY funding programmes on February 1st 2022 in order to avail of the Transition Fund.

A weekly value has been determined for each service based on 7% in their calculated income capacity. The calculated income capacity for a service has been calculated based on:

• Services’ location, size and service type specified in the Tusla register from January 2022
• Data on the corresponding service types (e.g. sessional/ part time/ full time and whether they are a community or private service) from the Pobal sector profile
• Average occupancy information from the Pobal sector profile. 

From 4th April, services will be asked to complete a simple application on the Early Years Hive to indicate the weeks they are open between May and August and will receive the funding in respect of these weeks subject to agreement with the Terms and Conditions.  Payments will commence at the end of April with applications received on or before 22nd April paid on 29th April.  Payments will be made monthly in advance for weeks open.

Starting at the end of April, up to four payments will be made if services are open for the full duration of the funding programme.  

Further information will be made available to Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare providers prior to when the Transition Fund application process opens.