Blog | CanavanByrne

Qualification Udate

07/02/2017

There is still a lot of confusion about qualification requirements from 2017 . As we know the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016 requires all staff who work directly with children to be qualified to the minimum of QQI Level 5 in an approved Early Childhood Care and Education qualification. The following has been clarified with DCYA. Support workers (like an SNA from another agency) do not have to have to have the qualification. Their role is to provide extra support for in individual child . They are not in ratio and will work with the appropriate number of qualified staff. Vetting does apply Students and unqualified CE workers are similar to the above. They are “trainees” . They work alongside qualified staff and are not in ratio. Parents who volunteer to assist also fall into this category. We are double checking about other extra support paid staff. Some inspectors have confirmed with our clients that extra assistance can be employed in a room once they are not in ratio and that the appropriate qualified staff are in place. Others say the contrary so this question has been posed to DCYA for final clarification.

Garda Vetting

07/04/2016

You are all aware by now the under the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 (no 47 of 2012) it is a criminal offence not to have Garda vetting disclosure when working with children and vulnerable adults. This applies to staff that started from the 29th April 2016. When TUSLA inspect the employee can be removed from the service. For employees employed pre-April 2016 it will result in a non-compliance and a condition will be added to the registration. Garda vetting carried out through the national vetting bureau covers the Republic and Northern Ireland All employees, volunteers and students working in the service must be Garda vetted. This includes relief staff. This also applies to the Board of management/Directors.