IRELAND’S childcare services are “on their knees” as the fourth wave of Covid-19 rips through our creches and leaves providers calling for help to stay open.
It comes as the Irish Sun can reveal that the Government are considering extending new antigen test scheme for primary schools into creches in a bid to ease pressure on the sector.
More than 20 percent of positive cases between November 5th and 18th were children under the age of 12, the latest HPSC data shows.
Some 2,709 kids aged four and under were infected with the virus along with 8,870 children between the ages of five and 12.
The spike in cases has left creches battling to stay open with providers calling for antigen tests to be rolled out for free and Special Needs Assistants to be allowed to fill in gaps in services hit by staff outages due to the virus.
Elaine Dunne, who runs two creches in Dublin, told the Irish Sun that a HSE helpline set up to advise childcare providers about Covid outbreaks is backed up with calls with a hold time of more than two and a half hours.
She said the phone line is so jammed that creche managers are being told that they won’t get responses to their queries for up to 48 hours.
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She said: “It’s a total disaster. You can see what’s going on in the schools and it’s the same in our sector.
“Over the last three and a half or four weeks, things have escalated in the early learning sector as well as the schools and yet nobody is guiding us or helping us or telling us what to do.
“I’ve never seen anything like what’s going on the last three or four weeks. The transmission is absolutely rapid.
“It’s going through services very, very quickly. Before you would have had maybe one or two cases but now you’re having more and more cases.”
Elaine, who is Chairperson of the Federation of Early Childhood Providers, told the Irish Sun that the sector is “on its knees” due to the fourth wave.
She said: “Our sector has peaked. Our Covid advisory group is voluntary and it is inundated with phone calls.
“I’m taking phone calls morning, noon and night from service providers. We’re living in fear of what’s going to happen next.
“We can’t afford to close down our doors. We can’t afford to not take the children in and then parents to pull our fees because there will be no businesses left.”
UNDER PRESSURE
She added: “We’re just worn out mentally and physically. There are no other words for it. This sector is on it’s knees and nobody is listening to us whatsoever.”
The childcare association, which represents 1,400 providers, is calling on the Government to roll out free antigen tests to screen staff and for the Government to allow SNAs to work in creches as an emergency stop gap measure.
Elaine said: “We can’t get anyone. We can not get staff anywhere. I brought this to the Department’s attention again last week and they have no answers.
“Nobody knows what to do. We just can not get the staff. We’ve asked to be allowed to take on SNAs into the sector to help us.”
Earlier this year, some 200 creches – including Elaine’s business – were given free antigen tests to screen staff twice a week as part of a pilot programme organised by the Department of Children.
Elaine believes this programme was a success to prevent cases spreading in childcare services but the pilot ended on October 14th and creches were cut off from antigen supplies.
TEST COST
Elaine has been spending up to hundreds of euros per week to continue buying these rapid tests for staff screening but she said it is getting increasingly difficult to source swabs.
She told the Irish Sun: “We are worn out and we can’t keep this up. I went down to my local pharmacy this morning to get antigen tests and they were sold out.
“I rang five others and they were sold out. So I can’t get antigen tests tomorrow morning for my staff.
“I’ve been buying them all along. We got 50 of them for €300 and then I rang and was told they were gone up to €500.
“They need us so show us that you need us and give us enough respect to give us antigen tests.”
HSE RESPONSE
A spokesperson for the HSE told the Irish Sun that the phoneline for creches has received an average of 31 calls per day in November and that response times are 10 minutes – however public health advice may be longer as they are prioritising cases.
They said: “We are aware that some facilities try ringing departments of Public Health directly, rather than contacting through the CCF line, and this may have incurred some delays for providers.
“Queries can often be answered directly or pointed to the relevant information sources at this stage through the CCF line. If required to be referred through to the Departments of Public Health for follow up, this is done.”
The Department of Children told the Irish Sun that the HSE is considering extending a similar antigen testing programme due to be brought into primary schools into childcare services.
A spokesperson said: “The HSE is currently establishing a programme of rapid antigen testing of close contacts in specific primary school settings in response to the notification of COVID-19 cases.
“Consideration is being given to the introduction of a similar antigen testing programme in early learning and care and school-age childcare services.”
A spokesperson said the Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman will establish a Sub-Group of the Early Learning and Childcare Stakeholder Forum in the coming days to work on a plan to address pandemic staffing shortages.
The Department said that Minister O’Gorman is aware of the significant pressures on creches and childcare providers and is engaging with the HSE to address the problems.
PRIMARY SCHOOL PRESSURE
It comes as the rising Covid-19 cases continues to put extreme pressure on primary schools with some principals forced to send children home because they don’t have enough staff.
One primary school teacher in Dublin told the Irish Sun that entire classes have been sent home because they can not find a substitute teacher to cover for staff who are out sick.
The Irish National Teachers Organisation said the primary school system is “creaking at the seams” due to the substitution crisis.
An INTO snap survey of 877 schools found that 605 staff members tested positive for Covid-19 in recent weeks.
Education Minister Norma Foley will Tuesday hold crisis talks with official from the Department to discuss whether final year teaching students can be drafted in to ease the pressure on schools.
However, many final year students are already out in placement in schools with many others skipping classes to sub in schools.