Childcare Regulations

All Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) services must register with Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. The Early Years Inspectorate has statutory responsibility for assessing compliance with regulations to ensure the safety and welfare of children.

Early Years Services

Services for children aged 0-6 years who are not yet in primary school are governed by the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016. These include creches, pre-schools, and sessional services.

The Early Years sector is currently inspected by the following organisations to ensure high standards of care and education: Tusla for regulatory and safety oversight, and the Department of Education for educational quality and curriculum implementation.

School Aged Childcare

Services for school-going children (up to age 15) must comply with the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) (Registration of School Age Services) Regulations 2018. This applies to after-school clubs, breakfast clubs, and certain childminding services.

Registration Renewal

All Early Years Services are required to renew registration every 3 years. The registration date can be found on the current Tusla certificate or checked on the Early Years Register or the School Age Register. Please note the following key points:

Applications must be submitted no later than 2 months before your current certification expires.
Reregistration can be completed up to 6 months in advance of your expiry date.
The process requires submission of Garda Vetting which must be dated within 3 years for the Registered Provider and the Person in Charge (if different). Current timelines for vetting should be considered.

Failure to re-register in time will result in your removal from the register, and it is an offence to operate an unregistered service. Additional information on re-registration can be found here.

Pobal Compliance Visits

Pobal conducts compliance visits on behalf of the DCDE to ensure participating services follow the rules of the National Childcare Programmes.

The purpose of the Compliance Visit is to verify that:

The children registered with the DCDE under one of the Childcare Schemes are enrolled in and actively attending the service.
The Fee Payment Policy, Parent Letters (where applicable), Calendars (where applicable), and the Parental Statement are displayed in the service, and a signed copy from the parent/guardian of each child is kept on file.
Records of optional extra charges, deposits, voluntary donations, and/or fees for additional hours are maintained and are in accordance with the service’s Approved Fee Payment Policy.
Evidence of the qualifications of staff working directly with ECCE children is maintained. Services in receipt of the Standard Capitation will have the Room Leader’s qualifications checked, while services in receipt of the Higher Capitation will have the qualifications of both the Room Leader and the Assistant checked.

Pobal on behalf of DCDE conducts compliance visits with each participating Service who operates one or more of the National Childcare Programmes. Pobal Compliance Checklists are available on The Hive. For more information on Pobal Compliance visits see the Pobal Website

Regulations

Early Years Services

School Aged Childcare

Registration Renewal

Pobal Compliance Visits

The purpose of the Compliance Visit is to verify that:

Below is a list of links to resources and tools in the TULSA website:

Early Years Inspectorate Question & Answer document

Tusla inspection tools and templates

Pre-School Inspection Reports

Focused Inspection Tool

Tusla Early Years Inspection Outcome Report

Tusla Quality Regulatory Framework