The financial assistance for registered day care and childminding services is a new initiative, recently announced by President Danny Faure in the State-of-the- nation address. From April this year, the government’s assistance will be offered to all Seychellois children who are enrolled in registered day care and childminding service.
Following receipt of the registration particulars from parents and caregivers, to IECD, a payment of R750 per child per month will be made automatically. This amount will go directly towards the day care and childminding fees which parents are currently paying for the service. In turn, the day care operator or the childminder has to subtract the government’s assistance from the agreed fees.
The aims are to help (1) support parents by reducing the cost of childcare before children commence formal preschool or crèche education, (2) encourage parents to enrol their children in registered service which are implementing quality early care and education standards for young children’s holistic development and readiness for formal schooling.
With this new measure, the current application process by parents to the Agency for Social Protection will be discontinued; a new registration formality has been formulated and will be administered by the Institute of Early Childhood Development (IECD); and finally monthly payments based on information submitted by childcare services to IECD will be made by the Agency for Social Protection.
To access the financial assistance, it is imperative that parents and service providers follow these simple laid out steps as illustrated in this document, and associated forms to be used found on this page.
