6,552 children have been approved for a monthly subsidy, with a total monthly subsidy of €1,034,575, within the framework of the “Tuition Subsidy and Feeding Scheme for Children up to 4 years of age”, said the Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Anastasia Anthousi, at a press conference on Tuesday, where she was presented plan. So far, 342 nurseries and kindergartens are participating in the Plan, representing 90%, he added. as the Deputy Minister could not attend due to disability. Present at the interview was Adriana Sukova, Deputy Director General of Employment, Social Affairs and Integration at the European Commission, on behalf of the European Commission.
The Deputy Minister noted that the Tuition and Feeding Grant Scheme for children up to 4 years was designed with the aim of strengthening children and the institution of the family and foresees the allocation of an amount of 16 million euros per year to finance up to 80% of the amount of childcare up to 4 years old who attend private and community nurseries and kindergartens, with a maximum amount ranging from €100 to €350 per month for each child, with a particularly increased subsidy for children up to 2 years old, as well as for single-parent and large families .
He added that the beneficiaries are families who have children up to 4 years old and receive a child benefit. The subsidy is given on the basis of criteria of family income, family composition, the age of the child, as well as the hours of study. At the same time, the Plan took into account the hours of stay of the children in the structures, with an additional subsidy of €50 per month for the children who will also study in the afternoon (after 3:30 p.m.), in order to ensure the care of the children and evening hours and, by extension, parents' access to work.
The allowance is paid directly to the providers and not to the families, while as an insurance policy, the Scheme has included a necessary condition that the participating providers will keep the fees stable and will not make increases beyond €10. The Allowance is provided cumulatively for each child in the family up to 4 years of age. It concerns the period until the end of the school year in which the child turns 4 years old. The start date of the payment of the Allowance starts from the month of submission of the application (not earlier than September 2022).
He added that for the preparation of the Plan we use funds from national resources, but also the possibilities that it gives us the European Social Fund, within the framework of the THALEA Program 2022-2025.
Mrs. Anthousi said that since the first month of implementation of the Plan, 6,552 children have been approved for subsidy, which is 49% of the potentially eligible children during that month. It is noted that this number increases during the school year as more children are born or start their education in nurseries, since the reference date for the age limit of 4 years remains fixed until 31 August 2022.
< p>“We believe that this success of the Plan will push Cyprus to achieve the Barcelona Goals of 2022 for 33% participation of children aged 0-3 years in preschool education structures and even more, it will lay the foundations so that in the coming years the Cypriot Democracy to progress effectively towards the revised Barcelona Goals that are currently on the table of discussions at the European level, both in terms of the quantitative goals for the participation rate, but also in terms of qualitative goals that will very properly be included in the proposal being formulated to the Commission”, noted the Deputy Minister.
The 342 nurseries and kindergartens participating in the Plan represent 90% of the licensed nurseries and kindergartens in the Republic of Cyprus, she said.
The Deputy Minister said that on October 10, 2022, the children's subsidy was paid directly to the nurseries, for the period September 1-30, 2022, and €902 thousand was paid for the September subsidy for 5,436 children. She reiterated that 6,552 have been registered and approved in the Scheme. children with a total monthly subsidy of €1,034,575.
The aim is to ensure the necessary services and equal opportunities for all children from an early age, without discrimination, so that they develop smoothly and fairly and, at the same time, to facilitate the integration of parents into the labor market, said the Deputy Minister. noting that the implementation of the Plan already this year has multiple benefits and contributes to the implementation of additional relevant policies promoted by the Government.
“Indicatively, the implementation of the Plan supports the broader demographic policy of the state, and will contribute to reducing the risk of poverty and social exclusion, especially for children,” she said in her speech.
The implementation of the Plan strengthens the effort made to increase the options for free or low-cost preschool education and care, which disproportionately burden the family budget, especially families with low or even middle incomes, said the Deputy Minister. “It has been observed that often the lack of affordable options for early childhood education and care forces one of the two parents, more often the woman, to take care of the children and stay out of the labor market,” he said, resulting in the creation of a large gap in the employment rate between the sexes, with data showing that for 2019 the employment rate of women compared to men was 11.7 percentage points lower, it said.
The Tuition and Meals Grant Scheme of children up to 4 years of age is part of the wider planning and aims to increase the number of places offered for children up to 4 years of age, with a greater focus on children up to 2 years of age, where there is a low interest in care and education, the Deputy Minister stressed.
According to Ms. Anthousi, this purpose is pursued simultaneously and through a related investment project included in the “Cyprus Tomorrow” Recovery and Resilience Plan. Specifically, the investment project, with a budget of 15 million euros, concerns a plan to grant grants to Non-Profit Organizations and Local Government Authorities for the creation of at least 25 Multipurpose Centers for children aged 0 to 4 years and 6 to 13 years and Child Care Centers aged 0 to 4 years old. This Project, in conjunction with the Tuition Subsidy Scheme, is estimated to contribute greatly to substantially increase the availability of affordable early childhood education and care.
For her part, Adriana Sukova, Deputy Director-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion at the European Commission, said that a year ago, the European Union adopted a recommendation asking member states to prepare measures that would allow children to have access to early childhood education and care, as well as equal access to education later on.
“There are a number of options for each Member State to decide and choose what to do, how to support children, whether it's food provided at school, help with materials before they start the school year, but also paying attention to people with young children with disabilities or special needs,” he said.
He added that the Commission receives the national action plans on the issue “and this is what we expect from Cyprus in the coming weeks, because we believe that we owe the children this attention”.
For the project presented on Tuesday, he said that yes one of the projects that will be financed in the next programming period by the European Social Fund in Cyprus, to support preschool education and care, access for children under 4 years old. “I believe that this is a very important financial contribution on behalf of the European Commission and the European budget,” he concluded.
