Question NW703 to the Minister of Social Development

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23 March 2021 - NW703

Profile picture: Abrahams, Ms ALA

Abrahams, Ms ALA to ask the Minister of Social Development

(1)Whether the Vangasali early childhood development campaign has been able to determine if any (a) previously registered, (b) conditionally registered and/or (c) or unregistered early childhood development centres in each province have (i) temporarily and/or (ii) permanently closed their doors since 27 March 2020; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details; (2) what monitoring mechanism does her department have in place to determine what number of registered, conditionally registered and/or unregistered early childhood development centres in each province have temporarily and/or permanently closed their doors?

Reply:

(1) The Vangasali early childhood development campaign was not intended to determine if ECD services are temporary or permanently closed. It was aimed at confirming ECD services that are (a) registered (fully or conditional) and establish a database of those that are (b) unregistered in each province.

(i) National Treasury granted the department an allocation of R496 million as an ECD Employment Stimulus Relief Fund (ECD-ESRF). The allocation seeks to minimise the loss of income, support continued operation and reduce the risk of permanent closure. This is implemented through ECD Employment Stimulus Relief Fund (ECD-ESRF) with a focus on providing additional financial support towards the ECD workforce as part of a once-off temporary intervention, through ECD programmes. The ECD-ESRF will provide 108,833 ECD related workers with income support through about 28,283 existing ECD programmes (registered and unregistered centres and programmes) that applied to this Fund.

(2) The provincial departments of social development continue to submit monthly reports indicating the number of ECD programmes that have reopened. This include registered, conditionally registered and unregistered early childhood. These reports are consolidated and presented at Heads of Social development structure constituted by EXCO and provincial Heads of Department, chaired by the accounting officer of the department.

With the implementation of the ESRF, provincial social development offices will be monitoring the ECD programmes to determine whether the paid ECD programmes have reopened 60 days after receipt of the funds.

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