Reminder: Consultation on EU Child Guarantee
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Reminder: Consultation on the EU Child Guarantee Dear Members, A very Happy New Year to you all.‘Before the Christmas break Children’s Rights Alliance invited members to provide feedback on the Alliance’s submission on the EU Child Guarantee. The closing date for comments is close of business Friday, 7 January 2022. Please email naomi@childrensrights.ie with any feedback you may have. The Child Guarantee is a recommendation put forward by the European Commission that aims to prevent and combat child poverty and social exclusion in the European Union (EU) by supporting the 27 Member States to make efforts to guarantee access to quality key services for children in need. The Guarantee requires States to work towards providing free access to early childhood education and care (ECEC); education (including school-based activities); a healthy meal each school day; and healthcare. It also calls on them to ensure effective access to healthy nutrition and adequate housing. You can read our FAQ on the guarantee here. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is responsible for co-ordinating Ireland’s response to the EU Child Guarantee and has to develop a national action plan for implementing the Guarantee. The department has launched a public consultation process to inform the development of the action plan. The deadline for submissions has been extended to 14 January 2022. Many of you will be preparing your own response to the consultation.The Children’s Rights Alliance has prepared a draft submission that we would like to get your views on. You can find the draft submission here. We would appreciate if you could provide references or links to reports that may be useful to inform the submission. We are also particularly interested to know what your response is to the Department’s question: What are the three main priorities which you think should be addressed strategically to enable children in need to access these services? We would really welcome your input’.Thank you |