The restoration of the Pathway Fund to some local groups has been welcomed by parents and childcare providers as the programme will continue to support young children in Fermanagh.

This reprise has been welcomed as there were fears locally for the ‘Covid generation’ of pre-school aged children who spent their early years growing up in the pandemic.

Natasha Dane, Chairperson of Tempo Community Playgroup was delighted with the news that the Pathway Programme was secured for the playgroup and the immediate impact this will have on families and the wider community in Tempo.

Speaking to The Impartial Reporter about the immediate benefits of the restoration of the Pathway Fund for her group, Natasha said: “We are able to put in place projects we have planned for the next year. For us it is just short of £20,000 funding for the year and the majority of that goes toward staff costs.

“The immediate effect is that we are able to run our summer scheme, we have got funding from Fermanagh and Omagh District Council to run the summer scheme and that will cover the activities and the Pathway Fund is covering the staff costs so we can do it now for a reduced fee.”

She said that a new programme will also be available as part of the delivery of the programme at Tempo Community Playgroup but the core Pathway ethos of supporting children will stay the same.

Natasha said: “This is exciting and there are new programmes as part of it but one we will be continuing is supporting children with additional needs.

“Those who don’t necessarily have a statement of education or the ones we identify as needing a bit of extra help and encouragement.”

The scheme has been running in Tempo for three years and has supported over 50 children in local area: “This year we had 21 students, and the year before we had 33 and for this year coming we have 25 students coming in, it varies on the birth rate in the local area,” explained Natasha.

However, Natasha believes more needs to be done to support the pre-school sector in Northern Ireland.

She said: “In some ways, this is fantastic yes, but it says a lot about the pre school sector in Northern Ireland that we are so reliant on these sorts of grants, it is not a properly funded sector at all and we desperately need these grants so we can offer what the children deserve.”