Fermanagh parents have reacted to the announcement of a new childcare subsidy scheme as part of a £25 million package of measures for working parents.

The investment, announced last week by Education Minister Paul Givan, includes a plan to provide all children in the region with a minimum of 22.5 hours a week of funded pre-school education, and will also help reduce childcare costs by around 15 per cent.

The announcement follows a major investigation from The Impartial Reporter into the challenges faced by parents due to high childcare costs and a lack of provision locally.

Single mum-of-two, Erin Bell, hopes that the childcare subsidy scheme will provide her with the security to return to work.

Erin, who is mum of two-year-old Caleb and nine-month-old Cohan, said: “I read the announcement and I was very happy.

“I definitely would feel a bit more secure about returning to work when these changes come into force,” she said. “It will give me the peace of mind in that I don’t have to worry as much about paying for childcare, which will be a massive thing for me.”

As a trained hairdresser, Erin said that she always planned to work, but unaffordable childcare costs meant this simply wasn’t possible.

However, thanks to the provision of extra hours, Erin’s options will now be open.

“As my own son will be going to nursery in the next few months, it will mean that he can stay there a bit longer throughout the day, and I won’t have to worry about where he will go after it.

“This would give me time to work and increase my chances of getting employment that will fit around my commitments.

“It will also be nice knowing that I won’t have to pay every pound I earn toward childcare!”

She added: “It’s good to see that the government are standing up and taking action. It’s good to know that they are finally listening.”

Meanwhile, Kesh mum-of-three, Alison McQuade, also welcomed news of the subsidy.

She previously told The Impartial Reporter how the looming problem of childcare costs when her maternity leave ends has proven to be a major source of stress and worry.

“It’s great to see some action being taken on childcare, and parents everywhere are hoping that it will bring childcare costs down,” she said.

“A 15 per-cent reduction in costs will definitely help, and it’s certainly better than nothing. This said, my monthly childcare costs could still be £1,200, but it’s a start.

“Overall, it’s good to see action from the government at long last. All the shouting from parents on childcare costs has finally gotten through to them!”

Yet while the new subsidy will have a positive impact on many local parents, for others, it will have little effect on their current childcare costs.

Lisbellaw mum-of-four, Natasha Dane, said: “It won’t really have an impact on me as I’m self-employed and we receive universal credit – which does give us back a portion of the childcare bill, but the more I earn, the less I get.

“If I was to transfer over to the HMRC one it would benefit some months and negatively impact on others.”

Natasha added that she also doesn’t feel that the new childcare subsidy – which vows to offer direct support to providers – will help local preschools.

“My concern is around the preschool offering,” she continued. “Already the Maguiresbridge preschool scrapped their afternoon session, leaving 20 to 26 children without spaces.

“I’ve heard this was due to a lack of staff to cover the afternoon session. Smaller, more rural preschools, without significant capital investment as well as a restructure of the annual funding from the EA, will be in a position of having to turn children away because of lack of space and/or staff.

“Social services dictate the rules for community-run preschools. Staff ratios are one staff to eight children, with a maximum of 26 children in any one session – this needs a minimum of four staff for this many children.

“Funding at present is approximately £225 per child per month, for 10 months of the year. With the increases in minimum/living wage, the costs of staff in the sector have skyrocketed.

“Add to this extended hours and the necessity to provide a hot meal as the session will need to be 4.5 hours – how will our rural preschools survive?

“This longer day also means there will no longer be a capacity to run two sessions in a day, effectively halving the number of preschool places that will be available.

“In theory it is fantastic, but I just don’t know how it will practically work without, as I said, significant capital investment and a larger annual budget.”