On Wednesday, the PCP asked the government to clarify how many children were waiting for a free place in a nursery after the Court of Auditors concluded last week that the Social Security Institute did not know the number.
In a request addressed to the Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security through the Assembly of the Republic, PCP MP Alfredo Maia points out that last week the Court of Auditors (TdC) carried out an audit of the management and control system of the agreements announced collaborations, focusing on the Creche Feliz program.
“From the findings of the investigation it follows that the Institute of Social Welfare, IP, does not know how many children are on the waiting list for access to free kindergarten, and this situation, judging by various reports received by the parliamentary group of the PCP from families whose children do not have a place in kindergartens,” the statement says.
The PCP is therefore asking the government to clarify “how many children are currently covered by the Happy Kindergarten programme”, using “data broken down by age and municipality”.
The party also wants to know “how many children are currently on the waiting list for access to the Happy Kindergarten programme” and how many institutions are covered by the programme.
Finally, the PCP also asks Maria do Rosario Palma Ramalho to clarify “what is the annual cost per child paid in the institutions covered by the Creche Feliz programme”.
In this request, the PCP emphasizes that it was thanks to its proposal that free kindergarten began to be used in 2020 “for the most needy families, covering about 30 thousand children”, and adds that in 2021 its bill was approved, which provided for the creation of a public network of kindergartens and their free provision to all children, “albeit with restrictions on their use”.
“As a result of the PCP initiative, children born after September 1, 2021 are entitled to free kindergarten, reaching around 60,000 children in 2023. This is an important step on the path that needs to be taken faster,” says PCP.
For the PCP it is necessary to “create a public network capable of filling the shortage of places that is currently being experienced in Portugal and which in practice represents a denial of the right to kindergarten and its free provision to thousands of children and their families.
On Monday, the TdC concluded that the Institute for Social Security does not know the number of children on the waiting list for a nursery place, making it difficult to evaluate the measure and develop new policy.
This conclusion was reached in the framework of an audit carried out by TdC on the management and control system of cooperation agreements with a focus on the response of kindergartens, which, on the one hand, concluded that in the period from 2019 to 2022, the number of children attending kindergarten and the costs amounted to more than 40%.
On the other hand, “the Institute for Social Security (ISS) does not know the number of children on the waiting list, which harms the formulation and evaluation of public policy in the field of children,” the TdC says.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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