An £1.5 million initiative to improve childcare provision in rural parts of Northern Ireland has been unveiled by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD).

The Rural Childcare Programme is part of a £10m package to address rural poverty over the next three years. It aims to provide solutions to challenges faced by rural communities around access to rural childcare services.

Last month organisations in Northern Ireland with a proven track record to set up rural childcare were invited to apply to set up rural childcare provision, with financial assistance of up to 95 per cent of eligible costs towards implementing and evaluating the project. The maximum grant for regional organisations covering all of Northern Ireland is £250,000, and £100,000 for community-based organisations.

Michelle Gildernew, Minister for the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, who grew up on a small farm in County Tyrone, said, “There is an urgent need for accessible, affordable and high-quality childcare in rural areas
“However, the particular circumstances of rural areas can make childcare services difficult both to deliver and to access. Childcare provision in rural areas is faced with unique challenges such as small, dispersed populations, long distances to travel and isolation.
“These challenges make childcare services more difficult to operate and hinder access to these services for parents.”

She added, “Through this programme we aim to develop a series of pilot or demonstration projects that will be evaluated and the evidence collected will then act as the basis for the development of future policy and priorities in the area of rural childcare provision.”

In July 2007, Ms Gildernew commissioned a Rural Childcare Stakeholders’ Group to consider the difficulties with childcare provision in rural areas of Northern Ireland and to make recommendations on how best to tackle these problems.

DARD’s recent rural Anti-Poverty and Social Inclusion Framework identified rural childcare as a key priority.