Operators deny claims of abuse across free childcare scheme

Childcare centres registered under the Free Childcare Scheme came under fire this week by the Auditor General in the National Audit Office’s (NAO) annual report on public accounts for 2015, with accusations of “abuse of the system and tampering of records by childcare centres”, “inadequate internal controls”, “no enforcement of capacity restrictions “ and a “lack of awareness by parents about the scheme’s operational aspect” amongst the most serious of the report’s conclusions.

The auditor general recommended that staff and operations be supervised by competent officers who would be fully conversant with the standing processes, and who could query procedures and decisions when deliberate circumvention of processes is discovered.

The report insists that the Ministry for Education and Employment (MEDE) should regain control of the system, albeit without being too bureaucratic, to avoid relying solely on the service providers for data.

“In order to ensure effective use of public funds, regular checks and inspections are imperative to ensure that controls are functioning as intended, the system is not being abused, and that records provided by the centres are reliable,” the report said.

In a bid to double-check the data provided by the childcare centre operator, the NAO recommended that a sample of parents be selected randomly on a regular basis to confirm the child’s attendance for the respective month.

It also suggested requesting parents to submit both the application, as well as changes to booked hours, directly to the ministry, instead of relying on the operators to do so.

From its inception in April 2014, up to 31 December, 2015, the administration of the scheme was manually based, supported by the use of spreadsheets created specifically for this purpose by the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA).

The only data reflecting the attendance was inputted manually by the childcare centres, in spreadsheets, which were then forwarded to the MEDE. No other documentation was available at the ministry to confirm, or otherwise, the correctness of the hours claimed by the operators.

The vetting of applications and changes in booked hours, verifications of the monthly records submitted by the latter, as well as the computation of payments to the service provider, among others, fell under the responsibility of the Department of School Resources within MEDE.

But as from 1 January, 2016, following a public call for tenders, a fully automated system, referred to as the Childcare Information System (CIS), was implemented, intended to strengthen the internal controls and curb the possibility of abuse prevailing under the manual system.

The CIS, which went live in all the childcare centres with effect from January 2016, enables electronic fobbing (through coded keyfobs), providing a log of the child’s name, as well as the time of arrival and departure, allowing the database to automatically calculate the attendance and duration of children at the centres, together with the related payment due to the centre.

But the audit also found abuse in the use of the fob system and recommended that stricter controls be exercised over both their distribution and usage.

The only way to do this would be if the ministry ascertained that the devices are actually held by the parents, and not left with the centre operators who could use the fob to log children in and out even when they would not really be there.

Parents need to be clear on the importance of the fobs and the related time-keeping.

Physical inspections carried out by NAO auditors at eight childcare centres confirmed that, despite the introduction of the electronic system, attendance records were still being tampered with by certain centres, resulting in overpayments.

The on-site visits revealed that a number of childcare centres were themselves using the fobs to record the children’s attendance.

The NAO found that the lack of control over the key fobs, as well as the easy access to purchase such devices in view of their cheap cost, hindered the effectiveness of the overall control element embedded in the system, and consequently the reliability of records and validity of the respective payments.

It suggested that regular inspections be held to confirm or otherwise the correctness of recorded information and called for constant communication with DSWS and for the exchange of information obtained during inspections.

Childcare centre operators up in arms

MaltaToday met the president of the Childcare Centres Providers Association, Simon Zammit, who said that the NAO report – and some subsequent media coverage – conveyed an image of rampant abuse across all centres participating in the scheme.

“Only eight centres, out of the 97 currently participating in the scheme, were earmarked by the NAO for infractions,” he said.

“It is true that some of them may have indeed abused the system, but those identified were immediately investigated by the ministry, which stopped all payments to those centres.”

Zammit explained that those centres where abuse or shortcomings were uncovered, had to sign a formal agreement with the ministry, laying out a plan of restructuring to bring them in line with stipulated regulations and frameworks.

He said that the NAO report was quite misleading if the instances quoted were taken out of context.

“The NAO for example reported that between January and April 2016, 60 centres were paid an aggregate total of €90,140, covering 29,554 booked hours, for which the respective children failed to attend,” Zammit said.

“But most media (not MaltaToday, he was quick to point out) failed to report this.”

Zammit said that since the hours had been booked, the centres would have made sure to have adequate carers, resources and supplies on hand on the days in question. The fact that children did not turn up was not the fault of the operators; they would still need to be paid for the time since they would have incurred expenses on the day, without knowing which – of the children booked – would actually attend.

The report itself states that the standing payment policy as per the applicable terms and conditions is that centres will be paid in full for the booked hours, provided that the absence entitlement is not exhausted.

But since the system checks the logs for the fob data at the end of each month, when payments to the operators are issued, it would be too late to expect the operators not to be paid for the expenses incurred during the month when the children were expected.

Zammit said that the association was in constant contact with the ministry and departments involved and that they closely cooperated on any issue that could crop up.

One major issue highlighted by the audit report was that in four cases, the capacity of the childcare centres was in their majority substantially exceeded.

In one particular centre, visited on 27 January 2016, the capacity of 15 children established by DSWS was exceeded by 72 children at the time of the visit, with the number of children present being more than four times the officially allowed capacity.

In addition to breaching the applicable standards, potential abuse could expose the children to serious risk should an accident take place.

Zammit acknowledged that having so many children in care over the established capacity was unacceptable and that he agreed that action had been taken immediately.

Following the audit, the association and management informed the NAO that action was taken against centres who had defaulted regarding capacity and that all centres were instructed that they should not retain any fobs at their end.

MEDE has also incorporated in the application process, a letter to be sent to parents whose application has been accepted, emphasising their responsibility to pick up the two fobs that they are entitled to from the respective centre.

An information leaflet explaining the scheme is being included with the letter to ensure parents are fully aware of all aspects of the scheme.

The free Childcare Scheme

The Free Childcare Scheme is a measure introduced by the government in April 2014, aimed at facilitating women’s return to employment by providing children aged between three months and three years with good quality childcare. It is specifically intended for those children whose parents are either both in employment and paying social security contributions, or are in education, following a course leading to a recognised diploma or degree.

Free childcare services, covered by public-private partnership agreements between the government and childcare centres, are offered at both public and private childcare centres, comprising 92 registered bodies as at March 2016.

For 2014 and 2015, the government paid the childcare service providers the rate of €3 per hour per child, to cover all staff costs and consumables, including stationery; as from 1 January, 2016 this rate was increased to €3.05.  Entitlement to free childcare is based on the monthly working hours of the mother, and includes an additional 10% of the same hours for unforeseen exigencies as well as another 20 hours per month for commuting.

Parents in education are entitled to 20 and 40 hours per week for part-time and full-time courses respectively. If parents consume more hours than those they are entitled to, they will be personally liable to pay the childcare centres for the extra hours at the service provider’s rate.

What we learned from the first childcare audit

• The education ministry subsidises childcare centres at the rate of €3 per hour per child, but the ministry relies solely on attendance information submitted by the centres themselves, with no means of independently verifying their accuracy.

• Only one full-time officer was dedicated to the management of the childcare system throughout 2015, assisted by two part-timers.

• The childcare hours were often recorded by the centres themselves, rather than the children’s parents. In some cases, the centres even amended the hours on the attendance sheets with Tippex. 

• The auditors uncovered a lack of control when children transfer between childcare centres. Between November 2015 and January 2016, the ministry paid a particular centre €2,534 for two siblings who had by then transferred to two different centres.

• One centre was paid €4,380 between July-December 2015 for two children who were recorded as present with two different childcare centres during that period. The owner – a foreigner – emigrated from Malta before the government could take action.

• Three centres run by the Foundation for Educational Services were paid €2,507 after recording child attendances for public holidays and days in which they were closed down.

• A new electronic system was introduced this year in which parents were given unique key fobs to electronically record their children’s attendance. However, centres often kept copies of the fobs, meaning that they could key in as present children who were actually absent.

• Between January and April 2016, 60 centres were paid a combined €90,140 for booked hours for which the respective children failed to attend, or because they had transferred to another centre.

• There was no enforcement of child capacity restrictions, and in one case a centre with a set capacity of 15 children was actually accommodating 87.