Poppintree Early Education Centre opened in 2010 and is a community-based, not-for-profit setting providing care and education to children aged from six months to four years. It and similar locations are “in threat of service reduction and closure”, the letter stated. And this could happen, potentially, within the next 12-18 months, said Ms McKenna.
The service caters for 40 children. Some of these often arrive “hungry, experiencing sickness and illness because of poor living conditions” and with “high levels of ear and eye infections and head lice”, said Ms McKenna. Some of the children accessing the service had experienced “deep trauma”, witnessing murder or having parents who are in prison.Ms McKenna wrote to the department in December 2018 and again in August 2020 outlining her concerns regarding the “high levels of need and inadequate funding” for early childhood settings operating in poor areas. Yet by the time of her latest correspondence to the department this July, there had been “no meaningful progress”, she said.