ERDF 136: Grant Scheme for Child Care Facilities

The scheme focuses on the provision of quality childcare in Malta and supports Government's central policy to promote and sustain quality childcare services in order to enable a better work-family/life balance and encourage an increased participation of females in the local workforce. It also contributes towards attaining the EU targets of providing child placements for at least 33% of children aged between 0-3 years in Malta. The concept of this Aid Scheme, will help to upgrade and improve existing child care facilities by assisting existing child care providers to re-locate premises (if re-location is required for compliance with National Standards), encourage start-ups and facilitate compliance with the National Standards for Child Care Facilities

This Aid Scheme is intended to achieve the following objectives: 1) To facilitate entry into and retention of the female workforce, thus increasing/retaining female participation in the workforce;2) To support families to achieve a better work-life balance;3) To enhancing quality of life;4) To promote entrepreneurship amongst providers of child care;5) To increase employment opportunities within child care provision

By the end of this Aid Scheme, the following will be achieved: 1) Structural upgrading of existing childcare facilities - targeting around 10 facilities:2) Relocation of existing provision that is not in compliance with standards to a more suitable location thereby maintain present availability of childcare places and setting up of start-ups to increase availability of childcare places - targeting around 7 facilities.

The purpose of this scheme is to: 1) Increase childcare provision by making more child care facilities available and accessible to parents, allowing Malta to meet its obligations to reach targets of having 33% of children aged between 0-3 years of age covered by child care; 2) Improve the quality in the provision of childcare according to the National standard for Child Day Care Facilities.