The Government hopes to open another five thousand places in nurseries during the next school year, revealed this Thursday the Minister of Solidarity, who will launch this month an announcement of 20 million euros to finance the works.

The measure is announced on the day the free day care program begins, which begins this day in institutions of the social and solidarity sector for all children. who were born in the last year.

In January 2023, the minister added in statements to Lusa, the program will be expanded to the smallest babies in private institutions who did not find a place in the social and solidarity sector.

The program will be extended staggered until 2024when all three-year-olds in day care will be covered for free, regardless of family income.

To guarantee access for all, the Ministry of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security (MTSSS) is working to expand its response capacity.

“This month we will launch a notice, within the framework of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), to expand the number of places in daycare centers,” said the Minister of Solidarity and Social Security.

According to Ana Mendes Godinho, the notice has “20 million euros to seek to increase five thousand places in daycare centers” during this school year.

Reconversion projects of existing spaces will have priority over new construction, so the process is “simpler, faster and at a lower cost“added the governor.

However, new constructions and even spaces “developed by model constructions” can also be applied, said Ana Mendes Godinho.

“Our goal is, in the next two years, have the ability to increase by ten thousand places the total network of nurseries, complementing this notice with those that we have already launched”, said the minister.

Vacancies may open throughout the country, but priority will also be given here to projects in areas where the coverage index is lower, that is, where there is more demand and less response capacity, as is the case of the metropolitan area of Lisbon.

“We will prioritize with criteria of positive discrimination in the identification of the selection of projects to cover,” he said.

Free attendance at nurseries depends on the capacity of the establishments, with the sole exception of cases of children at risk that may require the creation of an extra place.

According to the diploma published at the end of July, the exception is children with promotion and protection measures “with an indication of nursery attendance, who have compulsory access and admission to the nursery response, even if an extra place has to be created.” For this end”.

In case there are not enough places for everyone, there is a list of admission priorities that takes into account the family’s economic situation but also others “circumstances leading to social disadvantage of the child and his family”.

The list of priorities for admission to the vacancies of social responses is headed by children who have already attended kindergarten in the previous year, followed by children with disabilities or disabilities.

The children, who are now covered by the measure, will keep it for all the years they are in day care.

This is an important day for children in Portugal and for the country because it can be a transformative measure from the point of view of inclusion, of promoting equality between men and women and also of reconciling personal, family and professional life, and transforming many children, allowing them to be part of it from the beginning of a collective system that integrates them, that is, combating child poverty and cutting intergenerational cycles”, highlighted Ana Mendes Godinho.

Free nursery also for children from the private sector without a place in the social sector

Children in private nurseries without quota in the social sector will be covered by the free program provided by the Government, and rules are being designed “to keep it simple for families“, revealed this day the Minister of Solidarity.

The Ministry continues to work with the association that represents the private sector to “prepare the extension of the measure to private sector nurseries when there is no response capacity on the part of the social sector,” said Ana Mendes Godinho, adding that it will be necessary to establish “an agreement and bear the full cost“.

For Ana Mendes Godinho, the free program is a “essential measure” in the fight against povertysince the free social response is added to the expansion of the nursery network, in order to reach more children.

Vacancies can be opened throughout the country, but priority will also be given here to projects in where the coverage ratio is lower, that iswhere there is more demand and less response capacity, as is the case in the Lisbon metropolitan area.

For Ana Mendes Godinho, free access to nurseries can have a significant impact on children’s lives and “be a transformer for many children, allowing them from the beginning to be part of a collective system that integrates them, namely fight against child poverty and cut intergenerational cycles“.

As of this Thursday, the State will stop exclusively supporting low-income families, since until now only the children of families on the 1st and 2nd floor of family contributions had the right to free childcare.

The children, who are now covered by the measure, will keep it for all the years they are in daycare.

In addition to babies born in the last year, nurseries remain free also for all other children of the neediest families (1st or 2nd level).

“Only the extra-pedagogical project activities, of an optional nature, that the institutions intend to develop and in which the parents or legal representatives enroll the children, as well as the acquisition of uniforms and school uniforms, are excluded from the free measure,” says the ordinance published in the article .end of July.

On this day, the minister will mark the entry into force of the free nursery measure with a visit to the Albino Dias Fontes Garcia Nursery, in São João da Madeira.