The Free Childcare scheme comprised 78.4 per cent of all children who were attending childcare centres in March 2016, according to the Regional Statistics Report published this week by the National Statistics Office. 

The report also found that the scheme was the most popular for children aged one or two years, with 43.7 per cent and 45.8 per cent attending the centresrespectively and that the proximity to the child’s place of residence was a determining factor when choosing which centre to send the child to.

Meanwhile, the peak drop-off and pick-up time brackets during March 2016 were between eight and nine in the morning, and one and two in the afternoon, respectively, according to charts illustrated on the report. The most popular average duration of the children staying at childcare was five hours, followed by four hours, then six hours.

However, approximately 30 per cent of the children using the free childcare service will be there for seven hours a day or more. About 13 per cent will be at the centre for seven hours, nine per cent will be there for eight hours, and slightly more than seven per cent will be there for nine hours or more.

Last month, The Malta Independent reported that there are 3,579 children registered in the free childcare scheme, and there are 7,252 working parents benefiting from the scheme, whilst another 109 parents are currently in education.

Since the introduction of the scheme, which is now in its third year, reports have also shown the increase in the number of women in the workplace.

In June, this newspaper reported that parents were complaining that the ratio of childcarers to children needs to be revised in some centers, due to the influx of children following the introduction of the scheme. 

Minister for Education Evarist Bartolo had also told this newspaper that 25 per cent of the 60 complaints received during the past year by the Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education (DQSE), within the Ministry for Education and Employment, were related to the non-compliance of childcare centres with carer to child ratios and/or with going above the restrictions for the number of children at the centres according to Education and Employment Minister Evarist Bartolo. 

More Than €12 million is being invested in the scheme this year. In the last election campaign, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had pledged that a Labour government will extend child care services to be open in the evening for those who work at night or are part of full-time courses.