SWD launches third round of Child Care Centre Special Grant
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     The Social Welfare Department (SWD) today (December 28) launched a third round of the Child Care Centre Special Grant to provide assistance for child care centres (CCCs) to tide over the financial difficulties arising from the prolonged suspension of their services due to the COVID-19 epidemic.
      
     Following the approval of the fourth round of the Anti-epidemic Fund by the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council last Monday (December 21), the SWD issued letters to all aided and non-aided CCCs today inviting them to apply for the new round of the special grant. A four-month special grant (January to April 2021) will be given to aided and non-aided CCCs, including CCCs for children aged 0 to 3 attached to kindergartens. The grant in this round is set at the same rate as in the first round of the special grant, i.e. a full-day rate at $4,000 and a half-day rate at $2,000 for each enrolled child per month or the approved monthly fee, whichever is the less. CCCs that have not applied for the CCC special grant before or have only commenced operation after September 2020 may also apply in this round. The amount of grant per CCC will be based on the size of its enrolment (i.e. the number of children) as at November 2, 2020.
      
     The deadline for application is January 6, 2021. Once the application is confirmed, the first payment covering January and February will be made in February 2021, and the payments for the remaining two months will be made in the respective months.

Ends/Monday, December 28, 2020
Issued at HKT 15:00

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