Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 October 2012
497. Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will provide a detailed account in tabular form, of the number of persons working in the preschool and early childcare sector dealing directly with children; if she will provide Dáil Éireann with the numbers at each level of qualification as outlined by the Higher Education Authority 10 level framework; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41841/12]
View answerNearly all preschool services in the State are now participating in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, which provides a free preschool year to all eligible children in the year before they commence primary school. This programme requires that staff members acting as preschool year leaders hold a child care qualification equivalent to FETAC Level 5 on the National Framework of Qualifications of Ireland (NFQ). A higher capitation rate is available to sessional playschool services participating in the ECCE programme in which all child care workers have qualification levels above the minimum requirements for the programme. Staff working with children under the ECCE programme, as preschool assistants, are not required to hold an educational qualification.
Pobal, which administers the child care support programmes on behalf, of my Department compiles an Annual Survey of the Early Years Sectors which provide information in relation to the level of qualifications of practitioners in the child care sector. According to Pobal's Annual Survey of the Early Years Sector 2011, there are in the region of 4,300 child care services participating in the ECCE programme and approximately 3,280 of these services responded to the survey. Of this number, some 2,920 provided information on the level of training/qualifications of some 17,000 staff working with children. The results, which did not distinguish between those working with children enrolled for the ECCE programme and other children in the child care service, show that 96% of these services have a least one staff member qualified to FETAC Level 5 or higher, 75.2% have at least one member qualified to FETAC Level 6 or higher and 34% have a least one member qualified to HETAC Level 7 or higher. The number of services with one staff member qualified to HETAC Level 8 and above and HETAC Level 9 above is 22.3% and 3.2% respectively.
As the Deputy is aware my Department has commenced work on Ireland’s first-ever Early Years Strategy and in the terms of reference, as approved by Government, I expressly included the need to consider “a robust system of regulation and inspection”, for the new Early Years Strategy. Part of this will include improving access to quality reliable information on services and performance. I have asked the recently–established Expert Advisory Group to prioritise a review of this matter.
The employment of suitably qualified staff is a matter for each individual child care service. It is expected that in time a register of staff qualifications will be developed and providers should encourage staff to record the relevant details of their qualifications there.
