Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 July 2020
743. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the level of demand for crèche places in September 2020; the estimated number of children not returning to crèches in September; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19123/20]
View answerOfficials in my Department have been monitoring closely developments in relation to early learning and care (ELC) and school age childcare (SAC) sectoral capacity, including the supply of, and demand for, places as COVID-19 restrictions ease. Supporting services as they reopen, and ensuring that capacity is sufficient to meet demand, is a key priority of my Department.
The Annual Early Years Sector Profile 2019 demonstrated that, prior to the disruption caused by COVID-19, the sector was running at near capacity. Expert guidance on the safe reopening of ELC and SAC services during the COVID-19 pandemic was published by the HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) on 29 May. The guidance recommends, amongst other measures, the use of a “play pod” model to restrict interactions between closed groups of children and adults as an alternative to social distancing, on the basis that social distancing is not possible between young children. The public health advice does not require any change to minimum adult-child ratios or to regulatory space requirements. While some settings may reduce capacity depending on their layout, there are no absolute requirements for capacity reduction, and most services should be able to comply with the public health advice with no or little reduction in capacity.
While it is difficult to predict with certainty the number of children returning to these services, it is anticipated that enrolment in the ECCE Programme may reach an average of 85%-90% of the eligible cohort, while demand for fulltime and part time ELC and SAC could average 60% initially.
Data from wave 2 of a survey of parents conducted on behalf of my Department by IPSOS MRBI from June 19 to July 10 found that 61% of parents using centre-based ELC and SAC services pre-COVID-19 plan to return their children to these services. This represents an increase of 11 percentage points from Wave 1 of this survey, collected from May 22-24, suggesting that confidence is growing among parents.
The latest package of measures to support the Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare sector to operate from September recognises that a reduced number of children are likely to attend ELC and SAC services - at least initially. This funding package is tailored to allow providers to operate with potentially less parental income and to assist in meeting the increased costs associated with complying with public health requirements in a lower occupancy scenario.
The funding package for the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Age Childcare (SAC) sector from 24 August to end 2020 includes:
- Continuation of all DCYA ELC and SAC subsidy schemes (NCS, CCSP, TEC) and resumption of the ECCE Programme at existing capitation and subsidy rates, including ECCE Higher Capitation.
- Access to the Revenue-operated EWSS. This will cover an average of 38% of the costs of individual services.
- A sustainability fund will be accessible to providers (not-for-profit and for-profit) who can demonstrate that the other measures are not sufficient by themselves to enable viable operation of their business.
The continued financial support will benefit parents as well as providers as providers will not need to pass on increased costs to parents through increased fees.
A key policy priority for the Department in this process is the sustainability of the ELC and SAC sector and hence it has and continues to work intensively to support services to reopen after COVID-19. The reopening funding aims to support providers to reopen, staff to remain in the sector, parents to resume work, and children to benefit from quality ELC and SAC.
The latest data shows that 85% of services that ordinarily operate in July and August have now reopened.
76% of the 4500 services normally open in September have already applied for a reopening grant, and as the closing date for application is August 28, I expect this figure to increase significantly in the coming weeks.
