Dáil Éireann Debate, Friday - 3 December 2021
3. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the actions his Department has taken to address the chronic staff shortages facing a significant number of early years services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58930/21]
View answerThis question asks what actions the Department has taken to address the chronic staff shortages in early years services and for the Minister to make a statement on the matter. It has become particularly relevant in the last two weeks with recent announcements by the Department of Education. I will get into that in my later contribution.
I am aware that many early learning and childcare services are reporting staffing difficulties, exacerbated by the current high rate of Covid-19 in the community. My Department is actively monitoring the issue and has sought data and evidence-based proposals from sectoral representatives.
Last week, my Department convened a subgroup of the early learning and childcare stakeholder forum to discuss immediate staffing pressures resulting from Covid-19 and additional measures that may be needed. The group is examining ways to provide additional staffing support on a temporary basis, including a proposal, which is being considered by further and higher education institutions, to build on the current process available to enable students who are undertaking early learning and care qualifications to work in the sector temporarily while carrying on their studies. The group is meeting again today to consider proposals.
While Covid-19 creates additional pressure, longer term challenges with recruitment and retention of staff remain. The high level of staff turnover in the sector, which was 18% last year, primarily reflects the level of pay and conditions of employment. However, we should remember that the sector has continued to grow in recent years, despite the challenges. Employment in the sector has risen from 25,700 in 2016 to 30,900 last year. Thanks to considerable supports from the Government over the past 18 months, employee numbers in the sector have held steady.
The State is not the employer and does not determine pay rates. However, last December I began a process to examine the possibility of regulating pay and conditions. This led to the establishment of a joint labour committee, JLC, which has been brought together.
In budget 2022, I announced the introduction from September 2022 of a significant new core funding stream for services. Among other objectives, core funding will support services to meet the conditions that may be set in an employment regulation order, ERO, as a result of the JLC.
I will publish a workforce plan for the sector later this month, which will include important actions to strengthen career pathways and support recruitment. The plan will also map out a positive way forward for the sector. I believe the services will develop further as a result in the years ahead.
In recent years, there has been a serious issue with retaining staff. We have had that discussion and we know it comes down to the pay and conditions. Highly qualified people are training up to degree level and sometimes beyond but are getting poor rates of pay. I hope the JLC process works. The Minister said the State is not the employer. I wish the State were the employer; I would like to see that happening eventually. Obviously, it will not happen today or tomorrow.
The Covid pandemic has put considerable extra pressure on the sector. There was a recent announcement of special needs assistants, SNAs, to be recruited for schools. Several people in the early years sector contacted me - I am sure they have contacted other Deputies - to say their staff are applying for the SNA role, leaving them in a difficult situation.
We definitely need to address short-term and long-term measures in relation to staffing.
In terms of the short-term measures, when we announced to the sector representatives last week that we were making available third and fourth-year graduates and postgraduates who are in the institutes of higher and further education at the moment, to allow them to take up places across the sector, it was warmly welcomed. The initiative has been able to provide some kind of extra buffer at the moment in terms of many services experiencing staff being out due to Covid. We have acted in the short term to support the sector, particularly as we, hopefully, crest the current Delta wave.
The Deputy is absolutely correct in terms of the wider issues. I have acted since I have come into this office. We have established the Joint Labour Committee, JLC, which is a really important measure. I think just as importantly, we have come in with financial support. That core funding announcement in this year's budget is going to be hugely important. There is a significant allocation of money to support the employment regulation order. I really hope that the two sides can come together and agree that employment regulation order swiftly.
I agree. I have always argued that there should be a wage scale. I would prefer to see that being taken on by the State but, in the absence of that, I hope the JLC process is successful.
I welcome what the Minister said about the short-term measures because I think they are doing something similar in the education system in terms of people who are doing their masters. Is there any data on how many people will be released? The Minister probably does not have that information right here and now so I ask him to supply that information.
I look forward to seeing the workforce planning report and it is welcome. We need to analyse the panel of substitute teachers for schools in the long term. Perhaps the city and county childcare committees could play a role in establishing a general relief panel for staffing issues when things arise.
I do not have specific figures in terms of how that will impact. We just announced it last week. I have spoken to one or two child care providers in my constituency who were able to secure some of these students so it is making a difference and alleviating some of the real pressures spoken about by the Deputy.
This month, we are going to have two very significant announcements, namely, the workforce planning announced and published and the final report of the expert group on the funding model. Many Deputies here have waited for both of these for a long time. These areas have been two real focuses of the early years section of my Department since I became Minister. We sought to enact one part in the budget in terms of core funding and that was very much influenced by the expert group. It is important that, even though the expert group was not finalised, we worked as quickly as possible to start to implement one of its most important recommendations. We did not wait until budget 2023 before starting to take action. There will be some significant announcements in the next week or two in this area.
