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Childcare Services

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 December 2021

Tuesday, 7 December 2021

Questions (411)

Fergus O'Dowd

Question:

411. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will address the concerns raised by an organisation (details supplied) in respect of the viability issues it has highlighted; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60257/21]

View answer

Written answers

First 5: A Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families 2019-2028 commits to increasing investment in early learning and childcare to up to €1 billion by 2028. A new funding model will be a key vehicle to ensure that such significant additional investment delivers for children, families and the State.

An Expert Group was established in September 2019 to develop a new funding model for the sector. The Group was tasked with examining the current model of funding, its effectiveness in delivering quality, affordable, sustainable and inclusive services and considering how additional resourcing can be delivered for the sector to achieve these objectives, drawing on international practice in this area.

The Expert Group have met 21 times since late 2019. They have presented their report to me, and the report will be published on 7 December, following consideration by Government.

I have met with the Chair of the Group and I was briefed on its progress, which allowed for the emerging recommendations of the Expert Group to significantly inform the developments being introduced in Budget 2022.

Material relating to the work of the Expert Group, including reports from consultation and engagement, meeting documentation and research papers are available on a dedicated website, www.first5fundingmodel.ie.

Budget 2022 introduced a ground-breaking package of measures for the early learning and childcare sector – designed to deliver quality for children, affordability for parents, stability for providers, and support employers to improve pay and conditions for staff. An additional €78m in Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) brings the total investment in the sector to €716m next year.

Currently, significant additional investment is being made in the sector through the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), which will remain available to the sector until April 2022, with a continued exemption to the turnover rule for employers in the sector. The scheme is also available to providers offering the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. A one-off transition fund of up to €37m will operate from May to August 2022, to support providers in the period leading up to the new Core Funding stream.

The Transition Fund will be open to all registered early learning and childcare providers, including ECCE-only providers, who sign up to the contract.

From September 2022, a major new Core Funding stream will be introduced. This core funding stream will be worth €69m to providers in 2022 and €207.3m in a full year from 2023 on. Under Core Funding, providers will be supported in meeting their operating costs, including increased costs related to improved quality measures, in return for a commitment that fees to parents will not increase. The commitment not to increase fees will ensure that the full affordability benefits of the ECCE programme and National Childcare Scheme (NCS) are felt by parents.

The Core Funding will support providers to attract and retain staff, including degree-qualified staff and will support the Programme for Government commitment to support the drawing up of an Employment Regulation Order (ERO) between employer and employee representatives to determine minimum rates of pay for workers, as well as terms and conditions of employment.

In terms of staffing, I am aware that many early learning and care and childcare services are reporting 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.

My Department recently convened a Sub-Group 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 (that is also 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 has met on two occasions to date and is meeting again on 10 December 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 (18% in 2020) 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 last eighteen months, employee numbers in the sector have held steady.

Specifically on the question of sick pay, as the State does not employ early learning and childcare practitioners, I cannot set wage levels or determine working conditions for staff in the sector. My Department has, however, over a number of years provided a range of supports to service providers to enable them to improve wages and working conditions.

Last December I began a process to examine the possibility of regulating pay and conditions in the sector and the suitability of a Joint Labour Committee, which will provide an opportunity for unions and employer representatives to work together to determine wages. As a result of this process, an Establishment Order for a sectoral Joint Labour Committee was signed in June, and the Committee is now in the process of being formed.

The new core funding stream will support services to meet the conditions that may be set in an Employment Regulation Order as a result of the Joint Labour Committee.

I published a Workforce Plan for the sector today, which includes important actions to strengthen career pathways and support recruitment. The plan also maps out a positive way forward for the sector, and I believe the services will develop further in the years ahead.

Regarding concerns raised in relation to the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, my Department plan to undertake a review of this programme in 2022 which will include consultation with a wide range of stakeholders involved in the provision and utilisation of the ECCE programme.

In terms of the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), I was successful in increasing the AIM budget by €3.6 million for Budget 2021. The majority of this additional allocation was used to increase AIM Level 7 supports to providers from €195 per week to €210 per week, as from January 2021. This funding is provided to the pre-school provider and can be used either to reduce the adult-child ratio in the pre-school room or to buy in additional assistance. This adjustment (which equates to an increase from €13 to €14 per hour) maintains the basis of the payment that has been in place since AIM began, of equivalence to the ECCE payment for three children in the ECCE room.

First 5, the Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families, commits to consider enhancements to, or extension of AIM, following completion of the evaluation of AIM. Such an extension might involve younger children, longer hours of availability of targeted supports, children with additional needs other than a disability, or children attending school-age childcare services. Any decisions on extension or reform of AIM will be informed by the findings of the end-of-year-three evaluation of AIM, which is currently underway, with the final report due in February 2022.

It is worth noting that my Department oversees a Case Management process through which local County/City Childcare Committees (CCCs) and Pobal work together to assess and provide support to Early Learning and Care services in difficulty. This can include help with completing and interpreting analysis of staff ratios, fee setting and cash flow, as well as more specialised advice and support appropriate to individual circumstances.

Pobal co-ordinate the overall case management process with the CCC administering initial, and on-going, case management assistance. The CCC, where appropriate, will proceed to make a formal notification to Pobal who will provide more consolidated support while verifying the service’s necessity for a financial intervention. All services who require support should contact their local CCC in the first instance.

Contact details and links to websites of all CCCs can be found on www.myccc.ie.

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