Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 May 2022
555. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth his plans to fund early childhood care and education scheme operators to finance a graduate uplift payment for childcare staff who have skilled up; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24586/22]
View answer'First 5, the whole-of-Government strategy for babies, young children and their families' recognises that the workforce is at the heart of high-quality ELC. There is strong evidence about the relationship between staff qualifications and children’s experiences and outcomes. First 5 commits to building an appropriately skilled and sustainable professional workforce, and includes a commitment to achieve a graduate-led ELC workforce by 2028. A graduate-led workforce is understood to mean all Lead Educators and Managers holding a relevant qualification at Level 7 or above.
An Expert Group in their report, 'Partnership for the Public Good: A New Funding Model for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare', made 25 recommendations to facilitate a partnership between the State and early learning and childcare services for the public good. Key to this new funding model is Core Funding, to improve pay and conditions in the sector as a whole and to improve affordability for parents, as well as ensuring a stable income to providers.
In Budget 2022, I announced the introduction from September 2022 of this new Core Funding stream for services. The total available Budget for Core Funding is equivalent to €221 million in a full programme year, contingent on an Employment Regulation Order being agreed by the Joint Labour Committee.
The level of investment being made available for Core Funding is an acknowledgement that high quality ELC and SAC costs more than the current income to the sector. The aim of Core Funding is to allow providers’ costs to increase to improve quality but to ensure these costs are not passed onto parents in fees and that services are not made unsustainable. Core Funding will be allocated to services based on their capacity and the qualifications of those working in a service. The majority of Core Funding (i.e. €183 million of the €221 million) will be distributed based on a service's capacity.
Additionally, a further €38 million will be distributed to services with ELC graduate Lead Educators/Managers through the ELC Graduate Premium. In order for a service to be allocated an ELC Graduate Premium, the person in question must be a Lead Educator in an ELC room and/or the Centre Manager of an ELC or a combined ELC and SAC service and must hold an appropriate qualification as per the Department’s Higher Capitation Qualifications list. They must also have a minimum of three years’ experience in the sector. The ELC Graduate Premium is calculated based on the number of hours of provision led by ELC graduate; and if the ELC or combined ELC and SAC service has an ELC graduate as the Manager.
Changing the approach to funding ELC Graduates will:
1. Extend support for the employment of Graduate Lead Educators outside of the ECCE programme to ensure that children in other parts of ELC have the opportunity to benefit from graduate-led provision.
2. Introduce a Graduate Premium to be paid in respect of Managers of ELC or combined ELC and SAC services. This is because of the strong evidence of the importance of graduate leadership in shaping quality for children.
3. Bring the financial support for Graduate Lead Educators more closely in alignment with the costs of delivery for that type of provision.
Core Funding will enable providers to better attract and retain staff, including degree-qualified staff; establish career structures; and introduce or improve other factors that contribute to high-quality early learning and childcare, such as non-contact time, planning, training, curriculum implementation.
In December last year, I launched 'Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, 2022-2028'. Nurturing Skills aims to strengthen the ongoing process of professionalisation for those working in ELC and SAC.
In particular, Nurturing Skills commits to the provision of funded places on flexible education programmes at levels 6 to 8 for current early years educators. This new funding will support upskilling and strengthen career development pathways for those working in the sector, reducing the cost to educators of undertaking further and higher education qualifications. The new funding scheme will also develop and introduce mechanisms for providing financial support to ELC services to help meet the costs of releasing staff to go on student practice placements and study leave. Plans for the new funding scheme are currently being developed.
This planned new funding for educators to upskill is in addition to financial supports that are already in place for educators undertaking qualifications. Existing financial supports include the Free Fees Initiative. My Department has since 2014 provided a number of rounds of funding for early years educators to undertake qualifications through the Learner Fund.
