Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 26 October 2022
129. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of Early Learning and Care services that have engaged with County Childcare Committees in relation to financial sustainability in 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53922/22]
View answer136. Deputy Marian Harkin asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the financial supports that are available to community and private early years' services which find themselves in financial difficulty. [53703/22]
View answer137. Deputy Marian Harkin asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if any early years' services have engaged with their local childcare committee to get financial supports in 2022. [53704/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 129, 136 and 137 together.
Services which encounter financial or other sustainability concerns can avail of supports through the case management process. My Department oversees this process, through which local City and County Childcare Committees (CCCs) and Pobal work together to assess and provide support to ELC and SAC services experiencing difficulties.
CCCs administer on-the-ground case management assistance, co-ordinated by Pobal. This can include help with completing and interpreting analysis of staff ratios and cash flow, as well as more specialised advice and support appropriate to individual circumstances.
To date, the total number of services which engaged in Case Management for financial sustainability reasons in 2022 is 115. This is made up of:
- 66 services where financial sustainability was the main concern; and
- 49 cases where financial sustainability was one element of concerns about a service.
In 2022, my Department has received four completed funding requests through the Sustainability Funding available in Case Management. These four requests originated from two services in total. All four requests have been approved.
Given that Core Funding is in operation less than six weeks, it is important to note that these services availing of case management supports and sustainability funding relate primarily to issues arising from the old funding model rather than the new arrangements. Recent engagement with CCCs confirms that they are not picking up evidence of sustainability difficulties for any service type related to Core Funding or any indications to suggest that services will face closure as a result of Core Funding.
This continues the trend of the last two years or more with very limited call on the strands of sustainability funding, largely due to the very significant investment in the sector through Covid-19 funding arrangements.
In some instances, financial supports may be appropriate, in tandem with the case management process. Prior to 2020, these financial supports were only available for community (not-for-profit) services presenting with sustainability issues following a financial assessment by Pobal. However, an additional strand of sustainability funding was established to provide support to services requiring it due to the impact of Covid-19 which was open to both private (for-profit) and community (not-for-profit) services.
As a new development to the suite of supports available, a further stand of sustainability funding is being made available to Core Funding partner services, both community and private, who are experiencing financial difficulty. This is part of the partnership relationship with the sector that has been established under the new funding model, Together for Better. As with previous strands of the Sustainability Fund, it will focus on operational as well as financial supports to assist services to manage their immediate difficulties and transition to sustainability. Sustainability funding will provide for a further safety net for partner services who do experience financial difficulty and to assist them for a period of time to allow them to become more sustainable. Given the very substantial additional resourcing that Core Funding is providing to the sector, we do not expect to see much demand for this funding, except for a small number of outlier cases.
Services that are experiencing difficulty and who would like support are encouraged to contact their CCC to access case management supports. Services can be assisted on an individual basis through this route and it also allows for trends and themes across the country to be identified that can inform a more systematic response if necessary. This case management process through the CCCs is the route to access additional sustainability funding if required.
