Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 September 2023
841. Deputy Neasa Hourigan asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his attention has been drawn to a report (details supplied); his views on the challenges affecting the sustainability of the early years' sector outlined in the report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40156/23]
View answerFINANCIAL VIABILITY
Ensuring the financial stability of early learning and childcare services is a priority of Government. This is demonstrated by the significant State supports provided to the sector.
Core Funding - worth €259 million in Year 1 and €287 million in Year 2 - contributes to services’ sustainability and significantly increases income for the overwhelming majority of services and provides greater funding stability.
Fees charged to parents remain high and I am committed to reducing costs for parents through National Childcare Scheme (NCS) subsidies and fee management introduced in September 2022 through Core Funding. Maintaining the fee freeze is entirely appropriate given the substantial additional investment in the sector being made through Core Funding.
Through ECCE capitation and Core Funding combined, services will receive a minimum weekly capitation of €79.20 per child and a maximum of €95.85 per child, with additional funding for graduate lead educators, graduate managers and for sessional services. There is no clear evidence supporting an increase in capitation to €120 per week, at an overall cost of €210m.
I appointed Frontier Economics to undertake an independent financial review of sessional services. The review began in Q1 2023 and while the final report is due in Q4 2023, interim information received by the Department is inconclusive and sector-wide findings are not possible given the small number of services who engaged with the review. Nonetheless, I announced targeted measures worth an additional €7.22 million through Core Funding year 2, to support smaller and sessional services.
I do not want any services to be faced with financial sustainability issues and I am fully committed to working with any such service to support them in delivering early learning and childcare for the public good. There are supports, financial and otherwise, available to services who need them.
Sustainability funding is available to Partner Services, community and private, who are experiencing financial difficulty. Partner Services can be assisted through the case management route to ensure their services remain sustainable under Together for Better.
I strongly encourage services which are experiencing financial difficulty, and would like support to contact their City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) to access case management supports. Services can be assisted on an individual basis through this route.
CLOSURES
Services are required by law to register with Tusla, the independent statutory regulator for early learning and childcare services. Registered childcare providers are required to notify Tusla in writing of the closure of a service not later than 28 days after the closure. The register is updated monthly.
Data on verified closures from Tusla published on 25th August 2023 (Childcare service closures at lowest level for five years – new data confirms) shows that the number of closures is at its lowest level for five years and that the overall number of early learning and care (ELC) and standalone School-Aged Childcare (SAC) services is now increasing. This provides further evidence that Core Funding is working as intended to support the sector as well as children and parents.
The latest data on service closures and new service registrations has been provided from Tusla to the Department and shows that 18 ELC services ceased operation in August 2023 while 25 ELC services opened in August. 6 Standalone SAC services closed in August 2023 while 60 Standalone SAC services opened. This most recent data provided by Tusla on new registrations and ceased services until end August 2023 shows:
• a five-year low in the number of net ELC services closures, such as crèches and preschools (i.e. 20 net closures January-August 2023 compared to 80 net closures in 2022, 62 net closures in 2021, 77 net closures in 2020 and 77 net closures in 2019 for the same time period)
• a net increase of 126 standalone SAC services (after-school childcare) year to date;
• a net increase of 106 in the overall number of ELC and standalone SAC services year to date.
STAFFING CHALLENGES
Many early learning and childcare services report difficulties in staff recruitment and retention. Staffing pressures are caused by high levels of staff turnover, linked to pay and conditions. The primary means of improving staff recruitment and retention in the early learning and childcare sector is through improvement in wages.
In September 2022, through the work of the JLC, Employment Regulation Orders (EROs) for the sector came into force, setting new minimum hourly rates of pay for different roles in the sector as follows:
• €13 for Early Years Educators/ School-Age Childcare practitioners;
• €14 for Early Years Lead Educators / School-Age Childcare co-ordinators;
• €15.50 Graduate Early Years Lead Educators / School-Age Childcare co-ordinators
• €15.70 for Deputy Managers;
• €16.50 for Managers; and
• €17.25 for Graduate Managers.
The Orders are being supported by Core Funding – which has an allocation of €259 million in its first year – to support amongst other things, improvements in staff wages, alongside a commitment to freeze parental fees and sustainability of services. Core Funding allocation will increase by €28 million for year 2 (from September 2023).
The JLC for Early Years Services is continuing to meet to discuss possible changes to the EROs.
In addition, Nurturing Skills (the Workforce Plan for the ELC and SAC sector) includes specific actions to support the move to a graduate-led workforce by 2028, establishing a career framework for staff working in the ELC and SAC sector, including role profiles and qualifications requirements, the strengthening of career pathways, and the promotion of careers in the sector. The Nurturing Skills Monitoring Committee recently published the first Annual Report outlining progress to date on the actions contained in Nurturing Skills.
There is ongoing engagement between the Minister and the representatives of the sector primarily through the Early Learning and Childcare Stakeholder Forum. Issues concerning staff recruitment and retention continue to be kept under review.
ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN
The Department acknowledges the administrative burden for providers has increased with the introduction of new schemes such as National Childcare Scheme and Core Funding.
In addition to providing €27.2 million for administration under Core Funding, a number of steps are being taken to reduce the administrative workload. This year a Universal Fee Table has been introduced, which will enable services to upload one single fee table that covers all schemes. The Parent Statement has also been refined so that one agreement now covers all schemes and this only has to be signed once between the provider and parent irrespective of fee changes.
STREAMLINING OF REGULATION AND INSPECTION
The Programme for Government commits to “Streamline regulatory requirements whilst continuing to improve quality”. The OECD, in its Country Policy Review of Ireland, made a number of recommendations in relation to Ireland’s systems for quality assurance and development in the early learning and care sector. Building on the existing commitments in the Programme for Government and First 5, the OECD recommendations advise that “streamlining the activities of the range of institutions engaged in inspection and regulatory activity”.
The safety and protection of children remains the first priority of Government in early learning and childcare. Central to achieving this is enforcement of the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016, which have children at the heart of their implementation.
A number of changes are being implemented to reduce the regulatory burden on providers. Firstly, the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016 were recently amended in order to streamline the re-registration process from 2022 onwards. This change reduced the burden attached to renewal of registration for services.
Secondly, the Department is currently working closely with the two inspectorates, the Tusla Early Years Inspectorate and the Department of Education Inspectorate, on streamlining and collaborative work between the two inspectorates in order to reduce the burden on providers, support the quality of services, and support clear communications to the sector.
The Tusla Early Years Inspectorate is the independent statutory regulator for the early learning and childcare sector. Tusla are committed to ensuring that children attending ELC and SAC services are safe, that they receive appropriate care and have a positive experience where they can develop and learn in a quality service.
The Department of Education Inspectorate conducts education-focused inspections of early learning and care services that are funded by DCEDIY. These inspections evaluate the quality of the nature, range and appropriateness of the early educational experiences for children participating in ELC services. They then provide feedback on the quality of educational provision in the setting and advice as to how educational provision in the setting can be developed further or improved.
