Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 September 2023
863. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for a breakdown of the cost to allow services to use service capacity rather than the child's attendance as the mechanism for measuring funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40455/23]
View answerIn 2023, State investment in early learning and childcare will exceed €1 billion for the first time, achieving an investment target set out in the First 5 Strategy, five years ahead of schedule. In 2023, this has seen investment of:
• €308 million for the ECCE programme including AIM
• €342 million for the NCS and
• €266 million for Core Funding
All children meeting the minimum age requirement of 2 years and 8 months are eligible for two full programme years on the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. The ECCE programme is offered for 3 hours per day, up to 5 days per week.
ECCE is not a mandatory programme and it is parental choice whether a child attends full time, part time or not at all. A parent/guardian may choose to avail of, for example, only 4 days of ECCE per week. This would mean that their child attends for 12 hours of free early learning and care under the ECCE programme. It would be an inappropriate use of public funds to pay a subvention of the full amount of 15 hours a week to a provider only providing a service of 12 hours a week in this scenario.
Providers must keep daily attendance records for each child attending and records must include the child’s full name, date of attendance, time of child’s arrival and time of child’s departure. Where attendance differs from registration in a consistent pattern over a four week period, registrations must be updated to reflect the actual pattern of attendance. An update on the Early Years Hive (the online registration system) must occur immediately after the four weeks of the reduced attendance pattern commencing.
In exceptional circumstances, for example, serious illness, the service provider may apply to retain a child's registration beyond four weeks up to a maximum of twelve weeks.
The NCS is designed to be flexible and acknowledge that early learning and childcare needs differ widely across different families. NCS subsidies are awarded as an hourly rate, along with a maximum number of weekly hours that the subsidy will be paid for. The actual subsidy payment is based on the hours agreed between the parent and provider, and claimed by the provider on the NCS system. Given the large amount of public money that is invested by the Exchequer in funding the Scheme, this ensures an appropriate level of oversight and accountability.
A certain level of under-attendance is permitted under the NCS. The Scheme recognises that there are many reasons why a child's attendance may occasionally be less than their agreed hours due to, for example, illness or appointments - or a parent being able to collect their child earlier than usual. The subsidy is not affected if parents collect their children earlier on occasion, or if a child misses a week or two due to illness. The attendance rules relate to circumstances where a child is continuously absent from a service, or not fully using the agreed place over a prolonged period. These rules are intended to reflect the realities of family life in a child-centred, fair and proportionate manner.
Where a child is not fully using the agreed place, the NCS allows for an eight-week cycle of continued under-attendance. As long as the under-attendance is broken by one full week of attendance for the agreed hours, the subsidy will remain unchanged. The Scheme also provides for particular exemptions to the attendance rules under certain circumstances to allow for extended absences up to 12 weeks in exceptional circumstances, including a prolonged illness.
In contrast to the ECCE programme and the NCS, Core Funding is largely allocated to services based on their capacity with a smaller proportion of the funding determined by the qualifications of those working in a service,
Capacity is a measure of the places being offered and the number of hours of service being provided.
Calculation of the capacity of a service takes into account the regulatory requirements. Under the Regulations, the number of places a service can offer depends on the size of rooms and the age of the children. It also depends on the number of staff present, with staff:child ratio requirements linked to the age of children. Services will declare the capacity they offer and a Core Funding value will be calculated based on that capacity. A service’s Core Funding will then scale depending on the opening hours and weeks of the service.
The structure of Core Funding is based on the recommendations of the Expert Group on the new funding model for early learning and childcare. Structuring it in this way means that services will have an allocation each year that will not fluctuate in line with children's attendance.
