Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 October 2023
559. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the amount of funding a typical preschool service receives from the State on a weekly basis, including both ECCE funding and Core funding; the number of staff required to provide the service; and the minimum rates of the staff members. [42712/23]
View answerThere is great diversity in how individual Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare services operate. I assume the Deputy is referring to a typical ECCE-only service for the purpose of this response. These services offer only the ECCE programme, which runs for 15 hours a week and 38 weeks per year. The regulatory ratios for this provision is 11 children per staff member. With a maximum of 22 children allowed per ECCE session, services would require two staff members to provide this service at this level.
As the Deputy may be aware, providers of ELC and SAC are private businesses. Therefore the State does not employ staff in ELC and SAC services and neither I or my Department can set wage levels or determine working conditions for staff in the sector’
There is now, through the independent Joint Labour Committee (JLC) process, a formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate minimum pay rates for different roles in ELC and SAC services.
On 15 September 2022, two Employment Regulation Orders for Early Years Services, negotiated through the JLC, came into effect, providing for minimum hourly rates of pay for various roles in ELC and SAC services.
The Orders are being supported by Core Funding, which has an annual allocation of €287 million for the 2023/2024 programme year – an increase of €28 million on last year’s allocation. Core Funding is a payment to providers designed to meet the combined objectives of improved affordability for parents, improved sustainability and stability for services, better supports for the employment of graduate staff, and better pay and conditions for the workforce.
I believes both employer and employee representatives understand the importance of improving pay for the sector, and the Minister looks forward to the Joint Labour Committee negotiating increases in the ERO minimum pay rates.
ECCE sessions are required to be staffed by a Lead Educator. Therefore with up to 11 children and only one staff member required, services must have a Lead Educator in place who must be paid at least €14 per hour. If this Lead Educator is a graduate they are entitled to the higher rate of pay of €15.50. Where a second staff member is required, i.e. where there are between 12 and 22 children in a session, an Educator is also required to staff the session at a minimum rate of €13 per hour.
ECCE capitation is paid at a weekly rate of €69 per child. These services can avail of additional funding through Core Funding, which in its second year of operation now offers an additional €0.68 per place per hour. Core Funding is based on staffed capacity and not attendance, and therefore the funding is less susceptible to fluctuations in line with attendance, which offers greater stability. Additional funding is available where a service has a Graduate Lead Educator or Graduate Manager, or if they operate as a sessional-only service.
Between ECCE and Core Funding, ECCE services will now receive a minimum of €79.20 per child per week. This is before additional graduate premium of €4.44 per hour and the flat rate of €4,075 per year are added, where applicable. With 8 children, this €79.20 translates to a minimum of €42.24 per hour of ECCE service delivery or €633.60 per week; more commonly with 11 children, this will be €58.08 per hour or €871.20 to operate the service. Staff costs per hour to deliver this service based on ERO rates range from €14 for a Lead Educator to €17.25 for a Graduate Manager; including 18% employer costs this is between €16.52 and €20.36 per hour. Sector wide we know that staff costs are approximately 70% of operating costs.
In addition, in the most recent Budget I announced targeted measures worth an additional €7.22 million through Core Funding year 2, to further support smaller and sessional services. This include a flat rate top-up payment of €4,075 for all services registered with Tusla as sessional only and the introduction of a base rate minimum allocation of €8,150 per service. The minimum base rate will mean that for any smaller ECCE service that would have received less than €8,150 will receive at least this amount if they are in Core Funding for the full 2023/24 programme year.
Further information on Core Funding and the new funding model, Together for Better, is available at first5fundingmodel.gov.ie/ .
