Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 February 2024
466. Deputy Neasa Hourigan asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the supports available to assist childcare providers availing of ECCE funding with the extra costs associated with the new requirement to file detailed charter accounts reviewed by an accountant when previously childcare providers filed self-assessment accounts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9339/24]
View answerInvestment in early learning and childcare is at unprecedented levels with public funding exceeding €1.1 billion in 2024 for early learning and childcare – a clear demonstration from Government of the value of the sector.
My Department funds private early learning and care service providers to provide the ECCE programme at a standard rate of €69 per week per child attending the ECCE programme. With the addition of the Core Funding Scheme in 2022, services providing ECCE who are also signed up to Core Funding receive a minimum of €79.20 per child per week in capitation.
This figure can rise to a maximum of €95.85 with additional funding for graduate lead educators and graduate managers for sessional services. Core Funding is tailored to the individual service and is specifically designed to contribute to its operating costs and sustainability of the service making it a more flexible platform for investment towards the operating costs of services.
In year 1 of Core Funding, €259 million was allocated to the scheme, contributing to services’ sustainability and significantly increased income for the overwhelming majority of services while providing greater funding stability.
99% of services that signed up to the scheme saw their income increase. Less than 1%, or close to 60 services, received top-up payments to ensure their income did not decrease for the same level of provision offered.
Core funding in its second year has a budget that has increased by 11% to reach €287 million, providing a sustainable platform for investment with increases for all services. To date, more than 94% of eligible providers have now signed up to year 2 of core funding.
This year, all services will have seen further increases to their core funding allocations from the second year due to the increased allocations towards non-staff overheads and administrative staff and time.
In addition, the Government introduced a number of targeted supports for small and sessional services in year 2 of the scheme to improve sustainability of these services, specifically a flat rate top-up of €4,075 for sessional-only services and a minimum base rate allocation of €8,150, which will benefit small, part time and school-age services. These measures saw the average allocation under core funding for sessional-only services increase by 32% this year.
In a continued commitment to supporting these services, these targeted measures will continue to apply in the 2024/2025 programme year.
Arising from Budget 2024, the Core Funding allocation for year 3 of the scheme will increase by 15% - to €331 million. This will support the delivery of a range of enhancements in Year 3 of the scheme to support improved affordability and accessibility for families, improved pay and conditions for the workforce and improved sustainability for providers.
Providers that had an active Core Funding Contract during the 2022/2023 Programme Year must provide validated Financial Returns as per their Core Funding Partner Service Funding Agreement.
Following constructive engagement with members and nominees of the Early Learning and Childcare Stakeholder Forum (ELCSF), including Childhood Services Ireland (CSI), Childminding Ireland, Early Childhood Ireland (ECI), the Association of Childhood Professionals Ireland (ACPI), the Federation of Early Childhood Providers (FECP), the National Childhood Network (NCN), the National Community Childcare Forum and Seas Suas, my officials have now finalised transitional arrangements for financial reporting to cover year 1 and year 2 of the scheme.
Financial reporting requirements in this transitional phase have been significantly simplified and streamlined. Specifically, in this transitional phase, the financial reporting requirement is for an Income and Expenditure report based on a significantly reduced set of Core Funding Chart of Accounts nominal codes, the sector has already been provided with the templates and guidance documents in relation to this.
This Income and Expenditure Report will need to be submitted onto an online reporting portal by either a qualified accountant from a registered practice or a registered professional; *ICAI, ACCA, CPA, AIA, CIMA, CIPFA.
My Department will be providing guidance to Partner Services in the coming weeks on how to upload the completed Income and Expenditure report. All early learning and childcare Department income information will be provided to the Partner Services through the financial reporting portal.
My Department are also working on other supports for providers in preparing and submitting these returns, including training supports and targeted financial supports for those that may need it.
Officials from my Department will continue to engage with representatives of Core Funding Partner Services on this and have committed to continued engagement on future development to the financial reporting requirement under Core Funding from year 3 of the scheme.
I would encourage any service experiencing financial difficulty and who would like support, to contact their City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) to access case management supports. Contact details for their local CCC can be found at www.myccc.ie.
* Please see list below:
ICAI - Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland
ACCA - Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
CPA - Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland
AIA - Association of International Accountants
CIMA - Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
CIPFA - Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy
