Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 April 2024
1077. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the public funding received by each individual Early Years and School Age Childcare service by funding scheme (e.g., ECCE, Core Funding, NCS, CCSP, CCS), for the programme year 2022/2023, in tabular form. [13851/24]
View answerIn September 2022, I launched Together for Better, the new funding model for early learning and childcare. This new funding model supports the delivery of early learning and childcare for the public good, for quality and affordability for children, parents and families as well as stability and sustainability for providers. Together for Better brings together three major programmes, the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, including the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) and the new Core Funding scheme. A fourth strand - the Equal Participation Model (EPM) is in development.
Core Funding, which began in September 2022, is the new funding stream to start this partnership for the public good between the State and providers. Its primary purpose is to improve pay and conditions in the sector as a whole and improve affordability for parents as well as ensuring a stable income to providers.
Core Funding is designed specifically as a supply-side funding stream, paid directly to providers, related to the costs of delivery. Core Funding is based on operating hours, number of places offered by services, and the age group of children for whom the places are offered, given the staffing requirements determined by the regulatory ratios for different care categories, as well as allocations for graduate leaders in services.
Structuring Core Funding primarily based on capacity means that Partner Services have an allocation each year that does not fluctuate in line with children’s attendance. Core Funding contributes to services’ sustainability and significantly increases income for the overwhelming majority of services and provides greater funding stability. 95% of services signed up to Core Funding in the first programme year.
The move towards high levels of transparency and openness is an integral part of the new funding model. The publication of this list is in line with Expert Group report Partnership for the Public Good which called for greater transparency and accountability for public funds.
The Core Funding programme year is from September to August. My Department will publish a list of all Partner Services who participated in Core Funding during the first year of the scheme and their Core Funding allocation. Core Funding during its first programme year, (from September 2022 till August 2023) had a budget of €259 million.
This list will be published by the Department in the near future when all final adjustments to the grant values have been made to ensure that values are correct and final on publication. This will be an annual list which will be published at the end of each programme year. A detailed explanation of what the list contains will be published alongside the list.
I and my Department are committed to working with Partner Services delivering early learning and childcare for the public good.
