Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 April 2024
593. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth his plans to help the early years sector retain staff as currently many staff are being recruited into the SNA roles in primary schools. [16443/24]
View answerI acknowledge that many early learning and care (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC) services report staffing challenges in relation to recruitment and retention. In general, staffing pressures in the sector are caused not by insufficient supply of qualified personnel, but by high levels of staff turnover.
Providers of ELC and SAC are private businesses. As the State does not employ staff in ELC and SAC services, neither I nor my Department can set wage levels or determine working conditions for staff in the sector.
However, there is now, through the independent Joint Labour Committee (JLC) process, a formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate terms and conditions of employment including minimum pay rates for different roles in ELC and SAC services. This process provided the first ever Employment Regulation Orders for the sector and increasing wages for over 70% of staff working in services.
I understand that the JLC continues to meet and plan to submit to the Labour Court new draft EROs proposing a 5% increase in minimum rates for all grades and the removal of 3 years experience requirement for graduate minimum pay rates.
Outcomes from the JLC process are support by the Government through the Core Funding scheme, which has an allocation for this programme year alone of €287 million and I will again increase this allocation by a further 15%, for the third year of the scheme, to €331 million.
In line with commitments in First 5, in December 2021, I launched Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC), 2022-2028. Nurturing Skills aims to strengthen the ongoing process of professionalisation for those working in ELC and SAC and to raise the profile of careers in the sector. It includes a career framework and commitments to support early years educators to upskill and develop their careers. It also includes commitments to strengthen continuing professional development for staff working in the sector.
I also recently established a sub-group of the Early Learning and Childcare Stakeholder Forum to discuss issues of recruitment and retention with stakeholders in the sector. The second meeting of the sub-group took place on 7 February and the stakeholder group will continue to meet during 2024.
