Kathleen Funchion
Ceist:704. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the portion of childcare costs that is made up by fees. [19048/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 28 July 2020
Ceisteanna (704)
Freagraí scríofa
An Independent Review of the Cost of Delivering Childcare in Ireland was undertaken by Crowe in 2018 on behalf of my Department.
This Review found that approximately 40% of the total income to the sector comes from parental fees. This percentage varies significantly across services. Many services rely entirely on State funding while others services rely exclusively on parental fees.
The brief for the Independent Review included:
- analysing the current costs of providing childcare and the factors that impact on these costs;
- the development and delivery of a model of the unit costs of providing childcare that allows analysis of policy changes and variation in cost-drivers, including the potential impact of professionalisation; and
- providing an objective, high-level market analysis of the childcare sector in Ireland, including analysis of fee levels charged to parents.
The approach and methodology for this Review included:
- engagement with key stakeholders from the sector, including the Early Years Forum, provider representative organisations, the City and County Childcare Committees, statutory bodies, childcare professional training bodies, and academics;
- the administration of a survey to all centre-based childcare providers nationally, to provide the data on which the modelling tool would be based;
- the development of a cost modelling tool (and guidance document) to present the baseline cost data and enable the testing of the impact of a range of scenarios, namely changes to cost drivers on the unit costs of delivering childcare services; and
- a final report detailing the elements of the review, and the key findings.
The project is intended to provide a robust evidence base for the further development of high quality childcare in Ireland. The outputs, including the costs calculator developed through this project are also intended to form a key input into the setting of capitation and subvention rates for future funding schemes and will be considered by the Expert Group convened to develop a new funding model.
The draft final report, cost modelling tool and guidance were subject to peer review. Arising from the external peer review, an additional piece of work was undertaken. Final outputs were received in January 2020, and preparation was underway to launch the report in April 2020. However, owing to COVID-19, its launch was postponed. Nevertheless, the data from this Review has already informed the work of my Department, in particular the Department’s funding response to COVID-19
In a sustainable service, it is expected that the income to services (derived largely through parental fees and/or State funding) covers the costs of delivering childcare with a margin of profit or surplus for individual providers.