Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 September 2022
1226. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will ensure that small to medium childcare providers are not disadvantaged when applying for core funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42663/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraCore Funding marks the beginning of a new funding model to transform the Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) sector to one that is increasingly publicly funded and publicly managed, delivering a service for the public good, through a partnership between the State and providers, to the benefit of children, parents, educators and practitioners, and society overall.
Core Funding, with a full year value of €221 million, is equivalent to an estimated increase of 19% in the cost base for the sector. The primary purpose of Core Funding 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.
The budget for the scheme makes provision for improvements in staff pay and conditions, for additional administrative staff/time, and a contribution to non-staff overhead costs. It is important to note that both contact and non-contact time, holiday pay, sick pay and other employer costs, are all factored in to the estimated staff costs allocation in Core Funding.
There is also provision as part of the budget to contribute to supporting graduate leadership in services. This will make funding for graduates available for the first time in respect of early learning and provision outside of ECCE, including for 0-3 year olds, as well as supporting the employment of graduate Managers in ELC or combined ELC and SAC services.
Core Funding is distributed in a fair, reasonable and proportionate manner that is related to services’ costs of delivery. Core Funding is allocated to services based on the number of child places being made available (whether filled or not), the age group of children for whom the places are available and the number of hours the places are available for, as well as the graduate qualifications of leaders in the service. These are the primary drivers of services' costs and this is therefore the most proportionate and transparent manner to allocate funding.
Services opening for longer hours, offering more places and offering places for younger children will receive a higher value of Core Funding than other services. This is because their costs of operation are higher.
It is important to acknowledge that Core Funding will intentionally address some of the existing disparities in funding levels across ECCE and non-ECCE provision, providing funding proportionate to the cost of delivery and supporting the employment of graduate Lead Educators across ELC provision as well as graduate Managers.
While Core Funding will operate in addition to and alongside ECCE (standard capitation), AIM, CCSP and NCS, it replaces ECCE higher capitation and incorporates funding previously allocated to the discretionary Programme Support Payments (PSP) from September 2022. This distributes public funding in respect of graduate staff more fairly across ELC provision.
Services currently in receipt of ECCE standard capitation will see capitation increase at least 9.5%. A majority of services currently in receipt of ECCE higher capitation will also see a moderate capitation increase. A very small percentage of services will see no increase. These are larger ECCE-only services – with 20+ children in a session. ECCE sessional services with 22 children currently receives income of €1,829.30 per week. This will be matched in Core Funding.
No service will see a decrease in funding. In examining all of the data available to the Department there is no evidence about a significant lack of sustainability for ECCE-only services or to suggest that services will face closure as a result of Core Funding. For any service that does experience financial difficulties, a Sustainability Fund will be put in place. This new strand of the Sustainability Fund, linked to Core Funding, will be designed to provide an extra safety net for providers. This will be open to both private and community providers.
The new funding model being implemented aims to transform the sector to one that is increasingly publicly funded and publicly managed, delivering a service for the public good, through a partnership between the State and providers, to the benefit of children, parents, practitioners, and society overall. This transformation starts with Core Funding and the new approach will entail a shift in the relationship between the State and providers in relation to delivering ELC and SAC, with new responsibilities on both sides.
I am committed to ensuring more stability of income for services, and that is one of the key objectives of Core Funding.
Core Funding is open to all registered providers subject to their agreement to the terms and conditions of the funding. It is my ambition that the maximum number providers choose to participate in this partnership to deliver ELC and SAC for the public good and come into contract for Core Funding and I look forward to working with Partner Services under this new funding model.
