Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 29 September 2022
214. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the early learning and care services that are in receipt of the graduate premium for lead educators and the graduate premium for graduate managers; and the sum allocated to each service, in tabular form. [47748/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraServices with Early Learning and Care (ELC) graduate Lead Educators/Managers will receive an additional allocation through the ELC Graduate and Manager Premiums where they apply.
In order for a service to be allocated an ELC Graduate Premium, the Lead Educator in an ELC room and/or the Manager of an ELC or a combined ELC and School Age Childcare (SAC) service and must hold an appropriate qualification (QQI Level 7 or higher) as per the Department’s Higher Capitation Qualifications list. They must also have a minimum of three years’ experience in the sector.
The ELC Graduate Premium is calculated based on the number of ELC graduate Lead Educators in ELC rooms and the hours that they lead in those rooms; and if the ELC or combined ELC and SAC service has an ELC graduate as the manager, the premium is calculated on the hours the Graduate Manager works or the hours of operation of the service whichever is the lesser.
The definition of a Lead Educator is taken from ‘Nurturing Skills – The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, 2022-2028’: “An Early Years Educator who leads practice with a group of children will be termed ‘Lead Educator’. The term ‘Lead Educator’ is used to reflect the important pedagogical leadership role played by these individuals with a group of children and with other Early Years Educators who are also working with that group of children. For the purposes of Core Funding, each ELC room can only have one Lead Educator at any one time; even if the children are organised into groups within the room.
The definition of a Manager is also taken from Nurturing Skills – The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, 2022-2028’: “The term Manager is used in the Workforce Plan to refer to the person in charge of a setting, as defined in the Early Years Regulations 2016 and SAC Regulations 2018, i.e. ‘the person who has day-to-day charge of the service’. This person may or may not be the Registered Provider. While ELC and SAC services vary considerably in their legal and organisational structures, every service must – as a condition of its registration – have a designated person in charge (here termed the ‘Manager’) who is responsible for the daily running of the service and – unless deputised by a named person – must be on the premises at all times when the service is being carried on.” The Core Funding Graduate Manager premium can only be attracted by this designated person in charge, not by any of the other members of staff who may deputise when the manager is not present.
Attached is a list of services contracted into Core Funding and the amount of funding they are expected to receive under the Graduate Premium and the Manager Premium, and the sum total of these two premiums. This data capture was taken on the 27th of September 2022. This list does not contain services that have submitted applications but have not yet contracted nor services with applications in draft.
Where services have graduate Lead Educators or graduate Managers, details and evidence of the qualifications of these staff are required in order to pay the graduate premium part of Core Funding. The process of appraising this evidence is ongoing. Although the final calculation will be subject to appraisal of any accompanying evidence submitted with it, payments are being made on a provisional basis using the results of this calculation while the appraisal process takes place.
