I am advised by my colleague, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth that the figure of 90,000 places delivered related to schemes operated by his Department and its precursor between 2000 and 2019.
The availability of high quality early learning and childcare is a key Government priority. My colleague, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has assured me that his Department monitors early learning and childcare capacity on an ongoing basis, with a particular focus on responding to the unmet early learning and childcare needs of families. Last week, his Department announced the Building Blocks – Capacity Grant Scheme. Under the Scheme, €45m will be made available over 2024 and 2025 to deliver additional early learning and childcare places. The primary focus of the scheme is to increase capacity in the 1-3 age range for full day or part-time care.
Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, 2022-2028, which Minister O’Gorman launched on 7 December 2021, aims to strengthen the ongoing process of professionalisation for those working in early learning and care and school-age childcare.
Early years educators, school-age childcare practitioners and childminders play a key role in supporting children’s development and well-being, working in partnership with families. Recognising their central importance for the quality of provision, Nurturing Skills aims to support the professional development of the workforce and raise the profile of careers in the sector.
Commitments in Nurturing Skills are organised under five pillars:
Establishing a career framework;
Raising qualification levels;
Developing a national Continuing Professional Development system;
Supporting recruitment, retention and diversity; and
Moving towards regulation of the workforce.
Successful delivery of commitments under the five pillars will be supported by three "key enablers" that are identified in Nurturing Skills:
Improvement in pay and conditions of employment;
Coordination of the quality support infrastructure; and
Ongoing engagement with the profession.
Nurturing Skills includes an Implementation Plan for the Plan's first three years (2022-2024). The Implementation Plan sets out 57 actions.
Nurturing Skills commits to establishing a Monitoring Committee to oversee implementation. The Monitoring Committee, was established in 2022 and published its first annual progress report for 2022 in March 2023. It will publish its 2023 progress report in the coming months.
Currently, funding is available for those early years educators seeking to upskill through the DCEDIY Learner Fund which, pays educators a small lump-sum bursary (€750) after completion of their course, complementing financial supports available to students attending HE and FE institutions.
However, Minister O’Gorman, announced recently, the introduction of a new Nurturing Skills Learner Fund on a pilot basis. The new Fund, which will run alongside the existing Learner Fund, aims to assist early years educators to pursue early learning and care qualifications that have been approved by the Qualifications Advisory Board (QAB) while continuing to work in the sector in line with commitments in Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, 2022-2028. In addition, a higher level of post-award bursary contribution will be provided for those completing degrees from 2024, to assist those who are undertaking degrees but are not part of the pilot Nurturing Skills Learner Fund.
For the Deputy's information, I have attached information in relation to Early Childhood and Education Courses in further and higher education. PLC courses in further education are funded from the National Training Fund.
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