Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes that:— there are approximately 4,300 services providing early childhood education and care, with an estimated 22,000 staff working in the sector;

— thousands of early years staff will be forced to sign on for social welfare in the coming weeks for the duration of the summer, due to 38 week work contracts and also as a result of reduced hours of work;

— many parents choose to remove their children from centres over the summer months as a result of the high cost of full day care, which results in services having to reduce working hours;

— wages within the early years sector often do not reflect staff qualifications and experience;

— the average wage in the profession is significantly below the living wage and the competence requirements in early childhood education and care, CoRe, report 2011 recommends a graduate-led early years workforce, yet this recommendation cannot be fulfilled if graduates are not retained to work in the sector;

— national and international evidence suggests high-quality early childhood education and care is beneficial for young children at the foundation stage of their development and that the provision of high-quality early education and care is dependent on quality interactions between early years staff and the children with whom they engage; therefore, the immediate improvement of working conditions and salaries of those working in the sector is essential for quality improvement;

— community and private services are currently experiencing recruitment and retention difficulties due to insufficient being funding available to pay staff a wage commensurate with their role and ever increasing responsibilities, which results in a high staff turnover rate and burnout of workers;

— this crisis is creating wider sustainability issues for the sector, resulting in risk of closure of smaller crèches, particularly community crèches nationwide, which will inevitably reduce access to child care options for parents, while putting staff under increased work pressures; and

— Ireland spends significantly less on early years education, at 0.5% of gross domestic product, versus the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, average of 0.7% and even less than the international benchmark of 1%; andcalls on the Government to:— recognise the early years sector’s valuable contribution to Irish society in educating and caring for the youngest of Irish citizens and to treat the early years education sector on a par with other levels of education;

— ensure the needs of the early years workforce are central to all policy development and investment in order to achieve high-quality early years education and care services;

— carry out, as a matter of urgency, an independent early years service cost and sustainability review, encompassing the identification and assessment of stress factors impacting on the early childhood services, and distinguishing between the cost of providing a 0-3 years of age service, a pre-school service and an after-school service, in order to provide an accurate calculation of the finances needed for the provision of high-quality accessible education and care in both rural and urban areas;

— increase State funding to average OECD levels to ensure sustainable high-quality provision, professional pay scales and paid non-contact time;

— commission the development of a nationally agreed pay scale for the early years workforce that recognises qualifications, experience and length of service, using the living wage as a starting point, to ensure higher capitation rates are passed on to staff through an agreed salary scale that reflects qualifications and experience;

— immediately address the issue of the extra administrative requirement which will be added to providers’ already extensive workload, due to the extension of the affordable childcare scheme, and ensure both service providers and staff are remunerated for this additional work in adequate time for the implementation of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs’ extension of current schemes;

— build paid non-contact time and continuing professional development into the level of capitation provided in order that early years staff can plan, document and deliver a high-quality programme; and

— prioritise work on the early years strategy to avoid further fragmentation of the sector and consult widely with the sector in order to sufficiently inform this work.

I warmly welcome all those from the sector who are in the Visitors Gallery for this debate and acknowledge the valuable work they do. I also welcome representatives from SIPTU, IMPACT, the Association of Childhood Professionals, Early Childhood Ireland and the Children's Rights Alliance. I thank them for their support for the motion and all of the very important advocacy work they carry out on behalf of the early years sector and the children for whom they care.

From the get-go it is crucial that we all recognise the obvious fact that without early years service providers and staff, many of us in the Oireachtas would not be able to come to work every morning. Society relies heavily on the sector in order to operate. As the mother of two boys, a Deputy and my party’s spokesperson on child care and the early years sector, I understand and appreciate the work done by those involved in it. For far too long the sector has been viewed simply as a form of baby sitting. Thankfully, there has more recently been a shift in attitude. There is a recognition that national and international evidence shows high-quality early childhood education and care has positive outcomes for children and society and that these positive outcomes are even stronger for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, the benefits are reliant on high-quality provision. In Ireland we have focused on regulation and training to ensure high-quality provision, but it is well documented that staff working conditions and pay are central to providing high-quality early childhood education and care.

It is vital for all of us, as public representatives, to acknowledge publicly the impact of the work carried out in the early years sector. The quality of care provided is crucial for the early development of future generations. It provides the stepping stone to their further education. Early years settings are often where learning difficulties or social issues can be detected, improving a child’s chances of getting help and assessing the level of assistance he or she might need to prevent future problems, developmental or otherwise. The start we give our children inevitably impacts on their progress and can significantly improve their outcomes. There is an intrinsic link between the working conditions of those responsible for children and quality of care and outcomes. It is common sense that if staff members are overworked, underpaid and highly stressed, as committed as they may be, the outcomes for the children for whom they care will not be as positive as for those being cared for by people who feel valued and have relative job security.

This summer approximately 3,500 early years educators will sign on for social welfare, at an estimated cost of €7.5 million to the Exchequer. This number does not include the thousands of providers who are unable to sign on because they are classified as self-employed, nor does it include younger members of the profession who are not entitled to social welfare owing to their parents' income. The figure of €7.5 million also does not include the cost for those who are eligible to receive family income supplement because their income is so low.

The following quotes are from highly qualified staff and service providers who are working in the sector and looking towards a summer of uncertainty:

On our last day in preschool, the parents were wishing me well for the holidays and asking where I was going for my holidays. The reality is that I am signing on for the summer and cannot afford to go on holidays because my wages are so low I do not have any savings. I am dreading my car insurance bill which is due at the end of July and I do not know what I would do if my car broke down.

Another said:

My work is not recognised for the early education that it really is. Children’s learning starts at birth and we need to remember that. We need to respect the children’s rights to have the best start in life and not just the parent’s rights to go out to work. If we did, then things would change.

Another said:

I am signing on for the summer but we are waiting to hear if we got the capital grant from Pobal. If we do get it, I will be dealing with builders for the summer but I will not be getting paid for it but sure it has to be done. I am 28 years in the sector and I am getting so tired.

Another said:

I did not realise that I would only be able to afford to work in early years for a few years until I have a family of my own. I definitely will not be able to afford a mortgage or child care in the future so I am already looking at changing my career.

The quality of the relationships between the children and the workforce is one of the key indicators of high-quality provision. Attracting and retaining a professional workforce are vital if these relationships are to flourish, but this cannot be achieved if the level of Government investment is so low that the workforce is on little more than the minimum wage. In 2010 an EU funded report highlighted that a poorly paid and poorly educated workforce diminished the quality of early education, as well as being unsustainable.

The costs for the proposed affordable child care scheme include wages for qualified, experienced early years educators, at €10.79 per hour for 48 weeks. Now that the scheme will be operated for 52 weeks, the figure is even lower. The scheme also recommends that "efficiency can be achieved through managing staff resources to match staff on duty to the varying numbers of children at different times of the day and different times of the year". This demonstrates that the Government’s policy is committed to exploiting the early years workforce with not much regard for staff deserving a living wage or regular hours of work. This aspect must be reassessed.

Services are struggling with an IT system that is not fit for purpose; dates promised for the payment of non-contact time have not been met and grants have not been approved in the timeframe promised. So far, there has been no payment for all of the extra administration work required in delivering the new scheme. This is seriously frustrating service providers and creating a pressure cooker which is ready to explode. Service providers have stated the Government is banking on a majority of providers offering the affordable child care scheme. However, some have already decided not to offer it as the increased administration work will add further hours of unpaid work. Since the introduction of the successful early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme, many service providers have said they believe they have effectively become unpaid administrators for the Department. However, they have also stated they want to work with it and that, with a fair administration cost and a fair capitation payment, they can help to ensure 70,000 children will benefit from the new scheme.

When we say Ireland spends 0.5% of gross domestic product on early years provision, we must acknowledge the reality that the majority is actually spent on infant classes in primary schools. This means that, in effect, we are spending little more than 0.1% on early years services. We are at the bottom of the OECD table in the level of expenditure on early childhood educational institutions. This results in significantly raised costs for parents, unsustainable services and poor pay and conditions for the early years workforce.

While the Government has increased the early years budget in recent years, much of the increase has been focused on affordability and accessibility. While this is necessary for working parents, it means that sustainability, as well as the pay and working conditions of the workforce, have suffered as a result. More and more is required of the workforce in terms of regulation, qualifications, training, interactions with parents and external agencies. Interactions with children are being hampered as the professionals working with them are torn in meeting all of the requirements that rain down on them. That is the reality and the Government needs to listen.

In 2013 the expert advisory group on the early years strategy, appointed by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, published its report, Right from the Start. It recommended a graduate-led workforce and agreed salary scales being conditions of public funding. Unfortunately, despite the fact that we are past the midway point of the Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures Framework 2014-2020, there is still no early years strategy. Unless the conditions and pay of those working in the sector are improved and unless the State increases the funding for services tied to quality and implementation of decent pay scales, the crisis will only deepen. We must address the issues now in order that we can create a sustainable sector that is fair for workers and the children for whom they care. Improvements will only happen with proper investment in child care in budget 2018.

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