Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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774. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her views on whether there is a crisis of sustainability in the child care sector not only in terms of pay and conditions for staff but in terms of the availability of qualified staff to deliver on new standards. [37190/16]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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Although my Department does not act as employer to childcare it does acknowledge that the sector is under cost pressure, and that staff wages are a large component of cost. To go some way towards addressing this, I have secured additional funding of €14 million in Budget 2017 which will enable ECCE providers to be paid for a 39th week and part of a 40th week (7 ECCE days in total or 1.4 ECCE weeks) where they will have no children present and they will be able to pay staff to concentrate on administrative workload. Services themselves can decide how to use the payment when it is received. For the average ECCE service with 25 children, this will mean an additional annual payment of approximately €2,400 per annum. Part of the additional funding €14m will be given to CCS and TEC providers on a pro-rata basis also to acknowledge their administrative burden also. The Affordable Childcare Scheme when introduced in Sept 17 will replace CCS and TEC and will have recognition of non-contact time built into its cost base. In addition, under Budget 2017 a provision was made for a fund of €1m to assist in the investigation of sustainability issues being faced by childcare providers, and to develop a policy to guide any future interventions. This initiative is at an early stage and officials will commence work in this regard in early 2017.

The Programme for Government commits to conducting and publishing an independent review of the cost of providing quality childcare. This commitment aligns closely with work on the design and development of a new Single Affordable Childcare Scheme and is currently being progressed in that context. Work is well underway on the development of policy proposals for the new Affordable Childcare Scheme. As part of this, Department officials are reviewing previous published research and analysis on the cost of childcare provision, are assessing available data sources and are scoping the precise requirements for the independent review.

Under the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016, registered providers of pre-school services will, from 31st December 2016, be required to ensure that each employee working directly with children attending the service holds at least a major award in Early Childhood Care and Education at Level 5 on the National Qualifications Framework or a qualification deemed by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs to be equivalent. The Learner Fund was introduced in 2014 to provide support for existing childcare staff to achieve this minimum requirement. The fund was later expanded to support existing pre-school leaders to up-skill to Level 6 on the National Qualifications Framework, which is now the minimum requirement for pre-school leaders delivering the Early childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme.

Funding of €1.5m will be available in 2017 to continue to Level 6 support in the context of the expansion of the ECCE programme. I also hope to extend the Learner Fund to support childcare staff to achieve higher level qualifications in childcare, i.e. Fetac Level 7 and Level 8. In this regard, my Department, in association with the Department of Education and Skills and Pobal, intends to commence work as soon as possible on the development of an approved panel of Level 7 and Level 8 training providers, and a new Learner Fund application process.

I also hope to be in a position to make some funding available to those childcare staff who have already completed higher level courses entirely at their own expense.