Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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1124. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the steps she will take to address the poor level of pay and conditions being experienced by graduate workers in the childcare sector; and her views on whether it is reasonable to expect more attractive pay and conditions having completed a high level of training in this area. [5122/20]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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Low pay and poor working conditions in the sector remain a serious concern and impact on the quality of provision to children through their effect on the recruitment and retention of qualified staff. The lack of consistency of care caused by high staff turnover impacts directly on quality, while low wages are a constraint on plans to upskill and professionalise the workforce.

As the State is not the employer, my Department does not pay the wages of staff working in early learning and care settings, and hence cannot set wage levels or determine working conditions for staff. I am, however, doing all that is in my power to improve wages and working conditions in the sector. My support for improved pay and conditions for early learning and care professionals has been explicit, as their role is critical to supporting children’s development and delivering better outcomes for children and families.

The most recent data on pay and conditions indicates that the average pay is influenced by the level of a practitioner’s qualifications. For example, the average pay rates for graduate workers is somewhat higher than for others working in the sector. Practitioners with Level 5 and Level 6 qualifications earned an average of €11.42 and €12.63 respectively in 2019. The average rates of pay for graduates at that time were €13.93 for those with qualifications at Level 7 on the National Framework of Qualifications, €13.45 for those with Level 8 qualifications, and €15.18 for those with qualifications at Levels 9 or 10. Overall, the average hourly pay in early learning and care and school-age childcare was €12.55, which was 3% higher than the year before.

Budget 2020 saw a 9% increase in investment in early learning and care and school age childcare, resulting in a 141% increase in investment over five budgets. The very welcome level of investment needs to continue if we are to offer services that are of high quality, affordable and accessible. However, increased investment by itself will not ensure that staff wages and conditions will improve.

My Department has set out its vision for the sector, and a roadmap to achieve it, in First 5, the whole-of-Government strategy for babies, young children and their families. First 5 recognises that the workforce is at the heart of high-quality early learning and care and school-age childcare and seeks to build ‘an appropriately skilled and sustainable professional workforce that is supported and valued and reflects the diversity of babies, young children and their families’. First 5 includes a commitment to achieve a graduate-led workforce, and last year I began a process of developing a Workforce Development Plan to achieve this and other workforce-related commitments in First 5.

Delivering on a further commitment in First 5, last year I also appointed an expert group to examine the current model of funding for early learning and care and school-age childcare and its effectiveness in delivering quality, affordable, sustainable and inclusive services.

I have actively encouraged the sector to seek a Sectoral Employment Order (SEO). An SEO must be initiated by a grouping representing the sector and my Department is ready to input to such a process, if and when the sector seeks it. Organisations requesting the commencement of such a process must show they are substantially representative of the sector. An SEO would provide for mandatory terms and conditions in the early learning and care and school age childcare sector, minimum rates of remuneration, and other conditions.

Other recent measures I have taken to assist employers to improve the pay and conditions of their staff whilst also addressing administrative demands include: a 7% increase in ECCE capitation in 2018; higher capitation payments for graduates and Inclusion Coordinators; support for school-age childcare which will make it easier to offer full-time, full-year employment contracts; and a pilot measure to fund participation in continuous professional development (CPD).

In terms of measures specifically targeted towards higher qualified staff, a Higher Capitation payment is offered within the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme. This additional capitation is paid to contracted services on fulfilling the requirements for graduate-led ECCE sessions. The ECCE Higher Capitation rate is currently equivalent to an additional €11.25 per child per week of the ECCE programme year.