Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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303. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth when all the details of the nurturing skills package will be released; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28438/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Last December I launched Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, 2022-2028. Nurturing Skills aims to strengthen the ongoing process of professionalisation for those working in early learning and care and school-age childcare. Nurturing Skills sets out actions to achieve workforce commitments in First 5, the Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families.

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 in the workforce; and

- Moving towards regulation of the profession.

Nurturing Skills has a wide range of commitments and, though there will not be a single financial package covering all actions within Nurturing Skills, many of the actions to be undertaken between now and 2028 will have financial implications. 

One of the "key enablers" for workforce-related actions that is identified in Nurturing Skills is improvement in pay and conditions of employment for staff. In Budget 2022, I announced a new Core Funding scheme which will provide an additional €73 million of funding in 2022 and is equivalent to more than €221 million in a full year. Core Funding is expected, among other objectives, to support an Employment Regulation Order that may arise from the Joint Labour Committee for Early Years Services, improving workforce recruitment and retention through improvement in pay and conditions.

A Monitoring Committee is being established with the task of monitoring the implementation of Nurturing Skills. A comprehensive Implementation Plan is included within Nurturing Skills and covers the first phase of implementation from 2022-2024.