Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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398. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the estimated cost to increase funding allocation to the early years and childcare learner bursary fund for 6,520 early years and childcare staff to all who currently hold an NQF level 5 to upskill to a level 7. [38500/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Extrapolated data from the Annual Early Years Sector Profile 2020/2021 suggests that in 2021 there were approximately 26,200 staff working directly with children in Early Learning and Care (ELC) services, of whom 24.9% held a relevant Level 5 major award as their highest qualification, i.e. approximately 6,520 staff.

Currently the Learner Fund provides a bursary of €750 for staff who complete a relevant degree-level qualification (Level 7 or Level 8). If this same level of bursary were to be extended to the cohort referenced above, the cost would be €4.9 million to support 6,520 early years educators.

However, this would not mean that the degree-level qualification was free-of-charge for participants as my Department only partly funds early years educators to pursue a higher qualification under the Learner Fund. The full cost is significantly higher with a substantial proportion being borne by early years educators.

To estimate the cost of ensuring that the upskilling were free-of-charge to staff, a sample of relevant part-time degree programmes was examined, in which the annual fees were found to range from €3,150 to €4,990 per year. The Professional Award Criteria and Guidelines for Initial Professional Education (Level 7 and 8) degree programmes for the Early Learning and Care sector in Ireland, published in April 2019, set the standard of new Level 7 ELC qualifications at 3 years in duration. In the sample of degree programmes examined, the total cost per student would therefore range from €9,450 to €14,970. If this full cost were to be covered for 6,520 early years educators, the total cost to the State would be between €61.6 million and €97.6 million.

In December last, I published Nurturing Skills, the Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, 2022 to 2028. Nurturing Skillscommits to the provision of funded places on flexible education programmes at levels 6 to 8 for current early years educators. This new funding will support upskilling and strengthen career development pathways for those working in the sector, reducing the cost to educators of undertaking further and higher education qualifications.

The new funding scheme will also develop and introduce mechanisms for providing financial support to early learning and care services to help meet the costs of releasing staff to go on student practice placements and study leave. Plans for the new funding scheme are currently being developed.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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399. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the estimated cost to increase the funding allocation to access and inclusion model programme by 15%. [38501/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The 2022 allocated budget for the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) is €45.55 million.

This funding covers the cost of the seven levels of AIM, which encompass a range of both universal and targeted supports for pre-school settings. This funding provides a programme of capital grants for specialised equipment, appliances, assistive technology and/or minor alterations for pre-school settings to ensure children with a disability can participate in the ECCE programme. It is also intended to facilitate either the recruitment of additional staff or to compensate services for a reduction in the adult-to-child ratio in the pre-school room, supporting the meaningful participation of all children in the room in the ECCE universal pre-school programme.

It provides access to therapeutic services where they are critical to enable a child to be enrolled and to meaningfully participate in the ECCE programme, and access to expert early year’s educational advice and support from a team of dedicated Early Years Specialists.

It also provides for continued development of a qualified and confident workforce through the provision of ongoing training courses such as Hanen and SPEL and provision of funding for training under the Leadership for Inclusion (LINC) training programme and employment of Inclusion Co-Ordinator (INCO) positions in ECCE sessions.

A 15% increase in funding for the overall Access and Inclusion Model would cost an additional €6.83 million per annum.