Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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512. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth his plans to assist struggling ECCE providers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3941/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Government is investing significantly in the early learning and childcare sector and there is an ambitious new funding model being introduced to improve stability and sustainability for providers. There are supports, financial and otherwise, available to services who need them.

On 15th September, I launched Together for Better, the new funding model for early learning and childcare. This new funding model supports the delivery of early learning and childcare for the public good, for quality and affordability for children, parents and families as well as stability and sustainability for providers.

Together for Better, the new funding model comprised of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, including the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) and the new Core Funding scheme, is about getting the most out of the three early learning and childcare programmes, for children, parents, providers, the workforce, and society overall, and ensuring stability and sustainability in the sector.

Core Funding has a budget of €259 million in full year costs for year 1 of the programme (September 2022-August 2023). Core Funding is designed specifically as a supply-side funding stream, paid directly to providers, related to the costs of delivery. Core Funding is based on operating hours, number of places offered by services, and the age group of children for whom the places are offered, given the staffing requirements determined by the regulatory ratios for different care categories, as well as allocations for graduate leaders in services. Structuring Core Funding primarily based on capacity means that Partner Services have an allocation each year that does not fluctuate in line with children’s attendance.  Core Funding allows for substantial increases in the total cost base for the sector, related both to pay and non-pay costs, without additional costs being passed on to parents.

Core Funding contributes to services’ sustainability and significantly increases income for the overwhelming majority of services and provides greater funding stability. Already 94% of services have signed up to Core Funding and the scheme remains open for applications. 

ECCE-only services across the country form an integral part of the early learning and childcare system. Their exact operations can vary but typically, they open to children for 15 hours per week, 38 weeks per year. The funding model for sessional services is now primarily a combination of the ECCE capitation they receive per child registered with them, (potentially including a top up AIM capitation if there is a staff member with the necessary qualification undertaking an inclusion role, plus additional AIM funding to employ additional staff or reduce adult child ratios if required to support the inclusion of all children), and the Core Funding grant services receive based on the capacity of their service and the qualifications levels of staff, as well as any allowable optional extras they may charge parents.

Core Funding operates alongside ECCE and NCS and by contrast to the other funding schemes, provides payment in respect of the number of child places rather than based on child registrations or attendance. This intentional and deliberate differentiation of approach in the new funding model means the Core Funding element of a service's income is a more stable income source that will not fluctuate year on year. This idea of funding capacity is a key new approach in Core Funding, which many providers advocated for through stakeholder consultation during the design of Core Funding. This mixture of supply-side and demand-led public funding provides a welcome balance to the funding model, and assists services who may be experiencing lower than anticipated child registrations for a number of reasons. 

Under Core Funding, the overwhelming majority of services will see an increase in their funding, most will see very substantial increases, and no services will see a decrease in funding if their circumstances remain the same.  ECCE services without a graduate lead educator will see capitation increase by at least 9.5% through Core Funding.  ECCE services with a graduate lead educator will almost all see increases in income, although it may be smaller proportionally given the significant level of funding available under the old funding model.  A very small number of services, approximately 60 of the 4,200 signed-up, will see no increase with their income matched to 2021/2022. For this small number of services who do not experience an increase, a Funding Guarantee applies. This tops-up Core Funding payments to match the difference in ECCE higher capitation and PSP from last year, provided they offer the same amount of graduate led provision as last year. These are larger ECCE-only services – with 20+ children in a session.

Early learning and care services are able to apply for the Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS). Under TBESS, businesses engaged in early learning and childcare services who have suffered an increase of at least 50% in the average unit price of electricity and/or natural gas for the relevant billing period in 2022, as compared with the average unit price for electricity and/or gas for the corresponding reference period in 2021, are eligible under the scheme. 

I have been unequivocal that I do not want any services to be faced with financial sustainability issues and am fully committed to working with these services to support them in delivering early learning and childcare for the public good.

I have secured an increase in the Core Funding envelope for year two of operation (September 2023-August 2024) of €28 million (11% increase), the precise allocation of which will be determined by evidence and analysis emerging from year one of the operation of the scheme.

Given the concerns raised by some small, sessional services, and in order to provide additional timely and robust data in preparation for developments to Core Funding in year 2, I will be undertaking an independent financial review of sessional services; most of which are ECCE providers. 

This will involve services volunteering to participate in the review that aims to gather evidence on financial viability to underpin policy development and possible targeted measures through the new funding model.  

Services that are experiencing difficulty and who would like support are encouraged to contact their City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) to access case management supports. Services can be assisted on an individual basis through this route and it also allows for trends and themes across the country to be identified that can inform a more systematic response if necessary.

Stability and sustainability of early learning and childcare services is a top priority for Government, as demonstrated by the significant additional investment in the new funding model plus the wider whole-of-government supports for providers throughout the pandemic and now offered through TBESS. The Department, with Pobal and CCCs, will continue to engage with the sector and monitor the financial situation of early learning and childcare services, and supports are available where services face sustainability issues.

Budget 2023 allocates €1.025 billion to early learning and childcare – a clear demonstration from Government of the value of the sector. Together for Better aims to transform the sector and I am committed to working with Partner Services delivering early learning and childcare for the public good.

Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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513. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of ECCE providers that have left the scheme in each of the past three years, by county, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3942/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme is a universal two-year pre-school programme available to all children within the eligible age range. The programme is provided for three hours per day, five days per week over 38 weeks per year and runs from September to June each year, aligned with the primary school calendar.

The figures supplied by the scheme administrator Pobal in the table below show the number of services contracted to offer ECCE for the 2019-20 programme year up to 2022-23 and show an overall reduction of 292 services offering ECCE for the period concerned.

It is to be noted that the unusual net changes recorded for Cork Cityand Cork Countyis because of the reorganisation of the county division boundaries, which was implemented in 2022/23. 

ECCE is a very successful programme and there are currently 107,248 children registered on the programme, which is an increase on the same period last year. My Department is not aware of any ECCE capacity issues.

My Department funds a national network of County Childcare Committees (CCCs) who provide support and advice to parents and childcare providers. If parents or guardians are having difficulty in accessing an ECCE place, they should contact their local County Childcare Committees (CCCs), who will provide them with advice and support. The contact details for all CCCs can be found on: www.myccc.ie

Table 1: The net change in the number of services contracted to provide ECCE between 2019/20 and 2022/23