Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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442. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of staff working in services that are receiving core funding who are unqualified; if this is illegal; and the reason staff are allowed work in the childcare and ECCE sector without qualifications contrary to legislation and insurance. [7198/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Core Funding is allocated to “Partner Services”, i.e. Early Learning and Care (ELC) and/or School Age Childcare (SAC) services which have entered into a Funding Agreement with the Minister for Core Funding and which are registered with Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, as a prescribed early years service or school-age childcare service (excluding services which are registered as a Pre-school Service in a Drop-in Centre).

Core Funding is issued on the basis of “staffed capacity / “places”, not on child registrations and attendance levels. For capacity to be funded, the necessary levels of staff must be in place. The staffing required depends on the age range and session types of the places available. The capacity of a service is also limited by the regulatory space requirements.

Under the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016, all employees working directly with children in a pre-school service must hold at least a major award in Early Childhood Care and Education at Level 5 on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ), or equivalent as deemed by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

These regulations apply to all early learning and care (ELC) services regardless of whether or not the service receives funding from the State.

My Department has published a list of qualifications that meet the regulatory requirements for working in ELC in Ireland. The list is available here www.gov.ie/en/service/000073-recognition-of-an-early-years-qualification/

If an individual’s qualification does not appear on the list they must apply to my Department to have their qualification assessed for approval.

There are a number of scenarios where staff may be working in an ELC service who are not required to meet this ELC qualification requirement, including staff who only work with school-age children, staff who have signed a “Grandfathering” agreement, students on practice placements, nurses/medical staff who have been authorised to support children with complex medical needs, and managers or ancillary staff who do not work directly with children.

Where an individual has reason to believe that a person working in an ELC service who is required to meet the minimum qualification requirement does not meet the requirement, it is open to them to make a report or disclosure to Tusla, which is responsible for the Early Years Inspectorate.

The Tusla Early Years Inspectorate is the independent statutory regulator for the early learning and childcare sector. As such, Tusla is wholly responsible for the registration and inspection of all early learning and childcare services and for bringing enforcement action where necessary.

Tusla inspects all ELC services at least once every three years and, using a risk-based inspection model, may inspect some services more frequently if a service is deemed to fall into a higher risk category. While a routine inspection model is not yet in place for School Age Services, such services are inspected where Tusla receives information regarding concerns about the operation of a school age setting.

During an inspection, if Tusla observes any regulatory non-compliances, it will address these with the service provider initially through the Corrective and Preventative Action (CAPA) process which affords the provider an opportunity to rectify the non-compliance and put measures in place to prevent the non-compliance from occurring in the future. Where the issue is not addressed through the CAPA process, Tusla will move into an enforcement process with the service in order to rectify the non-compliance. The enforcement process involves a number of measures which may escalate up to and including removal from the register and / or prosecution in the most serious cases.

Where a significant breach of the legislation is identified and where there is an immediate concern about the safety, health and/or welfare of children (e.g. evidence of Garda Vetting for a staff member is not on file), an Immediate Action Notice is issued to a Registered Provider. An Immediate Action Notice instructs a service to take a particular course of action which must be complied with in order to address a serious concern immediately or within a defined time period.

The Department’s funding schemes are only available to early learning and childcare services that are registered with Tusla. Where Tusla advises the Department that a service has been removed from the register as a result of enforcement action taken against the service, the Department will cease funding to that service.

With regards to breaches of a service’s contractual requirements for their insurance, this is a matter between the service and their insurance provider.