Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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517. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the steps he has taken to address the staffing crisis in the early years sector. [42190/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I acknowledge that many early learning and care (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC) services report staffing difficulties in relation to recruitment and retention. In general, staffing pressures in the sector are caused not by insufficient supply of qualified personnel, but by high levels of staff turnover.

Providers of ELC and SAC are private businesses. As the State does not employ staff in ELC and SAC services, neither I nor my Department can set wage levels or determine working conditions for staff in the sector.

However, there is now, through the independent Joint Labour Committee (JLC) process, a formal mechanism established by which employer and employee representatives can negotiate minimum pay rates for different roles in ELC and SAC services. In line with the provisions of the Industrial Relations Acts, the JLC is independent in its functions, and I do not have a role in its statutory processes.

The Employment Regulation Orders published last year were a significant milestone in efforts to improve pay in the sector. The Orders are being supported by Core Funding – which has an allocation of €259 million in its first year – to support amongst other things, improvements in staff wages, alongside a commitment to freeze parental fees and support for sustainability of services. As announced in Budget 2023, the Core Funding allocation will increase by €28 million for the second year. I understand that the JLC for Early Years Services is continuing to meet in relation to possible further increases in minimum rates of pay.

I am also committed to addressing other challenges which may impact on the recruitment and retention of staff in the sector. In line with commitments in First 5, in December 2021, I launched Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for ELC and SAC, 2022-2028. Nurturing Skills aims to strengthen the ongoing process of professionalisation for those working in ELC and SAC.

Nurturing Skills includes specific actions for moving to a graduate-led ELC workforce by 2028, establishing a career framework for staff working in the ELC and SAC sector, including role profiles and qualification requirements, and the strengthening of career pathways. Nurturing Skills also includes actions to support the recruitment and retention of staff with the necessary qualifications, and ongoing staff training and development, to create a workforce which feels valued and is motivated to deliver the best possible service to children.??

I am committed to supporting providers in responding to current staffing challenges. Over the coming weeks, a sub-group of the Early Learning and Childcare Stakeholder Forum will be convened to discuss current staffing pressures and additional measures that may be needed.

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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518. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of registered child minders delivering the ECCE curriculum per county. [42191/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Childminders must be registered with Tusla in order to offer the universal ECCE programme to children. Currently a large proportion of childminders are legally excluded from registration with Tusla, as a result of legal exemptions in the Child Care Act 1991, and therefore cannot offer the ECCE programme. The ECCE programme is restricted to children between the ages of 2 years 8 months at the start of the programme year and 5 years 6 months at the end of the two years. Tusla-registered childminders who are currently minding five preschool children can provide the ECCE programme, while all Tusla-registered childminders can also take part in the National Childcare Scheme. As of September 2023, 25 childminders are in contract to deliver the ECCE preschool programme. The numbers are shown, broken down by county in the table.

The National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028 sets out a plan for extending State support and regulation to all paid, non-relative childminders on a phased basis, with accelerated access to subsidies for families who use childminders through the National Childcare Scheme.

The National Action Plan sets out a phased approach with a preparatory phase followed by an extended transition phase, to allow childminders a lead-in time for any requirements. This supportive, phased transition process aims to facilitate the largest possible number of childminders to enter the regulated sector, the sphere of quality assurance, and access to Government subsidies, while recognising the time and supports required for this reform.

Phase 1, which began in 2021 and is expected to take 3 years to complete, includes developing new regulations and training that are specific to childminding and amending the Child Care Act 1991 to remove the exemption to registration for childminders.

Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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519. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to clarify the steps he has taken to prevent further strike action from members of an organisation (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42240/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I expressed my disappointment that the FECP chose to pursue the action of requesting early learning and childcare providers to close from 26-28 September. I understand the FECP was the onlyrepresentative organisation supporting this action.

The three day closure of services was unwarranted at a time when investment by the State in early learning and childcare is at an all-time high, having increased by 60% in the last two years alone and with a clear Government commitment that it will continue to increase.

The FECP in a recent report identified a range of demands, including an increase in investment, an increase in ECCE capitation to €100 per child per week, a lifting of fee management conditions that are in place and the introduction of optional extras under the ECCE programme.

My position on each of these recommendations is clear:

• There is a commitment to continued investment in early learning and childcare in this upcoming Budget, that will build on the unprecedented increases in public funding for the sector secured in the last number of years, with the First 5 investment target of €1 billion by 2028 exceeded this year – five years ahead of time.
• Through ECCE capitation and Core Funding combined, services receive a minimum of €79.20 per child per week and a maximum of €95.85 with additional funding for graduate lead educators and graduate managers and sessional only services will also receive an additional sessional only flat rate of €4075.
• The €287 million Core Funding scheme allows for substantial increases in the total cost base for the sector, related both to pay and non-pay costs thereby creating the conditions to introduce fee management. It is reasonable and justifiable that on receipt of Core Funding, services must agree not to increase their fees given the level of funding available.
• Introducing scope for additional optional extras or voluntary contributions under the ECCE programme risks parents incurring additional charges for a universal service which is designed and intended to be free at the point of use and available to all families, regardless of ability to pay.

Together for Better brings together three major programmes, the ECCE programme, including the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), the NCS and the Core Funding scheme.

The primary purposes of Core Funding is to improve pay and conditions in the sector as a whole and improve affordability for parents as well as ensuring a stable income to all early learning and childcare providers.

For year 1 of the new Core Funding scheme, €259m was made available. For year 2 of this scheme, €287m is being made available. The additional €28 million – equivalent to 11% increase - is being allocated as follows:

• €8.47m for a 3% growth in capacity.
• €6.11m for non-staff overheads.
• €2.2m for administrative staff time.
• €4m for graduate premiums
• €7.22m for new targeted measures aimed at improving the sustainability of sessional services.

To date, 91% or over 4,000 providers have signed up for Core Funding Year 2 with applications still open.

Participation in Core Funding is optional but it is open to all registered providers subject to their agreement to the terms and conditions of the funding.

Moreover, the overwhelming majority of services benefit substantially from higher funding under Core Funding, supporting their sustainability. The Department, Pobal and the CCCs continue to closely monitor trends concerning services entering case management and will continue to maintain the availability of Sustainability Funding for individual services at risk.

Closure days that are not notified on a services calendar will not be payable. The Pobal Compliance, Audit and Risk team will therefore recoup exchequer funding, on behalf of my Department, from services that protest outside the rules of the schemes that they have signed up to.

The service by protesting and not providing 20 days’ notification of their intention to close and mark an alternative open day is in breach of their contract for the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) and Community Childcare Subvention Plus Saver (CCSP Saver) programme. Under the ECCE Programme, for instance, services that close to protest without calendar notification and without inserting, at the time of notification, an alternative days’ provision will see a financial recoupment if they are found during a compliance visit not to have attendance records for the closure day.

If the Pobal Compliance, Audit and Risk team find a ECCE/CCSP provider not to have calendared a closure and to have no attendance records on a day they appeared open on their calendar then that service will be deemed non-compliant and have their funding recouped. This team conducts c. 1,100 visits to services in a Programme year.

Under the National Childcare Scheme (NCS), services with no attendance on a protest day will be marked as ‘closed’. If the services reaches more than the allowed 10 paid closure days for the programme year under the NCS rules, they will not be paid beyond the 10th day.

This compliance approach emphasises the Department’s view that these unsanctioned protests are not warranted.