Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Together for Better funding, the funding model for early learning and care (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC) - launched in September 2022 – includes the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), the National Childcare Scheme (NCS), Core Funding and Equal Start - all of which are open to eligible Tusla-registered ELC and SAC providers.

The ECCE programme is a universal programme, available free of charge to all children for up to two years before starting primary school, on a part-time basis (3 hours per day, 38 weeks per year), with uptake to the programme determined by a range of factors, including demographics and parental choice with regard to school starting age.

To help realise the universal ambition of the ECCE programme, AIM was introduced, providing both universal and targeted supports to facilitate access and participation of children with a disability in the ECCE programme. AIM was recently extended to ECCE-age children beyond time in the ECCE programme (in term and out), with plans to extend AIM further to children under 3 and to SAC.

The NCS complements the ECCE programme, providing subsidies to reduce the costs to parents for children to participate in Tusla-registered ELC outside the ECCE programme and in SAC – with the number of Tusla-registered providers set to increase through, inter alia, the regulation of childminders, paving the way for parents who use childminders to benefit from NCS subsidies. The NCS combines both universal and targeted measures including:

• A universal subsidy – currently €2.14 per hour – significantly reduces net costs for parents; and
• An income-assessed subsidy, which provides higher rates of subsidy to families with lower incomes.

The value of subsidies can vary by other factors, including the age of a child, the work study status of parents and by family size. In addition, for some families, the NCS provides free access to ELC and SAC. In particular, the scheme includes arrangements for specified target groups to receive free access, where referred by a sponsor body. There are currently five groups of children and families supported under the NCS sponsorship arrangements:

• Children who are homeless or whose families are moving out of homelessness.
• Children of asylum seekers and programme refugees.
• Where there is a referral by Tusla to support child welfare.
• Parents under the age of 18 who are still in education or training.
• Where there is a referral by the HSE for a child under the age of 4 where there is an identified need for ELC as an additional support to the home environment to meet child development needs.

Core Funding is a grant for ELC and SAC providers designed to support quality, sustainability, and enhanced public management, with associated conditions in relation to fee control and cost transparency, incorporating funding for administration and to support the employment of graduate staff. The majority of Core Funding is distributed to services via the base rate which is based on a service's staffed capacity that is the number of staff, the operating hours, opening weeks and the age group of children for whom services are provided as well as number of places available. A smaller share of Core Funding is distributed through a Graduate Premium to support the employment of graduate staff and targeted to measures (currently in place for small and sessional services).

And finally, Equal Start provides both universal and targeted measures to support access and participation of children from disadvantaged backgrounds in ELC and SAC, with initial roll-out of Equal Start underway to settings with a priority designation and children with a priority status (i.e. children living in a small area assigned as deprived under the Pobal HP Deprivation Index, children from a Traveller or Roma ethnic background, children availing of the NCS through a sponsor referral, children living in homeless accommodation, and children living in an International Protection Accommodation Centre or Emergency Orientation and Reception Centres).

The total allocation for Together for Better in 2025 will be €1.25bn. This represents are increase of 98% since 2022 and includes:

• €269.3m for the ECCE programme
• €80.9m for AIM
• €529.8m for the NCS
• €353.2m for Core Funding
• €17.2m for Equal Start.

In addition to this, €25 million is being made available this year to deliver additional capacity under the Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme. There are four strands under the scheme, Private - Extension, Community - Extension, Community - Purchase and Community - Construction. This grant is designed to support the delivery of full day provision for children aged 1-3.

Launched on 4 November 2024, this grant closed for applications on Thursday 30 January. All eligible applications are currently being appraised and I hope to announce the successful applications in the next month.

The Building Blocks Extension Grant scheme follows on from the Building Blocks Expansion Grant scheme which ran in 2024 and the Building Blocks Improvement Grant Scheme which operated in 2023.