Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 November 2024
399. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if urgent consideration will be given to addressing the shortage of childcare places, particularly for younger children and pre-ECCE recipients, in view of the widespread concern of parents who may wish to return to work and are unable to do so because of the lack of such places; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45975/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraImproving access to quality and affordable early learning and childcare is a key priority of Government.
Data available to my Department demonstrates that, overall, early learning and childcare provision is expanding in terms of number of services opening, the number of places and hours of provision that services are offering, the numbers of staff employed and the numbers of parents supported through various schemes and initiatives.
• Data from the Early Years Sector Profile Survey shows that, between 2021/22 and 2022/23, the estimated number of enrolments in services rose by 8% from 197,210 to 213,154.
• Core Funding application data shows that between Year 1 (from September 2022-August 2023) and Year 2 (from September 2023-August 2024) of the scheme, annual place hours increased by 7.4%.
• Data from Tusla on service closures and new service registrations shows a net increase of 129 in the overall number of services in 2023 and a five-year low in the number of net ELC services closures – with pre-school service closures falling by 18% in the first year of Core Funding.
• Data from the Early Years Sector Profile Survey showing that, between 2021/22 and 2022/23, the estimated number of staff in the early learning and childcare workforce rose by 8% from 34,357 to 37,060.
• Data from the National Childcare Scheme showing that since 2022, there has been a 22 per cent increase in the number of providers offering the Scheme, a 100 per cent increase in the numbers of children benefitting from the Scheme and a 52 per cent increase in the number of sponsored children.
Notwithstanding the significant increase in provision, there is also evidence of some parents having difficulty in finding the type of provision that they would like for their children, particularly younger children. This is likely at least partly driven by the major progress that has been achieved in relation to affordability of provision over recent years with the introduction and extension of the National Childcare Scheme subsidies and the establishment of the fee freeze through Core Funding.
At the same time, there are also instances of underutilisation of capacity with some services reporting vacant places and others not operating to the maximum of their Tusla capacity.
This year, I established a Supply Management Unit within the Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare Division of my Department. A key part of the Supply Management Unit’s remit is to develop capacity for monitoring, analysing and forecasting of supply and demand in the sector.
The development of a forward planning model is currently underway utilising the expertise of statisticians on secondment from the Central Statistics Office and an early learning and childcare expert from a County Childcare Committee working with the Department and a GIS mapper. The model will seek to identify the nature and volume of different types of early learning and childcare places across the country, whether or not those places are occupied and how that aligns with the numbers of children in the corresponding age cohorts at local area level.
In addition to developing this forward planning model, the Supply Management Unit oversees the administration of capital investment under the revised NDP. Some €89 million has been allocated to my Department between 2023 and 2026 for capital funding.
The primary focus of the Building Blocks Capacity Grant Schemes is to increase capacity in the 1-3 year old, pre-ECCE, age range for full day care. I recently announced the launch of the €25m Building Blocks Extension Grant scheme for early learning and childcare providers. The Building Blocks Extension Scheme will deliver additional capacity by supporting existing early learning and childcare Core Funding partner services to extend their premises. It will also allow community services to purchase or construct new premises.
All projects will be required to deliver net increases in full-time places for one to three-year-olds. The application process will open in November 2024, with funding to be available from 2025. I anticipate that this scheme will deliver thousands of new full time places for 1-3 year olds.
More widely, the overall funding model is designed to support quality provision across the full age range for ELC. In particular, Core Funding was intentionally designed to address some of the pre-existing disparities in funding levels across ECCE and non-ECCE provision. Higher levels of funding are available for capacity for younger children, to support the higher operating costs for these children arising from the higher staff ratio requirements. In addition, Core Funding includes a graduate premium to support employment of graduates with a relevant degree at level 7 or above into leadership roles. This aspect of Core Funding encourages employment of graduates as Lead Educators across all ELC.
