Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 April 2023
1233. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth his views on the fact that under the new national childcare scheme, the capitation rate paid to services with level 8 graduates is far reduced from previous years; and if he has plans to review this situation in order to encourage the highest level of training possible within childcare settings. [17019/23]
View answerIn September, I launched Together for Better, an ambitious new funding model to support 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 brings together three major programmes, 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 which I believe the Deputy is referring to.
Core Funding has a budget of €259 million in full year costs for year 1 of the programme (September 2022-August 2023) to start the partnership for the public good between the State and providers. The scheme is designed to support a range of objectives, including supporting the new minimum rates of pay for different roles in the sector, as well as supporting career pathways and graduate employment. Core Funding includes Graduate Premiums to incentivise the employment of graduates as Lead Educators across ELC and as Managers in ELC or combined ELC and SAC services.
For the programme year 2022/2023, services that deliver the ECCE programme will receive standard capitation in respect of registered children and will have the option to also avail of Core Funding.
ECCE provides funding on the basis of registered children at the rate of €69 per child per week. Services can have up to 11 children per one staff member in line with the statutory regulations for this type of provision.
Core Funding provides funding based on a service's capacity (opening hours, number of places and age group of children), and graduate premiums for lead educators and managers. Base rate allocations for capacity at the sessional pre-school rate offers €0.65 per child place per hour and the graduate lead educator premium allocation is €4.44 per hour. Core Funding is paid based on child places, whether or not those places are filled.
Core Funding operates in addition to and alongside ECCE, AIM, CCSP and NCS. It replaces the approach to paying for graduate lead educators through ECCE that operated under the previous funding model (higher capitation) and incorporates funding previously allocated to the discretionary Programme Support Payments (PSP) from September 2022. These developments allocate funding more fairly in respect of graduates and administration.
The change in approach to funding ELC Graduates is underpinned by the recommendations of an Expert Group, outlined in their report Partnership for the Public Good, and approved by Government in December 2021. The Expert Group noted that the higher capitation payment has diverted graduates away from non-ECCE provision, despite the importance of high-quality provision for under-3s. The Expert Group also reference a Focused Policy Assessment of higher capitation, which noted a difficulty in ensuring that the additional payment was passed on to educators.
Funding for ELC Graduates is now one element of a larger funding model, and is underpinned by Employment Regulation Orders setting minimum rates of pay in the sector, including differential pay rates for graduates in leadership roles. This will ensure that educators and managers with degrees will feel the benefits of the graduate premium payment being made to services.
I would like to clarify that, while the Higher Capitation and PSP have been subsumed into Core Funding, no service loses out under Core Funding. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of providers substantially benefit financially from Core Funding.
Services whose ECCE sessions did not have a graduate lead educator in 2021/22 will see capitation increase by at least 9.5% through the Core Funding base rate. This is before any potential Graduate Manager Premium is awarded to the service, which is worth an additional €2,530.80 for one ECCE session. In addition, any provision offered outside of the 15 ECCE hours per week will further increase Core Funding income to the service.
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 percentage of services will see no increase. These are larger ECCE-only services – with 20+ children in a session. In 2021/2022, ECCE sessional services with 22 children received income of €1,829.30 per week under ECCE higher capitation and PSP. This is being matched in Core Funding. I have issued a Funding Guarantee in order to ensure that no service will see a decrease in funding. Very few services require this Funding Guarantee.
A full comparison of income under the previous funding model (ECCE standard/higher capitation plus PSP) and the new funding model (ECCE standard capitation plus Core Funding) is published online at www.first5fundingmodel.gov.ie/core-funding/.
In Budget 2023, an additional €28 million was secured to increase the Core Funding allocation to €287 million for Year 2 of the Scheme. I have committed €4 million of that additional allocation in Year 2 to remove the 3-year experience rule for graduate premiums (subject to an amendment to the EROs) with the remaining €24 million to introduce other developments to the Scheme. Further interrogation of the new Core Funding application data is required in order to most effectively design developments in Year 2 of the scheme.
Budget 2023 allocates €1,025m to early learning and childcare – a clear demonstration from Government of the value of the sector. I am committed to working with Partner Services delivering early learning and childcare for the public good.
