Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 31 May 2023
148. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the supports available for early childhood education and care services who are experiencing sustainability issues; and the steps a service can take to access these supports. [26581/23]
View answer152. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of early childhood education and care services that have raised viability concerns with the Dublin city childcare committee in the years 2020 to 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26585/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 148 and 152 together.
In instances where a service has concerns about their sustainability, the first step in obtaining support is for the service to reach out to their local City and County Childcare Committee (CCC).
Once a services engages with their local CCC they will be able to avail of supports through the case management process. My Department oversees this process through which local CCC’s and Pobal work together to assess and provide support to ELC and SAC services experiencing difficulties. This support can take the form of assisting services with interpreting analysis of staff ratios and cash flow, as well as more specialised advice and support appropriate to individual circumstances. In some instances, financial supports may be deemed appropriate in tandem with the case management process.
As a new development to the suite of supports available, a further stand of sustainability funding is now available to Core Funding Partner Services, both community and private, who are experiencing financial difficulty. As with previous strands of the Sustainability Fund, it focuses on the provision of operational as well as short term financial supports where appropriate, and will assist services in managing their immediate financial difficulties, providing advice to support their long term sustainability, while transitioning to a more sustainable model of service delivery.
My 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. If any service has sustainability concerns, I would encourage them to reach out to their local CCC to start availing of supports through the aforementioned case management process.
