Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 September 2023
855. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of children benefiting from the core funding payment for childcare; their distribution, by age, and by hours delivered; and the number of children in classrooms led by graduate leaders. [40349/23]
View answerCore Funding funds capacity (child places permitted) as per the Tusla Register, once that capacity is staffed appropriately, the Department's Core Funding data does not capture if the places are subsequently filled or not.
Core Funding is based on operating hours per week, operating weeks per year, number of places offered by services, and the age group of children for whom the places are offered, given the staffing requirements determined by the regulatory ratios for different care categories, as well as allocations for graduate leaders in services. Structuring Core Funding primarily based on capacity means that Partner Services have an allocation each year that does not fluctuate in line with children’s attendance.
Therefore data can be provided on capacity, at the peak of uptake for year 1 of Core Funding (June 2023), 283.35 million place hours were reported in Core Funding applications. Place hours account for hours offered to all children in Partner Services. These hours were distributed amongst the different age groups as follows:
|
0 to 1 year olds |
7,426,316.44 |
|
1 to 2 year olds |
30,323,811.71 |
|
2 to 3 year olds |
41,616,871.39 |
|
1 to 2.5 year olds |
1,026,239.04 |
|
3 to 6 year olds |
67,226,571.37 |
|
2.5 to 6 year olds |
65,836,403.37 |
|
SAC (4-15 years old) |
69,894,351.92 |
|
Total |
283,350,565.2 |
At that point in time, there were 2,117 Graduate Managers and 4,525 Graduate Lead Educators reported in Partner Services, attracting premiums for 2,973,831.10 annual hours and 7,586,268.50 annual hours respectively.
