Number of Early Learning & Care service openings at five year high, closures at lowest level for five years – new data confirms
From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
The latest data on service closures and new service registrations, drawn from the Tusla register at end August 2024 shows:
• a five-year low in the number of net ELC services closures, such as crèches and pre-schools (i.e. 12 net closures January-August 2024 compared to 38 net closures in 2023, 80 net closures in 2022, 62 net closures in 2021 and 77 net closures in 2020 for the same time period)
• a five-year high in the number of ELC service openings (i.e., 64 new services opened in January-August 2024 compared to 48 in 2023, 33 in 2022, 44 in 2021, and 53 in 2020 for the same time period).
• a net increase of 173 standalone SAC services (after-school childcare) year to date (at end August);
• a net increase of 161 in the overall number of ELC and SAC services year to date (at end August).
These services are required by law to register with Tusla. Registered providers are required
to notify Tusla in writing of the closure of a service not later than 28 days after the closure. The register is updated monthly.
In total, at the end of August 2024 there were 5,043 ELC and standalone SAC services registered with Tusla.
Commenting on this latest data, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Roderic O’Gorman said:
“Ensuring access to affordable, high quality places in ELC and SAC is a Government priority. I am
encouraged to see an increase in the overall number of ELC and standalone SAC services nationally, and a continuing fall in the number of net ELC service closures this year so far.
“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% and, I have secured additional investment in Core Funding for year 3 of the scheme, which provides for further increases in capacity, of almost 6%.”
This latest data from the register of services show the annual trend of a decline in net ELC service
closures nationally are continuing. In 2023, there were 115 ELC service closures notified to Tusla and 86 new ELC service registrations (i.e. 29 net closures) compared with 141 ELC service closures notified to Tusla and 83 new ELC service registrations (i.e. 58 net closures) in 2022, 141 ELC service closures and 65 new ELC service registrations in 2021 (i.e. 76 net closures), and 197 ELC service closures and 91 ELC new service registrations in 2020 (106 net closures).
While SAC services registration only commenced in 2020, there has been 846 standalone SAC registrations since then compared to 148 closures of standalone SAC services.
Net closures of services do not necessarily imply a reduction in capacity in the sector, as open services may be expanding capacity at the same time. In its first year of operation, Core Funding provided evidence of increased capacity of 7.4%, with analysis showing the increased capacity was the type of capacity that is in highest demand relative to supply (i.e. more toddler places as well as school-age places). Additional investment in Core Funding for year 3 of the scheme provides for further increases in capacity, of almost 6%. 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 and the estimated number of staff in the early learning and childcare workforce rose by 8% from 34,357 to 37,060.
Where services have chosen to close, the reasons given by providers for closures are diverse. While some services have closed for financial reasons, many have closed for other reasons such as retirement of the owner or manager.
“ELC services” are services that provide early learning and care for children of pre-school age. Some ELC services provide both ELC and SAC, either before/after school or during school holidays.
“Standalone SAC” services are services that only provide SAC.
The total number of services registered with Tusla is the number of ELC services plus the number of standalone SAC services.
At the end of August 2024, there were 5,043 ELC and standalone SAC services:
• 4,028 ELC services, of which 1,684 provide both ELC and SAC.
• 1,015 standalone SAC services.
Reasons for closures vary and services can provide a number of reasons for closure. Of the ELC services that closed in 2024 to date, the top five reasons for closure were ‘financial viability’ (35); ‘retirement’ (19); administrative burden (17); ‘school room taken back’ (9) and ‘unable to source staff’ (7). Please note the following caveats for this data:
1. The reasons given for closures are all ‘self-declared’ by the provider and collated from the cessations forms they submitted to Tusla. This information is not formally verified by Tusla.
2. A provider may have listed more than one reason for closure and is not required to give a reason.
- Source: Tusla register of Early Years Services and Tusla register of School-Aged Services