First 5 – Information for Parents [Updated December 14th 2021]

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Guidance during COVID-19

Information for Parents [Updated December 14th 2021]

This section provides helpful information and guidance for parents on children in settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) services operate during COVID-19, it is important for babies, toddlers and young children that child-centredness continues to be a basis for how we develop our response for children. When all the child’s most important adults—parents and practitioners—work together, going to childcare can be a positive experience for everyone.

Everyone will need to remain vigilant and continue to follow Public Health guidance.

https://first5.gov.ie/guidance/parents

 

Minister O’Gorman`s message of appreciation to all Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare educators and practitioners.

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Click in below for Minister O’Gorman`s message of appreciation to all Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare educators and practitioners.

https://youtu.be/13UUMFvqMko

Covid-19 Support Helpline for ELC and SAC Providers – 1800 940341

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A reminder of the Covid-19 Support Helpline for ELC and SAC Providers – 1800 940341 is available from 10am – 1pm & 1.30pm – 4pm at the weekend only.

Please also make note of the Covid support helpline times for over the festive period.

Storm Barra Update from DCEDIY 08/12/2021 15:49

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Storm Barra Update

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is advising that all ELC and SAC services throughout the country will open tomorrow (9 December) as usual.​

Further Update on Storm Barra 22:32 07/12/2021

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22:32

Further to the update issued to the sector this evening, Dublin has now been upgraded to Status Orange. As referenced in the earlier update, all early learning and childcare in Status Orange and Status Red areas will remain closed tomorrow, Wednesday 8 December. This update now applies to early learning and childcare services in Dublin.

DCEDIY

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19:02 07/12/2021

The Department of Children Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is advising that all early learning and care and school age childcare services that are currently or forecast to be in a Red or Orange alert area should remain closed tomorrow, 8th December. This will allow for assessment of the impact of Storm Barra to take place. Services located in the areas subject to the red or orange alerts are not required to apply for force majeure.

 

This includes counties Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cork, Kerry, Waterford, Limerick, Clare, Galway, Mayo and Wexford.

 

Early learning and care and school age childcare services who are no longer in a Red or Orange Alert area can reopen provided, if there are concerns, managers have had an opportunity to check for fallen wires and other serious damage in the vicinity of their service.  If an individual service (in a yellow area) is still experiencing a particular local issue relating to the storm and cannot open, they can apply for Force Majeure funding.

 

All services should keep up-to-date with the current weather warnings which are carried on all national and local news bulletins and in particular any change in the status warning for their area.

 

DCEDIY

Press Release Minister O’Gorman launches Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare (2022 – 2028)

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The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, T.D., today launched Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare, 2022-2028. Nurturing Skills aims to strengthen the ongoing process of professionalisation for those working in early learning and care (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC).

Early Years Educators, School-Age Childcare Practitioners and childminders play a key role in supporting children’s development and well-being, working in partnership with families. Recognising their central importance for the quality of ELC and SAC, Nurturing Skills aims to support the professional development of the workforce and raise the profile of careers in the sector.

Nurturing Skills sets out actions to achieve workforce commitments in First 5, the Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families, including:

  • Achieving a graduate-led workforce in ELC by 2028, with new financial supports to assist Early Years Educators to study while continuing to work in the sector;
  • Supporting School-Age Childcare Practitioners to meet new qualification requirements that will be introduced incrementally over the coming years;
  • Development of a career framework and strengthening career pathways, including new supports for leadership development;
  • Building a national infrastructure for Continuing Professional Development for the sector; and
  • Supporting staff recruitment, retention and diversity in the workforce.

Across ELC, SAC and childminding, the sector has a total workforce of more than 45,000, and each year several thousand students qualify to work in the sector. The national infrastructure and wider resources for Continuing Professional Development are expected to bring benefits right across the workforce. In addition, over the next 7 years, new financial supports will enable more than 5,000 Early Years Educators and 4,000 School-Age Childcare Practitioners to study for qualifications while continuing to work.

Actions in Nurturing Skills to develop career pathways, promote careers in the sector and support staff recruitment will complement efforts under way to improve pay and conditions of employment in the sector. In particular, a key enabler for the Workforce Plan will be the Joint Labour Committee for Early Years Services, which was recently established following a process begun in December 2020 by Minister O’Gorman.

Likewise, the new Core Funding stream announced in Budget 2022, will support service providers to meet higher costs arising from pay increases and from staff participation in training and professional development activities, without raising fees for parents.

Speaking at the launch, Minister O’Gorman said:

“It gives me great pleasure to publish Nurturing Skills. Through the new and enhanced supports it makes available, I am confident that this Workforce Plan will be a turning-point in the professional development of Early Years Educators and School-Age Childcare Practitioners and also in the recognition of the profession’s importance in supporting children’s development, learning and well-being.”

Nurturing Skills aims to build on the significant progress already made in raising skill levels across the workforce. New 2021 data released for the first time in the Workforce Plan indicates that the proportion of Early Years Educators with a relevant qualification at level 7 or higher on the National Framework of Qualifications has risen from 12% in 2012 to 34% in 2021, thus surpassing the 30% interim target for 2021 that was set in First 5. Nurturing Skills aims to increase this proportion to at least 50% by 2028. At the same time, it aims to increase the proportion of Early Years Educators with at least a level 6 qualification from 72% in 2021 to 85% in 2028.

The development of Nurturing Skills was informed by an OECD Country Policy Review of Early Childhood Education and Care in Ireland, which was conducted in parallel. The OECD Review, which was published on 2 December, found that Ireland is pursuing a strong policy agenda for early learning and care, and included a series of workforce-related recommendations that are reflected in commitments in Nurturing Skills.

An information webinar on this report, and Partnership for the Public Good, A New Funding Model for the Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare Sector, 2022-2028, will be made available to the sector later today, providing a detailed overview of both reports.

 

Press release Minister O’Gorman launches major reform of funding for early learning and childcare following Report of Expert Group

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Published on 7 December 2021

Minister Roderic O’Gorman has today (07 December) announced major reforms to the funding model for early learning and childcare services. The changes will see services increasingly publicly funded and publicly managed, delivering a service for the public good, through a partnership between the State and providers.

The reforms are on foot of an Expert Group report, which was approved by Government and published earlier today.

The Expert Group, established in 2019, was compromised of national and international experts, and was independently chaired by Michael Scanlan. Its report, Partnership for the Public Good, proposes a new approach to State funding of the sector in future. It recommends:

  • A new additional funding stream for the sector, Core Funding, to support quality of provision, improved pay and conditions for staff, management of parental fees and sustainability of services
  • Universal and targeted Tackling Disadvantage funding and support, building on Core Funding. The universal strand will be informed by the universal elements of the Access and Inclusion Model, and the targeted strand informed by the DEIS model in schools
  • Continued provision of the universal Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme and the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) with enhancements
  • An expanded role for the State in managing and supporting supply, quality, accessibility, and affordability

The Expert Group’s vision is that the sector is increasingly publicly funded and publicly managed, delivering a service for the public good, through a partnership between the State and providers, to the benefit of children, parents, practitioners and society overall. The new funding model is intended, over time, to deliver transformational change including quality improvements to services, better pay and conditions for staff, tackling disadvantage, improved affordability for parents, better management of supply to meet demand, and support for provider sustainability. The new funding model can be applied to small and large service providers of both early learning and care (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC), to voluntary providers, sole traders, and for-profit chains, to existing and new providers. The recommendations are designed to contribute to achieving the overarching policy goals of public investment in ELC and SAC to support child well-being and development, parental labour market participation and social inclusion.

One of the particularly innovative and exciting elements of the new funding model is the introduction of Core Funding. Core Funding is key to unlocking some of the most challenging issues in the current funding system and offers a new basis on which to build partnership between the State and providers. Core Funding will support the establishment of an Employment Regulation Order to improve pay and conditions in the sector, ensure stability and sustainability for services, improve quality of provision, and enable parental fees to be controlled so that the full affordability benefits of the ECCE programme and NCS can be realised. In return for Core Funding providers will agree to working to achieve these policy outcomes.

Core Funding, and its associated conditionality, enables a shift away from the marketisation of service delivery and towards partnership model, with responsibilities and benefits for both the State and providers. The Expert Group recognised the huge potential for change can be achieved through greater public management of the existing model of delivery.

Welcoming the report, Minister O’Gorman said:

“Today’s announcement marks a new departure for the approach of the State in the funding of early learning and childcare, and significant step towards ensuring high-quality, affordable and accessible services.

“I am delighted that Government has today accepted the recommendations of this important report, and I look forward to overseeing their implementation.

“The overarching theme of the report is about Partnership for the Public Good. It clearly and unequivocally recognises the public good dimension of Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare – for children, for families and for society and the economy more widely. These are crucial services and the State has a strong interest in ensuring they are high quality, affordable, inclusive and sustainable. And this has to be achieved through a relationship of partnership, with providers and the State working together for the public good.”

Michael Scanlan, the Chair of the Expert Group, said:

“The State has a responsibility to support and guide this sector so that it improves child wellbeing and development, supports parental (largely maternal) employment choices, and enhances social inclusion. The Expert Group’s recommendations, combined with the required increase in State investment, can transform the sector over time and help it to achieve these important goals.

“In particular, Core Funding (a new supply-side funding mechanism) is the best way within the current system to support improved employee pay and conditions and other quality improvement measures, to give greater financial stability to service providers, to deliver greater price certainty for parents through appropriate fee management arrangements, and to underpin an enhanced public management and support role for the State.”

Informed by emerging recommendations of the Expert Group, Budget 2022 announced a transformative and ground-breaking package of measures to begin to implement the vision set out in the report. €78 million is being made available to enable this in 2022, including €69 million for a Core Funding stream, equivalent to €207 million in a full year.

First 5: A Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families 2019-2028, committed to increasing State funding to the sector to approximately €1 billion by 2028. The introduction of Core Funding and other Budget 2022 measures are the start of a multi-annual programme of investment to substantially increase public funding for ELC and SAC and to develop a partnership with the sector for the public good.

The Minister thanked the members of the Expert Group for their extensive work over more than two years on this important project. He also noted his appreciation for all of those who participated in the stakeholder consultation, including parents, providers, and practitioners and acknowledged the extent to which these contributions had shaped the report. He also thanked the Frontier Economics, who undertook research on national and international comparisons on behalf of the group, the ESRI, Pobal and officials across a number of Departments who contributed to the project.

An information webinar on this report, and Nurturing Skills, the Workforce Plan for the Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare Sector, 2022-2028, will be made available to the sector later today, providing a detailed overview of both reports.