School Age Childcare Survey Results

In September, Early Childhood Ireland conducted a short survey to help us better understand the current challenges facing School Age Childcare providers, in order to inform and support our advocacy plans in this space.
 
The key results of the questionnaire are summarised below:

• 79% of respondents have experienced a decrease in the number of children attending their service since the COVID-19 closure.
• Two fifths of these services (40%) saw their numbers fall by as much as 30%.
• The primary reason for reduced numbers is that more parents are working from home, as a result of COVID-19 (76%).
• Staff numbers at 39% of school age services have decreased since the forced closure in March – in the majority of cases (87%), staff levels have dropped by up to 2 members per service.
• For 31% of the School Age Childcare services that are experiencing decreases in staff numbers, the primary reason is that employees are leaving in order to pursue a new career outside of the sector.
• Over a third of school age services (33%) are experiencing difficulties recruiting staff at present.
• 41% of services are also reporting ‘more challenging relationships with parents’ as a key issue at present, while almost a quarter (23%) say ‘post COVID-19 transport challenges’ are impacting on their service.

Early Childhood Ireland understands that the current operating environment is very difficult. We will leverage the findings of this survey in our ongoing national advocacy work, to support the sustainability of School Age Childcare into the future.