CSO Census Amendments

As members may recall, Early Childhood Ireland made a submission to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) about the next Census. We were pleased to receive confirmation earlier this month, that the CSO will pilot our suggested amendments to the Census in September of this year.

Although not directly related to the everyday practice of the education and care of young children, ECI wants to highlight to members this significant step for policy implementation and advocacy in the early years sector. Accurate data is vital to create evidence based policy and effectively evaluate the impact of policies. Increased availability of reliable data is especially important in the early years sector at this time, given the recent developments in the sector and future changes on the horizon such as the More Affordable Childcare Scheme.

ECI acknowledges that there are other sources of useful and accurate information already available on the early years sector (such as the Pobal Early Years Sector Profile and other CSO sources). Yet, ECI is delighted that the opportunity we have identified has been recognised: to utilise the obligatory and nationwide elements of the census, to gather data that will inform early years policy.

Our suggested changes will also ensure that early childhood education and care will be recognised as equal to other education institutions already monitored at national level in the census. It will also work to consolidate young children’s rights by ensuring data specific to children aged under 6 years are collected in the same way the census currently does for children aged over 6 years e.g. their place of school.

ECI anticipates the results of the Census pilot, in hope the changes we proposed will be successful and benefit our future policy and advocacy work. With more data available, on an equal platform to other education institutes, ECI will be better placed to fight for sustainability, affordability and quality in the early years education and care sector.

The Census Advisory Group will analyse the results of the pilot and the final content of the census will be published in early 2019 subject to Government approval.