Response to ACP Walkout

Early Childhood Ireland has received queries from members about the ‘Walk out’ action which is due to take place on 27 October.

Early Childhood Ireland is extremely concerned about the poor pay and conditions of Early Years Educators, which is allied to the chronic underfunding of the early childhood care and education sector. The impact of the pay and conditions crisis on the lives of educators, the quality of experience for children in settings and the ability of services to recruit and retain staff was central to our Budget 2018 submission which made the following proposals:

• Create a new permanent and comprehensive professionalisation fund to support early years educators to access further education and training in early childhood care and education (ECE) that incorporates and builds on the existing ‘Learner Fund’ model and caters for all levels (level 5-level 9); undertake pedagogical leadership; engage in 35 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) that is linked to a recognised credit system, each year;
• In the short term, increased State capitation and subsidies should be accompanied by a ring-fencing mechanism to improve staff pay, provide for holiday pay and non-contact time for core staff;
• In the medium term, develop an Early Education and Care Workforce and Professionalisation Plan and a nationally agreed pay scale for the early years workforce in conjunction with the sector.

Early Childhood Ireland expects that progress can and will be made on pay and conditions in the sector. We are committed to working with our members, early years staff and Government to bring about proper remuneration through a nationally agreed pay scale or indeed the often mentioned ‘Sectoral Employment Order’.

Early Childhood Ireland does not believe the planned ‘Walkout’ being organised on 27th October is a constructive or effective way of highlighting these very serious issues. We have the following concerns:

• The impact on children and their families in services which may be forced to close early;
• Without official Union backing, staff will be without essential legal protection and may leave themselves open to a loss of pay and/or disciplinary action;
• There is no sense of the numbers of staff intending to participate in the proposed walk-out or the numbers of Providers supporting such action by their staff, or who may be affected, meaning it is difficult to offer clear advice to providers about how they might in turn advise parents;
• This means it will be the decision of individual services how they respond to any action taken, leaving providers in a difficult and vulnerable position, on this vital and sensitive issue.

Early Childhood Ireland was not consulted about this action, nor was our support sought, in advance of this planned action appearing on social media.

As the largest membership organisation in the sector, Early Childhood Ireland will continue, through our policy work and our media presence, to highlight the serious and ongoing staffing crisis and the lack of appropriate funding in the early years sector. We are also willing to work with other stakeholders on initiatives which promote a greater understanding of the threats to sustainability of the sector and which offer solutions which address those pressures. We understand the importance of coming together as a sector to address these issues. On this occasion, however, we do not believe that the planned action is an effective way to highlight and gain widespread support for these issues.