Warning issued by Early Childhood Ireland

Quality and availability of childcare will drop if Government doesn’t act fast to address the crisis of sustainability due to continued State underfunding, low pay rates and problems with recruitment and retention of childcare professionals

 

–       Warning issued by Early Childhood Ireland in new report on the real cost of providing childcare in Ireland

 

According to Early Childhood Ireland the childcare sector in Ireland has hit a crisis of sustainability due to continued underfunding by the State.  It says that childcare proposals under consideration for the next budget can’t address affordability for parents, without also addressing sustainability for operators and quality assurance for children.

 

According to Teresa Heeney CEO of Early Childhood Ireland:  “It is crazy for Government to be considering introducing a new scheme without at the same time addressing the existing crisis that threatens the quality of children’s experience of childcare.  Right now many childcare providers cannot recruit and keep good staff, and are just about keeping themselves afloat.  Without suitably qualified and experienced staff, the quality of childcare is threatened. Parents rightly want their children to be cared for by staff that build relationships with their children over time.  However, at the moment, childcare operators, due to staffing challenges, will find themselves having to reduce the services that parents need, at the very time that Government wants the sector to expand.  

 

“The negative impact of inadequate state subsidies in maintaining the low pay in the sector must be recognised and tackled, otherwise we won’t have a sector to implement the new childcare scheme under consideration. This government must base subsidies on a realistic assessment of the cost of providing quality childcare, and the financial viability and sustainability of childcare providers needs to be a key concern of policy makers.  That means that Government must address the structural deficiencies in the current funding model, whereby low state subsidies lead to instability. Furthermore, the levels of subsidy underlying the design of the Single Affordable Childcare Scheme, currently on the cabinet table, as well as the existing ‘free preschool’ (ECCE) programme, must be based on a realistic assessment of the cost of providing quality childcare.”

 

In a report to be published later this week by Early Childhood Ireland on the real cost of providing childcare in Ireland, it warns that:

 

• The average childcare service in Ireland, whether private or community run, urban or rural, operates on a breakeven basis.   
• Salaries and wages are, by far, the most significant costs facing a childcare service on a daily basis. The wage bill for larger childcare services can reach up to 80% of total operational costs.  
• The actual hourly wages being paid to staff are markedly low, with many of those working within the sector earning less than the living wage, including those with a degree (level 7 qualification).  
• A large number of staff employed within the childcare sector are on part-time and/or 38-week contracts and sign on the dole over the summer months.  
• The difficulties faced by providers in the sustainable delivery of services for under 3’s has pushed many towards the ECCE-only model (free preschool scheme-only) and there are real issues of capacity across the sector, especially so for places for children under the age of 3.
• The extended ECCE scheme, which started this month, is proving too difficult for many to deliver due to recruitment and retention issues.  In the words of one provider “we cannot afford to run our ECCE with the new requirements… We struggle as it is to pay wages at €9.50 per hour, qualified staff are harder to attract and to put on a second ECCE year means we need more qualified staff.”