Childhood Services Ireland seeks improvements to core funding for providers in Budget 2025

Childhood Services Ireland, the Ibec group representing early learning and care providers, has made its Budget 2025 submission to Government. The budget submission reflects a range of concerns among early learning and care providers, calling for improvements to core funding and/or the removal of the fee freeze.

Government recently announced the 2024-2025 core funding package for providers, which stakeholders have said is not enough to address the cost pressures they are facing. The reality facing providers is that the increases in this year’s core funding allocation are not enough to cover cost increases. Significantly, wages in the sector have gone up with no way to cover additional costs because of the fee freeze associated with core funding.

While the Government has recently announced a mechanism to allow providers to apply for fee increases, CSI members have little faith that this will alleviate their cost pressures. CSI’s budget submission aims to address the challenges facing providers with particular attention to:

1. Increased Investment in early learning and care to meet the UNICEF recommendation of 1% of GDP.
2. Core funding and fee freeze: an increase in core funding of 35%, the removal of the fee freeze or a combination of both.
3. Early Childhood Care and Education funding: increase the funding to reflect the lack of increases in the subvention since the beginning of the programme.
4. National Childcare Scheme: increase the NCS rates to cover 70% of the cost of childcare creating more parental choice.

Stephanie Roy, Childhood Services Ireland Director, said:

“If the Government is committed to building a future for Ireland it needs to start with an investment in Ireland’s youngest citizens. The need for meaningful partnership between Government and service providers has never been more apparent. The sector faces a unique scenario, where those impacted most by decisions made – children themselves – do not have a voice in the system. Collaboration between providers and Government on future focused policy is a necessity if we are to best serve the needs of children in Ireland. CSI has called on Government to invest 1% of GDP in early learning and care, as recommended by UNICEF. We know that this is the most critically developmental time in a child’s life and access to high quality early learning and care is key to long term success and positive outcomes across multiple domains.”

“We have called on Government to significantly increase core funding rates or remove the fee freeze entirely. Core funding was introduced to ensure quality and stability in the sector. Providers feel that their businesses are becoming less and less stable every year that they stay in core funding.”

“The Government claims that the workforce shortage is a result of wages and conditions. Many providers pay above Employment Regulation Order rates as it is. Yet, providers are left uncertain about whether they can give their staff further wage increases because they don’t know what the level of core funding will be year to year, and they cannot increase their fees accordingly. The Government has announced a mechanism for a potential fee increase without details on the criteria, they’ve given a maximum value for that increase and indicated increases will apply to those with a demonstrable need but no indication what that looks like. Ultimately, this is not creating confidence among our members. The requests in this budget submission are seen as a way to ensure quality and stability in the sector for years to come.”

ENDS