Childcare strategy unlikely to be introduced before 2025
Four years on from an Executive commitment to the establishment of a childcare strategy, the Department of Education has stated that a new £25 million funding package for expansion of the provision of childcare will “build the evidence base necessary to inform the longer-term early learning and childcare strategy”.
The investment in childcare, the Department asserts, demonstrates that, “despite an extremely challenging budget position, the Executive remains committed to making support for young children, their families and the services they rely on, a top priority”.
Two weeks after the scheme opened, the Department of Education announced that 10,000 children had been registered, however, the measure falls short of the introduction of a wider childcare strategy which has previously been outlined as an objective for the Department.
Northern Ireland has, for almost a decade, been the only region in the UK or Ireland without a childcare strategy. In that time, failure to legislate for targeted investment in the childcare sector has meant not only rising costs for parents but also for childcare providers.
Calls for a childcare strategy are longstanding. In June 2019, a report by Employers for Childcare found that working mothers are “more likely to experience a change in their working hours as a result of issues relating to childcare” and that almost 20 per cent of mothers reported having decreased their hours of work, or having left work altogether, compared to 6 per cent of fathers.
On 7 September 2022, the then Minister of Education Michelle McIlveen MLA made a written ministerial statement outlining her intention to standardise the pre-school reduction programme to full-time (22.5 hours) for all children aged between three and four and to “set out the direction of travel for a new Early Learning and Childcare Strategy”.
McIlveen stated at the time that it was her “intention that costed options will be ready for consideration by March 2023”.
The then-minister described the Executive’s commitment to 22.5 hours of funded childcare as “an important first step towards a full early learning and childcare strategy”. The Executive has failed to match the ambition set out by the former minister McIlveen.
In response to questions from agendaNi, a spokesperson for the Department of Education said that the development of an early learning and childcare strategy is “a priority for his [Minister Paul Givan MLA] department”, and described the financial package as “an ambitious first step”.
On a timeline for introduction of a strategy, the spokesperson said: “The implementation of measures involving expansion and stabilisation of existing programmes will be delivered as soon as practicable. Others, requiring the establishment of new schemes and associated delivery infrastructure have a longer lead-in time. The measures due to be implemented in 2024/25 will be closely monitored and will inform the development of the longer-term strategy.”
Upon the return of the Executive in February 2024, the DUP selected the Department of Education, marking a departure from political convention whereby parties’ first choices under D’Hondt are typically the Department of Finance or the Department for the Economy.
Upon his appointment as Minister, Paul Givan MLA stated that childcare was one of the primary reasons for his party’s selection of control over the Department of Education, and acknowledged that a package could amount to £400 million. However, writing for agendaNi, the Minister made no comment on the prospect of introducing a childcare strategy, instead reiterating his commitment to the funding package, meaning that there is no telling when a strategy will be brought forward or what its aims and objectives will be.
Childcare coverage expansion announced
The Department of Education has announced funding of £25 million for plans aimed at expanding childcare provision and reducing childcare costs for families, two years later than was intended.
The Department of Education has confirmed that 2,200 new full-time places (an increase of 10 per cent) would be on offer by September 2025, with continued expansion from then on.
At present, only 40 per cent of children in Northern Ireland receive 22.5 hours of preschool education, with the remaining 60 per cent entitled to 12.5 hours of part-time, preschool provision.
Parents in employment in Northern Ireland can currently secure a 20 per cent reduction in childcare payments through a UK-wide, tax-free scheme run through His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.
The new publicly funded subsidy will see the parents who are eligible for the tax-free childcare scheme receive a further 15 per cent reduction in their costs, with the Department of Education providing a top-up directly to childcare providers.
In a statement, the Department of Education said that the subsidy will initially only apply to children of pre-primary school ages.
“The package of measures is designed to stabilise and support expansion of the early learning and childcare sector, offer all children 22.5 hours pre-school education per week and reduce childcare bills for working parents through a Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme,” the Department states.
Speaking after Executive approval of the support measures, Minister of Education Paul Givan MLA said: “This is an ambitious package of measures for early learning and childcare representing the most significant enhancement of early years investment in Northern Ireland in decades.”
