Childcare strategy due
A regional childcare strategy is expected next month after a long delay.
Northern Ireland’s childcare strategy is due to be published in March, almost two years after its target date.
The province has around 180,000 children of primary school age but only around 12,000 childcare places are available. The number of placements is increasing but parents often complain that these are too far away from home and that the system ignores the needs of working parents.
OFMDFM has overall responsibility for children’s policy. Under the Programme for Government, it was due to publish the childcare strategy by the end of 2012-2013 but the target was missed due to a late consultation process, starting in December 2012.
The department has not explained the reason for the delay but it has continued to pay providers from its childcare funding package. Between 2011 and 2014, around £2 million had been allocated from a £12 million fund. OFMDFM subsequently announced that it would increase funding to £15 million but the announcement implied that the majority of funding had not yet been spent.
In the absence of a strategy, in September 2013, it pledged to create up to 7,000 new school-age childcare places by 2020. Of these, 3,000 places will allocated to parents in deprived areas and another 3,000 will be provided within schools (therefore hopefully closer to families). An additional 1,000 places will be set aside for rural areas. The number of places created to date has not been released.
Last November, OFMDFM brought forward a legislative consent motion to extend the Childcare Payments Bill to Northern Ireland. This was enacted in December and will introduce a new tax-free childcare scheme (from this autumn) to support eligible parents with childcare costs.
The UK Government will provide 20 per cent support on costs up to £10,000 per year for each child via an online account. It will also top up any payments made into the account, capped at a maximum government contribution of £2,000 a year for each child.
Alliance MLA Chris Lyttle, who has regularly campaigned on the issue, has welcomed the extra funding but says that the move “says nothing of how the government will help families not in areas of social disadvantage.” He emphasised: “This is one of the single biggest issues facing families as childcare is vital to early years development for children and access to education, training and employment for parents and guardians.”
