All Party Group on Early Learning and Childcare hears an update on the Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme

The All Party Group on Early Education and Childcare, held its latest meeting on Thursday 26 September in Parliament Buildings, Stormont. The meeting was attended by over 50 people, including elected representatives, senior departmental officials and a wide range of stakeholders representing early education and childcare, the women’s sector, business, parents’ organisations and more.

The meeting received an update on action points from, and developments since, the last meeting of the Group, including the publication of the draft Programme for Government, which identifies childcare as a key priority for the Northern Ireland Executive, and the launch of the Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme (NICSS).

Update from Department of Education

The meeting began with an update from Tina Dempster, Department of Education on the £25 million package of measures for early learning and childcare announced by the Education Minister in May.

Tina outlined progress on the following measures:

• Targeted business support scheme for childcare providers – cross departmental engagement has been taking place including at Ministerial level. The Department for the Economy is leading a scoping exercise, with support from the Department of Health and Invest NI, engaging with the sector to understand the issues and challenges it faces. It is hoped this will be complete by December 2024.
• Sector support and stabilisation – additional money has been allocated to existing programmes such as Sure Start, Pathway and Toybox, as well as to support the reintroduction of Book Start, and additional funding has been allocated to other departments.
• Standardisation of pre-school education – there is an Education Authority team in place working on this. They are contacting childcare providers to discuss the transition to 22.5 hours with a view to identifying a first tranche of settings that would be ready to offer this from September 2025. This work is expected to be complete with proposals to go to the Minister by the end of 2024.
• Data collection exercise – some information is already being collected from childcare providers through the NICSS portal but a comprehensive survey of parents will be taken forward by NISRA in November 2024.

Tina identified that there are still other areas that require focus and investment, particularly around workforce development. Further engagement events are planned including the next Stakeholder Engagement Forum on 16 October. She reminded attendees that continuation of support beyond March 2025 remains subject to Executive agreement and Budget allocation, but that work is continuing so that options can be presented to the Minister.

Update from Department of Health

Marc Bailie from the Department of Health provided an update for inclusion in this meeting report:

The Department of Health continues to work with colleagues across government on the development of the Early Learning and Childcare Strategy and implementation of short-term initiatives to support the childcare sector. They have also been working with the Minister’s office over the summer to refine the consultation paper which will seek views on childcare ratios and prospective employee health declarations, with the expectation that the consultation will launch in the coming weeks. Alongside the consultation, they will also be contacting everyone who indicated an interest in sitting on the Reference Group for the wider review of the Minimum Standards to set out the next steps.

Update from Early Years on the Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme

Pauline Walmsley and Mark Feeny from Early Years presented an update on the work that has taken place to date to set up the new Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme, which is now up and running and delivering 15% savings on childcare costs for eligible families. Pauline thanked all the childcare providers for their support in getting the scheme operational within such a short timeframe and acknowledged that it had been very much a ‘team approach’ with Early Years, the Department of Education and colleagues and providers from across the childcare sector.

Mark outlined some of the detailed work that went into setting up the registration portal for the NICSS and shared some of the figures around registrations and payments that have been completed, including:

• 12,269 children registered – increasing week by week
• 1,059 childminders registered
• 12 Approved Home Childcarers registered
• 305 daycares registered
• 108 playgroups registered
• £1.67 million paid out to parents through fee reductions, and to childcare providers through administration support payments (up to 23 September 2024)
• 8,200+ claims paid
• 95% of claims paid within the target of 10 days.

Mark highlighted that overall the system is working well and has been well received by childcare providers, particularly given the extensive training that Early Years has provided. Work is ongoing on ways to further develop the system to integrate it further with one of the leading daycare app providers and further support clinics are planned for October to provide additional training and answer questions from providers, which can be submitted in advance.

The slides from the presentation are available to download at the top of this page.

Childcare provider perspective on the Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme

Following a short video from a Registered Childminder, sharing her positive experience of the scheme, Sharon Malcolm, from Puddleducks Day Nursery in Belfast shared her perspective on the NICSS, as the manager of a large daycare setting. She identified that the process of getting everything set up on the portal was straightforward and that the training provided was very good – a useful feature is the ability to message parents through the portal to advise them on any issues with their children’s registrations.

Sharon welcomed the scheme as a valuable first step in providing support for families but stressed the need for it to continue beyond March, to be widened out to include school age childcare and for the subsidy to be increased beyond 15%. She also made the case for support for childcare providers, which is not included within the subsidy, and reiterated the urgency in moving ahead to the next steps towards a new Childcare Strategy that would support the sustainability of the childcare sector going forward.

Questions and discussion

A number of questions were raised in a lively question and answer session including around the need for support for childcare providers, as well as for families, and how initial issues faced by childcare providers around the NICSS have been addressed. Tina from the Department of Education recognised that the NICSS is very much a first step and that further support is required to ensure the childcare sector can be sustainable in the longer-term.

Meeting close

Bringing the meeting to a close, Chair Nicola Brogan, MLA thanked Early Years for their presentation and acknowledged the significant work that has been completed to launch the NICSS, from stakeholders across the sector.

She said: “The Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme is a welcome first step in providing much-needed financial support for parents, but it’s critical that work continues on the development and funding of a new Childcare Strategy, to provide wider support for the sector. As we’ve heard here today, childcare providers still face many challenges and, without Government support, in many cases will have no option but to continue to increase their fees to parents to meet their own rising costs, offsetting some of the positive impact of the subsidy scheme.”

She also outlined the new arrangements for the Secretariat for the All Party Group, which will be taken over by Early Years, and paid tribute to the role of Employers For Childcare in establishing the APG and running it so successfully for the past number of years.

“Since the formation of the APG, it has played a key role in ensuring that childcare was a top priority for the Executive when it returned, which has led to the much-needed, and long-awaited support announced earlier this year for parents and the childcare sector. Much of this is due to the years of campaigning, even before the establishment of the APG, by Employers For Childcare, through their policy, lobbying and research work. I would like to put on record my thanks, as chair, for the professional and efficient way they have fulfilled the Secretariat role. I know they will remain active and committed in their engagement going forward. I’d like to also take this opportunity to wish Aoife Hamilton, who has led much of this work in recent years, all the best for her own upcoming maternity leave.”

The next meeting of the APG will take place later in 2024 – further details to follow in due course from Early Years – the organisation for young children.