Extend free food to preschool, boost National Childcare Scheme, ask childcare professionals

A national body representing 9,200 childhood professionals across the country, including many in Kilkenny, is pleading with the Minister for Children and Government to grant vulnerable children three Christmas wishes.

The Association of Childhood Professionals (ACP) has written its letter to Santa - in this case Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O'Gorman - asking for three basic needs to support vulnerable children, says ACP spokesperson Mick Kenny, manager of Urlingford and Johnstown community childcare centres.

1: Immediate meal scheme

“Firstly, we need the meal scheme to be rolled out to early years immediately and not after a pilot scheme announced on November 22. While progress has been made in primary and secondary schools, the unfortunate reality is that food poverty doesn’t start in junior infants,” he says.

Minister O’Gorman announced on November 22 that a new pilot scheme for hot food would be rolled out to some early years settings.

But Mr Kenny says this will mean that the actual provision of this won’t come into effect until 2025 at the earliest and is just Government procrastination which will result in some services being unable to provide meals and wraparound supports to vulnerable children who attend their services.

“We are concerned about the number of children that will be put in a more vulnerable position in the length of time the Department is analysing data, especially with a cost-of-living crisis at our doorstep. If the pilot scheme is to inform Budget 2024, then it'll be 2025 at the earliest before we see anything on the ground and how many children will go without in the meantime?”

Childcare centres across Ireland are working hard to protect the children and families they serve. Many services operating in areas of disadvantage function as social enterprises with mandates to tackle disadvantage and social exclusion, says Mr Kenny.

2: Extend the scope of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and School Age Childcare (SAC)

The ACP is also calling for the scope of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) to be extended to better cater for children whose parents may not being in employment or education and training.

“We’re disappointed that there were no measures announced in Budget ‘23 to tackle disadvantage and social exclusion in ECEC and School Age Childcare (SAC) settings. Likewise, there was no measures announced to expand the school meal scheme to ECEC or SAC services. The whole Government has a responsibility to fund and support this.”

In 2020, the European Committee of Social Rights assessed Finland’s lower level of childcare coverage for families where one parent was unemployed or on parental leave. It found that the difference in treatment was discriminatory and violated the children’s and parents’ rights to social protection under the Revised European Social Charter.

“While the Department continues to deny it, the National Childcare Scheme is using the same approach and the situation is creating a two-tier childcare system, with disadvantaged and marginalised children left in a more vulnerable position,” Mr Kenny says.

3: Regular stakeholder taskforce meetings

The ACP’s third ask is that a specific subgroup of stakeholders, in the form of a taskforce, be established to address disadvantage in ECEC and SAC.

“Currently, the Early Learning and Childcare Stakeholder Forum meets just three or four times a year (with its next meeting on December 14) and due to the broad agenda and limited time to discuss issues, we want a specific focused subgroup formed to address the issue in a collaborative and consultative manner at no cost to Central Government.

“We urgently need a proactive approach for children to protect them from the crisis, ensuring they are not hungry or go without a warm, safe, welcoming, stimulating and child centred environment,” he says.

“While the Minister for Children and the Government may have portrayed themselves as Santa in the recent budget when it comes to childcare - and yes, we welcome the increase in the lower rate of parental subsidy and core funding as a long-awaited development in increasing wages for our educators and staff – they have not addressed all the problems."

ACP has been raising concerns on this issue with the Department since 2018 and is now considering escalating the issue to the European Committee on Social Rights for external intervention.

 “We’ve requested a meeting with the Minister on the issue last July, and again in October and while we met the Ombudsman for children in August, we still are waiting to meet the Minister in person,” he says.