Core Funding Budget and Services Allocations

Core Funding is related to the costs of delivery. It is based on operating hours, number of places offered by services and the age group of children for whom the places are offered, given the staffing requirements determined by the regulatory ratios for different care categories.

A Partner Service’s allocation will be made up of three parts:

1) A Base Rate, which is based on the number of places and hours offered

2) Graduate premiums, which are based on the number of hours of provision that is led by a graduate

3) Targeted supports for small and sessional only services

An increased budget for Year 3 means that the Department can make some important changes to the allocation model. These changes will make sure that Core Funding continues to be successful in achieving its goals of improving affordability, quality and sustainability.

The Department has made these changes based on insights and evidence gathered through the operation of Core Funding to date.

The €331 million budget for Core Funding Year 3 is broken down as follows:

The Core Funding Base rate factors in some key conditions, to ensure services viability, these include:

• Costs associated with staff pay.

• Costs associated with administrative staff/time.

• Non-pay costs such as utilities needed to run the service.

Although the budget for Core Funding is split into the different elements, Partner Services can choose how they spend their Core Funding Grant, as long as they align with the approved areas of expenditure in the Core Funding Partner Service Funding Agreement (the Core Funding Contract).

Capital expenditure (such as building an extension onto a service) is the only item that cannot be paid for using Core Funding. Instead, Partner Services have access to capital grants operated by the Department.

Core Funding allocations are calculated on a weekly basis. These weekly allocations are aggregated into monthly instalments which are paid in advance, spread across the entire programme year.