From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
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• 621 early learning and childcare settings have accepted the Equal Start priority designation to date.
• These settings been objectively identified as operating in the context of the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage.
• More settings expected to accept the Equal Start Priority Designation in the coming weeks.
Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman has today published the first group of early learning and childcare settings to receive a funding boost through the Equal Start scheme.
Equal Start, launched earlier this year, is a new, DEIS-style funding model. It provides a set of universal and targeted measures to support access to, and full participation in, early learning and childcare for children and their families who experience disadvantage.
The services announced today have been objectively identified as operating in the context of the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage and given ‘priority designation’ under Equal Start, meaning they are now in line to receive additional State funding and supports under Equal Start from this month.
In the first year of Equal Start, settings with a priority designation will receive funding for additional staff hours that can be used to support engagement between the settings and families, engagement between the settings and other child and family support services, training in inclusive practices and to support other educators and practitioners in the provision of early learning and childcare to children with higher levels of need.
To date:
• 246 Tier 1 settings serving 11,000 children are benefitting from additional funding to support a 15% increase of staffing hours; and
• 375 Tier 2 settings serving 18,000 children are benefitting from additional funding to support an 8% increase of staffing hours
More settings are expected to accept the Equal Start Priority Designation in the coming weeks.
For year 1, some €11 million has been allocated by the Minister for additional staff hours, with an additional €2.5 million allocated towards the delivery of other Equal Start supports – both universal (for all early learning and childcare settings) and targeted (for Equal Start priority cohorts and settings). Other supports include:
• Full roll out of the Traveller Parenting Support Programme to all 17 Tusla areas, with new responsibilities on Family Link Workers to engage with Traveller parents of children aged 1-5 years, supporting them to attend and participate in early learning and childcare, avail of the ECCE programme and where applicable applying for the NCS.
• Appointment of Traveller and Roma Advisory Specialists to work in Better Start which is hosted in Pobal to promote and enhance inclusive high-quality early learning and childcare.
• Review and updating of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Guidelines and associated training.
• Review of the current Inclusion Co-ordinator role and updating of Leadership for Inclusion Programme.
• Development of a new Family Community Liaison role and development and rollout of associated training programme.
• Roll-out of Early Talk Boost to Equal Start target settings.
• Roll-out of Meitheal training and engagement by early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners in Meitheal.
• Development and roll out of Communications and Engagement Plan.
• Development of a new strand of funding under the existing Case Management Process for critical incidents.
• Roll-out Equal Start literacy and numeracy initiatives under the National Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Strategy.
Equal Start will be fully rolled out in three phases over a five-year period, 2024-2028.
Commenting on today’s announcement, Minister O’Gorman said:
“I am delighted to announce the first group of early learning and childcare settings that have accepted Equal Start priority designation.
“These settings been objectively identified as operating in the context of the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage and are playing a vital role in mitigating the impacts of early disadvantage on the development and life chances of children in their care.
“I am delighted, through Equal Start, to support these settings with their vital work with 35000children and their families throughout the country.”
Speaking about the importance of Equal Start, Corduff Childcare Services, Dublin 15 Manager Noeleen Keating said:
“Accepting an Equal Start Priority Designation is very important to us as it means that we will be able to improve the quality of the service we are providing. We have children with higher levels of need in every room in our service, so we have higher ratios of staff to children required.
“Families in our community are really going to benefit from this additional funding and support as it will allow us to look after the early learning and childcare needs of young children in our community and give their parents the opportunity to get back into work or education.”
ENDS
Accompanying photographs
Photographs from Minister O’Gorman’s visit to Corduff Childcare Services, Dublin 15 and meeting with children in the service have been issued by Julien Behal Photography to Photo Desks on the morning of Sunday 22 September.
Overview
Equal Start is a funding model and a set of universal and targeted measures to support access and full participation in early learning and care (ELC) and school-age childcare (SAC) for children and their families who experience disadvantage. In support of this overarching objective, Equal Start consists of a series of actions – 17 in total – to support children and families as well as educators, practitioners and settings. The goals of Equal Start are that:
• All children , in particular children experiencing disadvantage, have equitable access and participation in ELC and SAC settings.
• All ELC and SAC settings , in particular settings operating in the context of concentrated disadvantage, equitably promote the learning and care of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• Parents and families , in particular parents and families experiencing disadvantage, are empowered with the knowledge, tools and supports necessary for children to have equitable access and participation in ELC and SAC.
Equal Start constitutes the fourth strand of Together for Better, the funding model for early learning and care and school-age childcare and complements the Early Childhood Care and Education programme, the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), the National Childcare Scheme (NCS), and Core Funding as well as other key policies that also support disadvantaged children within early learning and care and school-age childcare.
Equal Start has been developed on foot of extensive consultation with parents, educators and practitioners, providers and representative groups, is informed by national and international evidence and experience, including the DEIS model in schools.
The list of early learning and childcare settings to receive funding through the Equal Start scheme can be found here: www.gov.ie/EqualStart
Universal measures (Strand 1) – Every child and every setting
Strand 1 of Equal start will provide universal measures – measures that are available in all settings and that will support positive experiences and outcomes for all children. Through their universal reach, these measures will support children from disadvantaged backgrounds in whatever ELC or SAC setting they attend. In addition, some of the measures here will prioritise Equal Start targeted settings and target groups in their initial roll-out but with the aim ultimately of universal roll-out to all ELC and SAC settings. Measures under Strand 1 fall into three areas:
A. Empowering parents – communications initiatives to support parents (in particular parents from disadvantaged communities) to know about what services are available to them (both ELC and SAC settings and parenting supports), how to access them, and what financial supports can help them.
B. Embedding inclusion in settings – supporting ELC and SAC settings to be more inclusive through reviewing and extending Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Leadership for Inclusion in Early Years (LINC) training, reviewing support for the Inclusion Coordinator role, strengthening admissions policies, and supporting settings’ engagement in inter-agency cooperation for child welfare and protection.
C. Supporting partnership between settings, families and communities – developing a new role in ELC and SAC settings of Family and Community Partnership Coordinator, introducing training to support the new role, extending the Better Start advisory role to support Equal Start and supporting parents’ involvement in settings.
Strand 2 of Equal Start will provide child-targeted measures – measures that are available in all settings and that will focus additional supports on children from disadvantaged backgrounds and priority groups, including:
• children living in a small area assigned as deprived under the Pobal HP Deprivation Index,
• children from a Traveller or Roma ethnic background,
• children availing of the National Childcare Scheme through a sponsor referral,
• children living in homeless accommodation, and
• children living in an International Protection Accommodation Centre or Emergency Orientation and Reception Centres.
Measures under Strand 2 fall into two areas:
D. Meeting practical needs – additional, semi-flexible funding to support access and participation of children from priority groups, in all settings.
E. Developing tailored responses – working with representative organisations of target groups to co-create effective solutions to address barriers to access and participation in ELC and SAC for children from those target groups.
Strand 3 of the Equal Start will provide setting-targeted measures – measures that specifically target settings that have been identified through the Equal Start identification model as settings with high concentrations of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Strand 3 will provide:
F. Additional funding for settings in areas of concentrated disadvantage – flexible funding for additional staff time to assist settings in supporting children in the most disadvantaged communities, as well as funding for additional meals in targeted settings to help address food poverty and the provision of targeted interventions for children experiencing language delay. The Equal Start identification model will also be used in other areas of ELC and SAC policy to support the further development of the progressive universal approach to policy set out in First 5.
Other measures funded in 2024 and 2025
The remaining funding available for Equal Start in the first programme year will support the following:
• The full roll out of the Traveller Parenting Support Programme to all 17 Tusla areas, with new responsibilities on Family Link Workers to engage with Traveller parents of children aged 1-5 years, supporting them to attend and participate in early learning and childcare, avail of the ECCE programme and where applicable applying for the NCS.
• Appointment of Traveller and Roma Advisory Specialists to work in Better Start which is hosted in Pobal to promote and enhance inclusive high-quality ELC and SAC
• Review and updating of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Guidelines and associated training
• Review of the current Inclusion Co-ordinator role and updating of Leadership for Inclusion Programme
• Development of a new Family Community Liaison role and development and rollout of associated training programme
• Roll-out of Early Talk Boost to Equal Start target settings
• Roll-out of Meitheal training and engagement by early years educators and school-age childcare practitioners in Meitheal
• Development and roll out of Communications and Engagement Plan
• Development of a new strand of funding under the existing Case Management Process for critical incidents
• Roll-out Equal Start literacy and numeracy initiatives under the National Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Strategy.
Services are required to submit details on the size of their service as part of signing up to core funding. These forms allow the scheme administrator to determine the minimum staffing hours necessary to deliver early learning and childcare that is compliant with regulations governing staffing in all early learning and childcare services.
The total annual minimum staffing hours are then lifted by 15% or 8% for Tier 1 and Tier 2 services respectively.
The total additional hours is then multiplied by €16.50, which is derived from the minimum rate of pay for early years educator and school aged practitioners set by employment regulation order, plus associated pay related employer costs.
As the size of the service may change during the year, a services allocation may also change if the minimum staffing hours increases of decreases.