Minister O’Gorman publishes results emerging from recent survey on childcare

Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, has today published results of a wide-ranging survey on childcare undertaken in July by Ipsos on behalf of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

The nationally representative survey of more than 500 families found that:

for young children not yet in school, the main childcare arrangement used was parental care (45%) followed by regulated early learning and care (27%), childminders (16%) and grandparents or other relatives (10%)
the majority of young children not yet in school (84%), were in their parents’ preferred childcare arrangement for early learning and childcare
almost 50% of parents using non-parental care for children not yet in school found it difficult to pay for it and 32% of parents using regulated early learning and care for children not yet in school reported they did not receive any State subsidy
for school-going children under 15, the main after-school childcare arrangement used was parental care (69%) followed by regulated school-age childcare (11%), grandparents or other relatives (8%), and childminders (7%), while the main childcare arrangement for during school holidays was parental care (77%) followed by grandparents or other relatives (10%), childminders (4%) and regulated school-age childcare (3%)
more than 90% of school-going children were in their parents’ preferred arrangement for childcare
more than one in five parents using non-parental care for school-going children found it difficult to pay for it and 80% of parents using regulated school-age childcare reported they did not receive any State subsidy

Since 29 August, all children under 15 using regulated early learning and childcare are eligible for a universal subsidy under the National Childcare Scheme – of up to €1,170 per annum.

As announced in Budget 2023, supports under the National Childcare Scheme are set to increase significantly. From 2 January 2023, the maximum universal subsidy under the Scheme will rise to €3,276 per annum.

The survey also gathered data on parental awareness of existing State supports, as well as parents’ priorities for early learning and childcare improvements and future State investment:

more than nine in ten (91%) parents reported to be aware of the ECCE programme while less than half (48%) were aware of supports available under the National Childcare Scheme
the top three improvements identified by parents were: more affordable early learning and childcare (23%), more early learning and childcare places (21%) and longer opening hours (10%)
when it comes to future investment in early learning and childcare, 31% of parents reported that all children should be the highest priority for Government, while 28% of parents reported that children with additional needs should be the highest priority cohort

Commenting on the survey results, Minister O’Gorman said:

“The National Childcare Scheme is currently supporting thousands of families to offset their early learning and childcare costs. The results from this survey illustrate however, that many families continue to face difficulties meeting early learning and childcare costs.

"With a fee freeze now in place in more than 91% of early learning and childcare services, the enhancements to the National Childcare Scheme – announced in Budget 2023 – will, from January, bring substantial reductions in out of pocket costs for early learning and childcare for parents.

"Moreover, work underway to extend regulation to paid, non-relative childminders – in line with the National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028 – will allow the opening up of the National Childcare Scheme to childminders by 2024, enabling more parents to access State subsidies who are not yet able to do so.

"As well as more affordable early learning and childcare, these survey results show parents want more early learning and childcare places and longer operating hours.

"Owing to the new Core Funding Scheme, there has been an increase in the number of place hours being offered by services compared to the past two years, with particularly notable increases in place hours for children under 3. Increases in place hours are driven by a combination of new places being created in existing or new services and existing services increasing the number of hours they operate. The new Core Funding scheme allocates investment to services in line with their capacity related to number of places, number of hours those places are available and the age group of children that the places are available for. €259 million is being made available for the first year of this scheme."

Access the survey results.