Early Childhood Care And Education Reforms Announced

The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, James Reilly, has announced a major reform for the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Higher Capitation model.

From September 2016 in ECCE services, Higher Capitation will be paid to individual ECCE sessions (or rooms) which are led by Early Years professionals with a relevant Level 7 qualification or higher.

This changes the current model where the higher capitation rate is only paid if all sessions/rooms in the service are led by staff qualified at Level 7 or higher. This reform will allow more services to benefit from extra capitation. From September, services that have multiple ECCE rooms, but only one with a Pre-school Leader with the necessary higher capitation qualification, can avail of this higher funding for part of their service.

Minister Reilly said: "Reforming the current Higher Capitation funding model will not only help to support the expansion of the ECCE programme that I announced as part of Budget 2016, but also, it gives recognition to the fact that there are increasing numbers of higher qualified staff working in the early childhood care and education sector. As part of the Budget, I also announced the increase in the Higher Capitation rate from €73 to €75 euro per child from September of this year."

From September, the ECCE Higher Capitation rate will be passed on to services, based on the number of children allowed to participate in the qualifying Higher Capitation room. 

Minister Reilly added: "Attracting and retaining higher qualified staff into the Early Years sector is good for both children and services. The provision of this higher capitation rate to more services may provide an opportunity for employers to consider passing some of it on to their graduate staff. I am aware that some employers in existing services in receipt of Higher Capitation already do this."

(MH/LM)