Additional €94m Secured For Children And Families In Budget 2020

The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone, has announced extra funding of over €94m for Tusla, childcare and youth services in Budget 2020.

The additional funding brings the total investment by her department to €1.6 billion for 2020 from €1.1 billion in 2016, and will be targeted at those on the lowest incomes, lone parents and children with additional needs.

Making the announcement, Minister Zappone, said: "I am very pleased that we have again delivered as promised on the commitment to continue investing in our children and young people.

"Today's €94 million package, at a time of great uncertainty in relation to the impact of Brexit on the economy, represents another significant step in ensuring access to high quality, affordable childcare and ensuring that Tusla is in a position to continue on its programme of service reform and targeted development of key services."

Budget 2020 will see an additional €54.5 million invested into early learning and care and school age childcare programmes, increasing the annual spend to just over €628m per annum from €264 million in 2014. This represents an increase of 9.3% over the 2019 allocation. It is an increase of 138% since 2014.

The additional €54.5m in 2020 will allow for thousands of families to benefit from the new National Childcare Scheme. From November 2019 families who earn up to €100,000 gross income may benefit. Families of an additional c. 7,000 children will either receive subsidies for the first time or receive increased subsidies.

As well as the full year costs for 2020, extra funding has been secured that will be of particular benefit to lone parents and other working families. Certain families already had the option to stay on existing schemes until the end of August 2020. They will now be able to stay on those schemes for an additional year until August 2021 or switch to the National Childcare Scheme, depending on whichever will benefit them most.

From September 2020, the maximum hours for the new scheme will increase from 40 hours per week to 45 hours, particularly benefiting parents of school age children who need before school and after school childcare to include time for work and commuting.

Low income parents who are not working or studying will have their hours increased from 15 to 20 hours. This will support our objective of promoting employment and reducing poverty.

As part of this measure, parents who currently benefit from subsidies for 17 hours of School Age Childcare per week (children attending school who need childcare either before or after school) will be subsidised for up to 22 hours of school age childcare.

The Minister added: "The introduction of the new National Childcare Scheme is a landmark moment for making high quality childcare more affordable and more accessible to families in Ireland. I am particularly pleased that from September 2020 we will be increasing the hours available to children living in disadvantage from 15 hours to 20 hours per week, ensuring that they have access to important early learning opportunities."

• Access and Inclusion Model - children who need additional pre-school supports

Another significant element of the increased early learning and care provision in Budget 2020 is additional funding for the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM). AIM enables children with disabilities to access and fully participate in the ECCE scheme (the two free pre-school years). The increased funding will enable an additional 1,000 children to access targeted pre-school supports, bringing the number of children availing of the scheme to approximately 6,600 children in 2019/20. This is a measure to support equality allowing children who need additional support to avail of early childhood care and education which is critical to optimise their early development.

• Additional €2 million funding for Youth Services – Special fund for Youth Action on Climate Justice

The Minister has secured an additional €2 million for Youth Services and Participation. In addition to bolstering funding for existing youth services and schemes, a priority will be to create a special fund for Youth Action on Climate Justice.

It is expected that this will amplify the conversation on climate justice on the international stage. On November 23rd, Dáil na nÓg will meet and will form the newly appointed Comhairle National Executive. Our young people have already agreed that the National Executive's work for the coming two years will be on the topic of Climate Justice.

The Minister plans to meet with the incoming National Executive and explore with them how she can refresh, renew and strengthen their structures so that they are supported to be centre stage in the conversation on climate justice.

This will involve a special fund through which she will invest in reform of the existing structures and mechanisms so that they:

• support direct and ongoing engagement and exchange with parliamentarians

• enable joined-up collaboration with other climate initiatives across Government and beyond

The overall goal will be to bolster our young people to be in powerful, enduring dialogue with decision-makers.

The fund will also support initiatives which are both youth-led and respond to the issues raised by young people.

• Tusla

Tusla will receive an increase of €31m in current funding in 2020 bringing its total allocation to €814 million - an increase of 4% over 2019. The extra funding will be used to meet increasing demand for existing services and continue to improve overall service performance. Tusla will also be in a position to continue making progress in reducing the number of children awaiting the allocation of a social worker. One of the more immediate pressures on Tusla's budget at present is meeting increasing cost in residential care provision and the additional funding being made available in 2020 will assist Tusla in this regard.

The Minister said: "I strongly support Tusla's important work in protecting some of the most vulnerable children and families in our increasingly complex and diverse society. I have secured additional funding each year for Tusla since becoming Minister in 2016. The additional resources provided each year are necessary in order to deliver on a significant programme of service reform and have also allowed for targeted development of key services."

The Minister has again protected a dedicated funding stream for the important work Tusla carries in relation to the Family Resource Centres Programme and the Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence services.

The Minister continued: "I provided additional funding of €1.5 million to the 121 Family Resource Centres across the country in 2019. This brought total funding for the Family Resource Centre Programme to some €18 million in 2019 and I am ensuring that this is made available again in 2020.

"I also provided an additional €1.5 million in funding last year for Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence services bringing the overall annual funding for these services to over €25 million. This funding has supported Tusla in meeting obligations under the Istanbul Convention and has supported the provision of enhanced and sustainable services. I am ensuring that this is made available again in 2020."

• Bail Supervision Scheme

The Minister also announced additional funding for the extension of the Bail Supervision Scheme. The Bail Supervision Scheme (BSS) is targeted at young people who may otherwise have to be detained in Oberstown. The BSS which has been operating on a pilot basis in the Children Court, Dublin, since November 2016, has recently been evaluated by the University of Limerick. The evaluation, which will be published soon, shows that there was a marked reduction in the levels of re-offending and the majority of the young people enrolled attracted a non-custodial option at their sentencing hearings. There was also a high return to education and or training.

The Minister noted that the additional funding being made available in Budget 2020 will allow her department to begin the process of rolling out the scheme to the courts in other parts of the country.

The Minister said: "Support for an innovative bail scheme that reduces the risk of re-offending benefits the whole of society. It improves education and training participation. It supports often marginalised groups of parents and caregivers within their homes enabling them to support high-risk young people in their care to meet bail conditions and reduce reoffending."

(MH/JG)