Average childcare fee of €155 per child in County W ex ford
AN EARLY YEARS SECTOR REPORT PRODUCED BY POBAL HAS A WEALTH OF INFORMATION ON THE CURRENT STATE OF CHILDCARE IN COUNTY WEXFORD. ESTHER HAYDEN EXTRACTS THE LOCAL FIGURES
THE average weekly fee for parents with a single child in a childcare facility is €155.56 according to the 2016/2017 Early Years Sector Profile.
The report which was launched by Minister Katherine Zappone provides insight into childcare numbers, fees, staff qualifications and wages in County Wexford for the 2016/2017 academic year as well as nationally.
It was developed and published by Pobal for the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. The information was based on survey responses from 3,707 services across Ireland (84 per cent of all childcare facilities) in May 2017 and information from the childcare ICT system (PIP).
In Wexford there are a total of 660 childcare staff working within the county, 47 of whom have no childcare qualification.
198 have a National Framework Qualification (NFQ) Level 5 while 273 have NFQ Level 6 qualifications. 27 have a Level 7 NFQ while 102 have NFQ Level 8. The remaining 13 have NFQ Level 9/10.
The average rate of staff turnover in the sector in Wexford is 24.4 per cent.
The average full time fee is €155.56 while the average part time fee is €86.30. This compares to an average full time fee of €159.40 in Kilkenny and an average part time fee of €94.21.
The average full time fee in Waterford is €147.76 while the average part time fee is €83.79. In Wicklow the average full time fee is €206.32 while the average part time fee is 106.93.
In Carlow the average full time fee is €144.32 while the average part time fee is €63.11.
The average sessional fee in Wexford is €63.72.
The average hourly wage is €11.47 while the average way for Early Year assistants is €10.53.
A total of 4,887 children are enrolled in early year facilities within the county while there are 577 vacant places. There are 357 children on the waiting list in the county.
The report showed that there are 4,313 children availing of the Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme (ECCE) in the county. 34 per cent use a community facility while 66 per cent use a private facility. This represents 139 services.
There are 779 children registered under the Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) programme and 259 registered under the Community Childcare Subvention Private (CCSP) programme.
A total of 245 children avail of Training and Employment schemes. 22 of them avail of the After School Childcare (ASCC) scheme; 50 avail of the Community Employment Childcare (CECAS) programme; 76 avail of the CEC-PS programme while 997 avail of the Childcare Education and Training Support (CETS) programme.
In Wexford 48 sservices receive Level 4 support from the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM). One service receives Level 5 equipment support under AIM while 16 services avail of Level 7 support which is 10 hours. A further 16 services received Level 7 - 15 hours support under AIM.
The average commercial rates bill for each facility in Wexford is €2,021.52 which is the sixth lowest in the country. Of the neighbouring counties of Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wicklow only Kilkenny has a lower rates bill coming in at €1,809.45 - the third lowest in the country.
The figures also show that Wexford childcare facilities have a total capacity of 5,464 children. The extrapolated capacity for 3-5 years olds is 3,923 while the population of 3-5 years old according to the latest CSO figures is 4,335 which represents a 90 per cent capacity based on population.
The report shows that there are 106 children waiting on a place in a community facility while there are 251 waiting on a place in a private facility. However there are also 179 vacant places in community facilities across the county and 398 vacant places in a private facility. Based on the 87 per cent response rate from childcare providers in Wexford, the report estimates that the total number of children waiting on places is 405 while there are 654 vacant places.
32 staff members, which represents 3 per cent, have signed a Grandfather Declaration according to the report.
The option to sign the Grandfather Declaration is open to staff members who do not hold a minimum Level 5 qualification and who intend to retire from the sector within a few years.
All childcare facilities in Wexford have a Dedicated Liaison Person (DLP) for childprotection while 98.4 per cent have a child protection policy in place. 47.6 per cent of staff have undergone Children First training within the last three years while 68.3 per cent of services require further training/support.
Of the 4,887 children enrolled in Wexford 3,054 of them are in a rural area with 1,833 in an urban setting. Of these 1,933 are enrolled in a community facility while the remaining 2,954 are in a private facility.
117 services have more than one child enrolled while 42 is the average number of children per facility.
Just two people are working under the Jobsbridge scheme in Wexford facilities, both of whom are in private facilities. 65 people work under a CE scheme; 4 with the CSP scheme; 2 with Jobs Initiative and 12 with Tus. There are a total of 575 directly employed staff.
In total there are estimated to be over 186,000 children attending early years services across Ireland. The number of children availing of government funded childcare places increased by 41% to over 147k in the last 12 months.
Nationally, the cost of a full-time childcare place has increased by just over €7 (to €174.16), after five years of fees remaining the same. Fees are more expensive in affluent areas, in cities, and in private facilities.
Looking at staff, the childcare sector employs over 27,000 staff, almost 24,000 of whom work with children. The average national qualification level of childcare staff has increased, with 92 per cent qualified to NFQ level 5 (up 4 per cent) and 63 per cent to level 6 (up 6 per cent). Half of all childcare staff work part-time, while 2 in 5 work seasonal contracts. On average, childcare staff nationally earn €11.93 per hour; half of these comprising of early years assistants earning an average of €10.88 per hour. The staff turnover rate nationally in the last 12 months was 28.2 per cent.
Speaking at the launch of the report, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr. Katherine Zappone T.D. thanked Pobal for their work. ‘ This report adds to the growing body of evidence needed to target increased investment in early years. It provides insights on other important policy priorities, like affordability, sustainability and quality, and will be critical in guiding this rapidly expanding sector in future years.’
Denis Leamy, Pobal CEO said: ‘ The Early Years Sector Profile, which Pobal has published for the last 15 years, is a definitive source of accurate and factual information on the sector and I would like to thank the childcare services that gave their time to respond to the survey. I am very proud of Pobal’s development of this report to assist our colleagues in Government in their role as policy makers. It is also an important information source in the national discussion on the direction of childcare in the future.’