MEANINGFUL ENGAGEMENT NEEDED... NOT LEGAL THREAT BY O’GORMAN
COVID has been an eye-opener. It has shone a light on society; how it operates and the fundamentals that we require to function.
It has shown us that central to our existence is the healthcare system, our schools, retail and childcare. We’ve learned that if we don’t get these things right, we run in to grave problems and the fallout is immense.
Take childcare. Without adequate provision, our healthcare professionals cannot care for the sick, our teachers cannot teach and retail workers struggle to work their shifts. Put simply, for society and our economy to function at the basic level, children must be cared for.
Last March, when early learning and childcare services were closed in response to the pandemic, parents with young children came to appreciate the difficulties of full-time carers, teachers, and working professionals. It was virtually impossible to do all three simultaneously to any fully productive level.
It became evident that early learning and childcare services are an essential part of a well-functioning society and economy, and especially in a pandemic for parents who work in frontline jobs.
Until last week, childcare services were fully and safely open to all. Providers and childcare professionals have been eagerly playing their part, giving parents and children stability, or at least as much as can be offered. THEN
came the latest restrictions last Wednesday, which, for many of us, was Groundhog Day. While we were transported back to last March, we believed that, given the experience of the first lock down, we had learned from the mistakes and would avoid the pitfalls this time. While some lessons were learned, many were not. Decisions on schools resulted in a U-turn, following pressure from the sector and yet again, we’re struggling with childcare.
Why? Because there’s a lack of meaningful engagement and the relationship between Government and the sector is almost totally one way: we are simply issued orders, without consultation, that we are expected to follow unquestioningly. The latest example was the new decision by Minister Roderic O’Gorman and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth last week.
On Thursday, he said he was seeking legal advice on making it mandatory for providers to return fees to parents for the month of January. I chair Seas Suas, the representative body for independent early years’ service providers, and can report that our members were taken aback by this. The decision was representative of someone firmly out of touch with the sector. When the current lockdown was announced, which restricted care only to vulnerable children and the children of essential workers, many providers took immediate action on their own initiative.
Many advanced various solutions on fee payments, including reductions, credit, and complete suspension. Similar arrangements were put in place last spring at the start of the first lockdown.
The minister’s decision to seek legal advice is therefore not only out of touch with what is already happening on the ground, it makes the sector look, to put it plainly, like the ‘bad guys’.
Ireland’s childcare providers have strong relationships with parents, built on mutual trust and respect. We educate and care for their children. By seeking legal advice, the minister inadvertently paints us as greedy and unreasonable during a pandemic that affects the sector and our employees just as it does everyone else.
Parents might reasonably expect an essential service like childcare would be in f requent communication with the Government, or that we would have some advance notice of the restrictions and decisions that affect us and the children we care for. This is not the case.
When the current lockdown was announced, and with it our opening rules and conditions of service, we were told as much as the public; we read it in the newspapers and saw it on the news.
The department does not have a progressive relationship with the sector and providers and childcare professionals are not viewed as collaborative partners. The department’s approach, which pre- dates Minister O’Gorman, seems to be that the sector is to be dictated to, not robustly engaged with. This has created many long-term issues.
Last year, at the start of the pandemic, the Government had a number of proposals for childcare for frontline workers, all of which were abandoned as not practical or workable. This was a waste of limited time.
HAD there been more meaningful engagement with those who know how things run, we could have implemented realistic solutions to the benefit of parents, children, and other frontline services.
The childcare sector wants to reset its relationship with the Government. We want to be treated fairly, and to have our expertise sought for the good of all, not have orders, underpinned by threats of legal action, issued.
We believe this relationship must be built across Government to include the Department of Finance; childcare providers are on the frontline and while challenging, we are keeping our doors open to support families. We do so at reduced occupancy while shouldering fixed costs of operation. We have received support which we welcome. The schemes that are in place must be advanced promptly to providers, maintained and extended, while an exceptionally strong case for sustainability funding for the sector exists.
The pandemic still has months to run. We must put plans in place now for the end of January and beyond – we have 20 days and we must get it right. Effective, longterm solutions that work for parents and children will only come when we act fast, learn from mistakes of the past and when the Government opens proper channels of communication with the childcare sector.