Siptu wants €200m extra in budget for pay rises for early education providers and education schemes

Siptu is calling on the Government to allocate over €200 million in additional funds in the upcoming budget towards pay rises for early education providers and schemes aimed at improving access to education.

The union has asked for €142 million to be made available for pay increases and improvement to working conditions for those working in early education.

In its pre-budget submission, published on Thursday, Siptu says that to achieve the “best outcomes for children,” experienced graduates are required in the workforce and the rates of pay offered need to “recognise both graduate qualifications and years of service”.

Negotiated minimum rates of pay set in September for last year “were a start,” says Siptu, but these “need to be significantly higher to attract and retain staff in the sector”. Siptu says that raising pay rates for all workers by €2 will cost €92 million, with another €50 million sought to implement “a higher rate in recognition of length of service and level seven qualification for all grades.”

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Siptu has also called for the €31.2 million allocated through the European Social Fund Plus Programme to invest in the upskilling of the workforce to be drawn down in 2024.

Among its five pre-budget recommendations, Siptu has also requested that the current budget for measures to support children with disabilities participating in pre-school education, known as the Access Inclusion Model (AIM), be doubled to €90 million. According to Siptu, educators have identified an urgent need to “extend AIM support to cover all hours that a child is in the setting”.

“This would be from the age of 12 months and for the duration of school age childcare, in accordance with the child’s needs.” Siptu has also called for an extension of AIM to “all settings including all school-age childcare services and/or to children with additional needs other than a disability”.

The union has also requested “adequate funding” to start a scheme that funds targeted measures to tackle socio-economic disadvantage in education. “Much more support is needed,” for educators working in areas of concentrated socio-economic disadvantage, says the union.

In its fifth pre-budget recommendation, Siptu called on Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman to get his department to examine the introduction of public provisions to deal with the “insufficient supply” of early education places in certain areas of the country.

Siptu says that up-to-date data is gathered by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth on such geographical disparities, information which “allows Government increase capacity where it is needed”.