Opinion

With thousands of children on childcare waiting lists, parents are left to solve an impossible puzzle

We talk about children’s best interests, but so far, there has not yet been the political will to prioritise them

Ireland needs a visionary government who will set out what the first five years of children’s lives should look like and lead the way in achieving it. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire
Ireland needs a visionary government who will set out what the first five years of children’s lives should look like and lead the way in achieving it. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire
Frances Byrne
Thu Aug 29 2024 - 06:00

Every day seems to bring a new story about the struggles that parents, providers and staff face in early years and school-age care settings across Ireland.

While more than 300,000 children are happily returning to creches and childminders’ homes after the summer, thousands of their peers are still on waiting lists for the care and education they deserve, and which is taken for granted in other European countries.

In Denmark, for example, parents of young children are offered the choice of a place in either a centre or in a childminder’s home before their child reaches their first birthday, which can then be taken up, if they wish, during their second year. There is a statutory system of two- and five-year planning cycles which support this. Publicly available information such as birth registrations, as well as planning information about housing developments, are used to guarantee this certainty to families. If, for some reason, the local authority cannot fulfil the childcare guarantee, in some localities, parents can have their expenditure in another local authority or private facility covered – or be entitled to a grant to care for their own child.

It is not even seen as a “nirvana” there (though no doubt that is how parents in Ireland will see it). It is just how society has chosen to organise itself.

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It is not impossible for Ireland to achieve this level of assurance for families too. In this regard, the Taoiseach’s restatement to The Irish Times last weekend that “every child in this country has to be able to reach their full potential regardless of their background” is very welcome.

There is already much to recognise that is very good in our current early years and school age care system. We have a play-based curriculum which has drawn from the best international evidence. The access and inclusion model has delivered the promise of early intervention to thousands of young children. The new Equal Start programme holds similar prospects for disadvantaged families, including Traveller and Roma children. The previous and current governments have endorsed substantial policy developments including an inaugural workforce strategy, a major new funding model and a long-awaited action plan on child-minding. Earlier this month, parents’ leave was extended from seven to nine weeks, giving parents more vital time at home with their newborn children. Yet, while this is a step in the right direction, the current paid leave is based on a flat rate and falls short of what the European Commission has recommended.

Perhaps most significantly, the current Minister for Children also achieved Government funding of €1 billion for Early Years and School Age Care last year, five years earlier than expected. But the bad news for parents, staff, providers and children, is that more is still needed. Most estimates are in the order of another €2 billion per year at least. Despite this, there has been no new investment target set, though every politician of every stripe accepts that it is needed.

Meanwhile, many new parents face major challenges, feeling under incredible pressure at a time when they want and need to be focused only on their new baby. The reality is that the uncertainty of our system is now baked in for families. As well as placing children on multiple waiting lists, many end up – sometimes reluctantly – turning to grandparents and other relatives for help with child-minding. They may also try to reduce their hours so that they can balance both their family life and their finances, but then find it impossible to secure a part-time place in a setting, as most providers just cannot offer that option in their baby rooms. Things somewhat ease when children from two years and eight months of age can access “free preschool” – the part-time Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme – for up to two years. In some communities, however, there are waiting lists for this too. Increased investment which supports key areas would address this impossible puzzle for families.

The organisation I represent, Early Childhood Ireland, has set out four straightforward proposals to fix the childcare squeeze. They are properly funded family leave so that parents can securely step out of work for their child’s first year, a new investment target with a five-year plan offering a pathway to achieve it, proper capacity planning and the most important first step – bringing graduates into the public pay system alongside their peers in primary education. It continues to be a source of shame and frustration that even those educated to master’s level in early years settings languish on low wages and precarious employment conditions and without a clear career path.

There is a final and urgent ask which is for high-level, visible and persistent political leadership. Ireland needs a visionary government who will set out what the first five years of children’s lives should look like and lead the way in achieving it.

Early years and school age care policy developments are guided by the excellent “first five” strategy, but there has not yet been the requisite political resoluteness about delivering in children’s best interests, including public investment that is patently needed. Should we mimic our Nordic neighbours? Should we take the best of what they offer and make our own Irish version? How can we best build on the system we already have in place, with some settings delivering quality experiences for children since the 1950s?

Until we make these vital decisions, we will continue to have parents putting their unborn children on multiple creche waiting lists, staff voting with their feet and, worst of all, children in Ireland not vindicating their unassailable right to high-quality experiences from the beginning of their very short childhoods. The Taoiseach has an opportunity to fulfil his ambition for children in a long-lasting way. There is no viable opposition to investing in and delivering for young children. It is a political, societal and economic win-win but, much more importantly, it would transform young lives for generations to come.

Frances Byrne is director of policy at Early Childhood Ireland