Cork's early years providers say system needs to change

Cork early years providers have said they are haemorrhaging staff to primary schools because of their position – stuck between the public and private sectors.

Cork city has the second highest turnover rate of staff in the early years sector in Ireland, with latest data showing a 31.7% staff turnover rate in Cork city and 24.1% in Cork county.

Small, “sessional” services, which provide three hours of an educational curriculum under the ECCE scheme, rather than full daycare services, are the worst affected, providers say.

All their funding is provided by the government, in the form of capitation per child attending their service, a model which subsidises costs for parents but often does not meet the costs of running a service, including items like utilities and wages.

Primary and secondary schools receive a capitation cost per child, but their wages are also paid directly by the government. However, in early years settings, the capitation must cover wages, rent, utilities and any other costs to do with the running of the business.

Now that the government is subsidising fees to make childcare more affordable for parents, providers can no longer budget the funding they need and set their fees accordingly.

Mairead Davis, who owns Bright Beginnings in Douglas, said that she and other small providers in the southside of the city all say staffing is the biggest challenge they are facing.

“We’re losing staff to SNA jobs in primary schools. They’re public sector, so better paid and they get paid all year around. With us they have to sign on to the dole in the holidays.

“I had an amazing girl working with me for three or four years, but she couldn’t get a mortgage because in their eyes she didn’t have a full time job. She had to leave because no mortgage provider would touch her.”

She explained that a particular issue is access and inclusion model roles, (AIM), to support children with special educational needs.

These roles are temporary, as they are only funded as long as the child is in the school. Ms Davis explained that they cannot employ SNAs for these roles, as they must have special qualifications.

“The Department of Education can employ these people, but we can’t,” she explained, despite the fact that they are losing their own staff to these exact roles.

This year, Mairead had to reduce her ratio as she could not get someone to take up an AIM contract.

A preschool recently closed in Wilton, just days after advertising for staff. As a result, Mairead and the other local providers she knows have been “inundated with calls” from panicked parents looking for places.

“We can’t give the high wages we want to, our funding isn’t enough – if the government took over staff wages, that would be a dream.

Jacquie Campbell left the early years sector three years ago after running her own business for over a decade outside Clonakilty.

She said: “If you sign up to core funding, you can’t set your own fees, you can only take the money you’re given.

“If you choose not to sign up to core funding, parents would have to pay you privately, and they’re squeezed as it is.

“It’s not the parents we want the money from, it’s the government.”

Providers have to submit considerably more accounts and reports than before they were government funded.

“Core funding has taken away the autonomy to run your own business,” Jacquie explained.

Additionally, the government has begun a push for a graduate level workforce, with requirements about the level of education staff must have being introduced since she opened her business in 2010.

However, Jacquie said: “These graduates have put in four years in college, come out expecting a graduate salary, but we can’t offer that in sessional only.

“I lost great staff, they didn’t want to leave, but they had to move on in their own lives,” she said, adding that many were told that they wouldn’t qualify for a mortgage or car loan on their salary.

“They end up doing a four-year degree to be qualified as an early years professional. Then they go to work as an SNA instead and end up being overqualified, but it’s a steady income.”

She said that the schools were essentially operating between the public and private sectors, and that new initiatives for sick pay and pensions for staff are just squeezing providers more.

“What we’d have liked is if the staff were paid by the government instead of providers privately, to treat them like teachers.

“It was just impossible to get staff to stay, and you can’t blame them for leaving. The government is pushing a graduate workforce but doing nothing to help us keep them in the sector.

“Why train all these people to degree level if you cannot provide a workforce for them and make it rewarding enough?” Jacquie asked.

Rowena Fischer, who owns Phyll’s Preschool near Coachford said the essential problem is chronic underfunding.

“We’re seeing rising costs of utilities, food, wages and making our services compliant to increasing expectations.

“We just don’t have enough funds. For far too long, there’s been no concern about what it actually costs to run the service for independent providers like me.

“Affordability for parents can’t come at the expense of making the actual business unviable. I am full to capacity.

“I am literally turning people away from my pre-school every day and I have bookings up to 2029 for children that aren’t born yet, and still my service is not viable.” Staffing is a big issue as a result of this, she said.

“My staff are absolutely incredible.

“I tell them that every day, and I know they deserve to be paid more, but my hands are tied with the funds coming in.

“We are completely funded by the government, and we are well overdue an increase in capitation. Core funding has to go up, it’s getting increasingly hard to run the business.”

She added that despite the big push for a graduate workforce, there’s no incentive for them after the course is finished.