Small pre-school owners fear they are being pushed out of sector

Owners of small pre-schools in Cork city fear the government is pushing them out of the sector, with one saying they see their role as being “glorified childminders” and not educators.

Small pre-schools who offer three-hour ECCE sessions only have only one source of funding: government capitation. This must cover the cost of running the business as well as staff wages.

Despite the government pushing for a graduate-led sector, they are constantly losing staff to primary schools as they cannot offer the same wages or a year-round contract like the SNA role can. This means staff must sign onto the dole during the holidays.

Aiveen Casey has run a small preschool between Rochestown and Passage West since 2009.

She told The Echo: “It’s mad, looking at my funding. I’m not much better off now than what I was when I was fee paying in 2009.

“But there’s been huge changes since then in the cost of staffing, insurance, heating, materials, it’s all gone way up but what we’re taking in hasn’t.”

She said she is lucky in that she does not have the overhead of rent.

“If I did I wouldn’t be running the school. We’re private companies, I own my own business, yet every detail is being dictated to by the government, we have no control over it,” said Ms Casey.

“We’re inspected by Pobal, Tusla and the Department of Education, yet they don’t treat us as educators, we’re seen as glorified childminders.”

Speaking with other small preschool owners, they believe being allowed to open for longer hours would make their services more viable.

Creche facilities are allowed to open for much longer than preschools that follow an educational curriculum.

Earlier this year, children’s minister Norma Foley announced €135m in capital investment in buildings for State-led early learning and childcare.

Capital funding will be used to acquire and fit out the buildings for the initiative, which is set to provide thousands of places, though no Cork projects have been selected for the first phase of the scheme.

Ms Casey said: “Existing services can’t get staff, and if the Government are going to pay staff for 52 weeks of the year, that’s more than what private sectors can pay.

“I’m not against the Government opening services, but it’s going to close down privately owned services — the Government are going to push me out,” she said.

“What the Government is forgetting is the importance of preschool.

“They are not recognising that I spent years in college to bring up the standard in my school. They just want cheap childcare for parents.

“I love running the school and dealing with the children, it’s a home from home and parents choose my school because it’s not a big creche setting. Children can be out playing in the garden and not a concrete jungle.”

June Froggatt, who has been running her school near the Lough for 35 years, said: “Because I have been in the industry for so long, I’ve seen a lot of changes. When my type of sessional service came about you didn’t have two working parents.

“If the Government could re-look at the model, we’re not looking for full daycare, but hours like an infants class would make a big difference.”

She added that currently, the ECCE model is only a 38-week service, even though most parents don’t get summer holidays.

Ms Froggatt said this is a particular issue for them getting staff. She said she had lost one staff member after she was told she was not entitled to a payment plan for a laptop because she only had a 38-week contract job.

“If they can’t get that, they can’t get a mortgage, they can’t get a loan.”

Ms Froggatt said that staff to support children with additional needs through the access and inclusion model (AIM) are hardest to come by, and that if the requirement for these staff to have a level five qualification was lifted, it would be a lot easier to fill the role, as it would suit parents with children in primary school.

“You’re not going to get any college graduates applying for these roles,” she said.

Her service can only take one child with additional needs due to this barrier, though she said they get frequent requests from parents whose children “would benefit a lot from a small sessional service”.

Her service is fully booked until 2030, and Ms Froggatt is having to email five or six parents a week telling them this.

She said: “We can see we are slowly being edged out by the Government.

“The inspection overload is just too much, and while we have no problem Tusla being involved, we get inspectors from the Department of Education, even though we’re not on the department’s payroll.

“My wish list every budget is a 52-week contract. The SNAs get it and we’re losing all our staff to them, all the graduates, because the sector is more secure.”

She said that despite the Government announcing funding increases each budget, they don’t know where that money is going.

“It just feels like nobody in the Government is listening to us.”