Early Childhood Care and Education

Significant progress has been made towards the establishment of high quality Early Childhood Education and Care provision in Ireland in recent years. Unlike some other European countries, Ireland does not have a long tradition of young children attending pre-school services. 

Policy responsibility for ELC is shared between the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) and the Department of Education (DE). The DCEDIY is responsible, in the main, for pre-primary education and care while the DE has responsibility for primary education.

The main policy framework guiding the development of the sector is First 5: A Whole of Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families, 2019-2028. It is a ten-year, whole-of-Government strategy which focuses on the antenatal period to age five. The First 5 vision is one of good health in early childhood from pregnancy, quality time with parents in a nurturing and playful home environment where material needs are met, with high-quality play-based early learning and care experiences, positive transitions to primary school, and a supportive, inclusive wider community context. 

First 5 includes reform of the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) system. Measures include further development of Together for Better (the new funding model for ELC and School Aged Childcare (SAC)), as well as implementation of Nurturing Skills, the Workforce Plan for ELC and SAC (2022-2028) to support a highly skilled and highly valued workforce. First 5 also aims to support the transition to school by enabling greater communication between ELC settings, primary schools and parents, particularly for children with additional needs, as well as promoting play-based, child-centred learning, smaller class sizes and interactive teaching styles. There is also a focus on measures to tackle early childhood poverty, including supporting children from all backgrounds to access ELC and SAC. Equal Start, launched in 2024, includes a suite of universal supports, child-targeted supports and setting-targeted supports to ensure every child and every ELC setting will benefit from a continuum of supports that reflects a continuum of need. Actions also go beyond ELC and SAC settings, contributing to the delivery of relevant commitments in From Poverty to Potential: A Programme Plan for Child Poverty and Well-being 2023-2025 and Ireland’s National Action Plan under the EU Child Guarantee.

The compulsory school age in Ireland is 6 and all forms of pre-primary education are optional. However, children from the age of 4 can be enrolled in primary schools.  Most ELC services in Ireland are delivered outside the school system, by a diverse range of private, community and voluntary interests and are described variously as crèches, nurseries, pre-schools, naíonraí (Irish language pre-schools), playgroups, day-care services, and childminders (home-based ELC and SAC). Policy and investment in such provision is primarily the responsibility of the DCEDIY.

The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme was first introduced in 2010. The ECCE programme is a universal two-year pre-school programme available to all children within the eligible age range. It provides children with their first formal experience of early learning prior to commencing primary school. The programme is provided for three hours per day, five days per week over 38 weeks per year and the programme year runs from September to June each year. There is one point of entry at the beginning of the programme year.

The programme is available to all children who have turned 2 years and 8 months of age before 31 August as long they won’t turn 5 years and 6 months of age on or before 30 June of the programme year.

In 2023/24, 106,531 children benefitted from the ECCE programme with 96% of the eligible cohort availing of at least one year of the ECCE programme. It is estimated that more than one million individual children have benefitted from the programme since its inception. 

Outside the ECCE programme, participation in ELC is subsidised primarily through the National Childcare Scheme, which was introduced in 2019. Subsidies, which have been extended a number of times since 2019, comprise both universal subsidies and income-related subsidies. 

Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, is the independent statutory regulator for the Early Learning and Care (ELC) sector and for School-Age Childcare (SAC). It is responsible for the registration of ELC and SAC services and for inspecting services. Tusla’s role is set out in the Child Care Act 1991. Regulatory requirements for the sector are set out in the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016 and Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) (Registration of School Age Services) Regulations 2018. Tusla has also published a Quality and Regulatory Framework to guide ELC services in relation to compliance with the Regulations.

The DE Inspectorate, which has an oversight role regarding the quality of education provision for children and young people aged from 0 to 18 years, undertakes education-focused inspections of ELC settings. Since 2016, Early Years Education Inspections (EYEIs) have been conducted in services delivering the ECCE programme. In line with a commitment in First 5, the DE commenced a programme of inspections across the full birth to six age range in ELC settings in receipt of public funding which started in 2023.

Pobal, a non-profit organisation, manages the funding schemes for ELC and SAC services on behalf of the DCEDIY. This includes funding, administration, compliance inspections and auditing functions. 

Better Start National Early Years Quality Development Service provides on-site mentoring and coaching services and provides a range of programmes and supports to enhance quality and inclusion in ELC. 

The DCEDIY funds a network of thirty City and County Childcare Committees which act as a point of contact for services and parents, and which provide a range of guidance, training and support on aspects of quality. The Department also funds, through the Programme for Support Organisations, actions to directly facilitate and support, or complement, the Department’s ELC, SAC and Childminding policy objectives. These include, but are not limited to, the provision of training to ELC/SAC providers, resource publications, contributions to national policy development and support in the provision of national programmes. 

The DCEDIY is the competent authority for ‘employees of pre-school service providers working with children’. Under the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016, all staff working directly with children in a pre-school service must hold at least major award in early childhood care and education at level 5 on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ), or a qualification that the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has deemed to be equivalent. DCEDIY has published and maintains a list of qualifications that meet both regulatory and funding requirements for working in ELC services.

To support the development of quality professional awards in ELC the Qualifications Advisory Board (QAB) was jointly established by DE and DCEDIY in 2020, to advise on the adherence of higher education (NFQ level 7 and 8) degree programmes to the Professional Award Criteria and Guidelines (PACG), published in 2019. Advice on the adherence of further education NFQ level 5 and 6 programmes is provided through Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) and the ELC Professional Award Type Descriptors (PATD). 

A National Action Plan for Childminding 2021-2028 was published by DCEDIY in 2021, setting out a phased approach to bringing home-based providers of ELC and SAC within the scope of regulations and supports. The regulation of childminding is expected to commence in September 2024, with a 3-year transition period, during which childminders will be able to register with Tusla (and thereafter also take part in the National Childcare Scheme) but will not be required to do so.

In the First 5: Annual Implementation Report 2023, the Government committed to continue to work to close the existing gap in public investment in ELC against the EU average.