All Party Group on Early Education and Childcare February Meeting

In a rare opportunity the The Education Minister Paul Givan MLA was available to attend the meeting. It was acknowledged the work the Department of Education and the wider sector had done in progressing the draft Executive Early Learning and Childcare Strategy. This being the first meeting since the launch of the draft Early Learning and Childcare Strategy the hard work of the All Party Group in campaigning for a Strategy over the last 6 years was highlighted and acknowledged.

The Minister expressed that early education and childcare concerns has been a priority for him since coming into office, he also highlighted the themes of, supporting children in their early years, supporting families with their children’s learning and childcare costs and supporting the early years sector and workforce. He also stated that that he is committed to making sustained progress for early learning and childcare while acknowledging there will be difficult choices ahead but this is an opportunity to enhance the sector.

The increased funding for the extension of the NI Childcare Subsidy Scheme and the roll out of the standardisation of Pre-School Education are two examples of how funding has already been provided to action some of the commitments included in the Strategy.

There are also other ambitious actions in the Strategy including increasing the subsidy towards  childcare costs up to 50% and increasing long-term support for childcare staff to address recruitment and retention concerns, in addition to providing the real living wage and promoting a more diverse workforce.

The implementation of these actions will depend on the level of the resources allocated, and so the  Department has proposed that initiatives can be scaled up or down depending on resources.

The Consultation on the draft Executive Early Learning and Childcare Strategy is available here, and will be open until 24 March 2026.