All Party Group on Early Education and Childcare 22 May 2025
The meeting was well attended by a range of stakeholders including elected representatives, senior departmental officials and those representing early education and childcare, the women’s sector as well as business and parents’ organisations.
The meeting which was chaired by Peter Martin MLA heard a summary of recent developments which included a £55 million package of measures for early learning and childcare. The announcement included an extension to the Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme to cover primary school age children. Estimates indicate an increase in the number of children who could possibly benefit from the from the scheme will increase to 24,000. There are currently approximately 15,000 children involved so that would be an increase of 60%.
The Education Minister, Paul Givan MLA, had said the combination of the 15% increase for working parents of school age children who will now be eligible for receiving the subsidy up to the capped amount, alongside Tax Free Childcare payments, will result in a reduction of approximately 32% on childcare bills.
As part of his announcement the Education Minister had also promised to provide crucial support for early years services including Sure Start, the Bookstart Baby Programme, Toybox and the Pathway Fund. The additional monies allocated are aimed at helping to stabilise the sector. Most importantly he restated his intention to develop a long awaited Early Learning and Childcare Strategy within the next few months – by Autumn 2025.
This update was welcomed by the Chair of the meeting and he emphasized the importance of moving forward to publish the Early Learning and Childcare Strategy as an essential step in being able to provide sustainable, long term high quality childcare across the region.
Guest speaker Francis Loye – Director of Giggles Early Years and Chair of the Daycare Forum gave an update in relation to SEN. He provided details in a presentation on ‘Refining early childhood education – SEN inequalities
In the early years sector’.
Diarmuid Moore from Early Years – Senior Community Development Specialist – provided the meeting with an update on the recent Review of Governance in the Community and Voluntary Early Years sector in Northern Ireland. The report highlighted the specific nature of the childcare settings from the community and voluntary sector especially those in rural areas and areas of high deprivation.
A number of questions were raised in the question and answer session following the presentations.
The next meeting of the APG is scheduled for Thursday 25th September and will be an in-person event. Details will be provided by Early Years – the organisation for young children.
