Debate contribution: Childcare Providers: Funding

Debate contribution by Ms Kate Nicholl on 21 January 2025.

MLA

Ms Kate Nicholl

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

21 January 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Childcare Providers: Funding

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4749611

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I should start by declaring an interest. I will soon require further childcare

and will avail myself of the NICSS, which I was very happy to see. I ran for election because of childcare. In my constituency, I saw how parents and families were struggling. I saw how some people who do some of the most precious work in our economy are paid poverty wages. I saw the lack of standardised childcare across the board, the need for investment in it and the need to recognise childcare as the social and economic infrastructure that it is. I want to pick up on a number of things. I welcome Diane Forsythe's tabling the motion. From the all-party group, I know that she is passionate about childcare and has done a lot of work on it. I will pick up on a couple of points that Peter Martin made, particularly about people wanting to hear us talking about this and the fact that it is an important issue, which it is. What people want to hear us talking about, though, is the content of the childcare strategy and its delivery. I echo what my colleague Michelle Guy said, which is that it is a sign of some concern to us that this issue is being brought to the Assembly as a motion. When the Assembly was restored, every single party leader stood up in the House and said that childcare was an Executive priority and that they were going to work together. I understand that a task force with officials from each Department is working on this, given that it is across the board. Obviously, the majority of it lies with the Minister of Education, but it also involves other Departments. It will be interesting to hear how the task force is going and what work is being undertaken. The setting up of the scheme should not be the height of our ambition. Having the audit done is not the final piece of the jigsaw; significant work is still required. I would like an update on what is happening with the task force. That is where this discussion should be happening, and the public discussion and debate should really be on the content of the early years and childcare strategy. Preschool is not childcare, it is early education, and the two have been conflated in the Chamber today. That is partly because some parties, with the exception of Alliance and, to be fair, Sinn Féin, which has championed the subsidised supply-side scheme and has never had a position on free hours, have had to manoeuvre things to make this a little more palatable. Yes, expansion of preschool provision is very important, but let us be honest: the main reason that there has been so much of a focus on free hours is to make it easier for the DUP to change its policy position. Alliance published its paper 'Children First' in October 2023, and that was done off the back of engagement with the sector, families, academics and business. It was very clear to us that, if we were building a childcare scheme from scratch, it would look very different but that, given where we are now, the best and most practical way of moving forward and ensuring that people can access affordable, accessible, flexible, high-quality childcare is to have a supply-side scheme. That is wonderful to have in place, but it is not the height of our ambition. My colleague Michelle Guy has articulated the need for school-age childcare. It is so important. There are some things that it would be worth seeing and hearing a bit more about. I sit on the Economy Committee, and the 'good jobs' Bill will soon be introduced. There is no specific reference to childcare in that Bill. People could work in the best place in the world and have the best rights, but if they cannot afford their childcare, that will not help. We have to look at the ecosystem in which we are operating. There is also a need for minimum standards. That was mentioned earlier when ratios, signing off students and students' ability to get places were spoken about. That sits with the Minister of Health. It does not sit with the Minister for the Economy or the Minister of Education. It is therefore another example of how it is a cross-departmental issue and of how there is a need for the task force to drive the work. There are still a couple of issues with the scheme. People who use childcare vouchers cannot avail themselves of it. There is also a need to focus on parents' ability to have support so that they can stay in work. Those voices are sometimes the loudest, so it is really important that we listen to them. Childcare is an anti-poverty tool as well, however. It is therefore so important that we expand Sure Start and look at how we can help people who are struggling. Providers are having so much difficulty recruiting and retaining staff.

Thank you. We will be supporting the motion and the amendment.

852 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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