Debate contribution: Childcare Strategy

Debate contribution by Mr Paul Givan on 3 November 2025.

MLA

Mr Paul Givan

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

3 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Childcare Strategy

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5213763

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Transforming early learning and childcare has been a key priority for me since I took up the office of Minister of Education. The priority to:

"Deliver More Affordable, Accessible, High-Quality Early Learning and Childcare",

as set out in the Programme for Government, demonstrates the Executive's commitment to invest in that area over the longer term. I am happy to confirm that I will bring a draft strategy to my Executive colleagues for consideration within the next few weeks — certainly before the end of 2025, as is requested in the motion. If that draft strategy is agreed, it will be subject to a public consultation. The strategy will address all the issues that Members have raised today. It will build on the significant investment of £80 million already allocated by the Executive, which is making a positive difference for thousands of children, families and providers across Northern Ireland. That has allowed us to introduce a range of tangible measures, including the Northern Ireland childcare subsidy scheme, which initially targeted support to families with preschool children, but was extended to include school-age children from 1 September 2025. That scheme now provides support to a much wider group of working parents, with the recent expansion to school-age children resulting in a 60% increase in the number of children who are eligible for the subsidy. That has helped to address the cumulative childcare costs that are faced by families with multiple children aged from 0 to 11, and it is in line with the tax-free childcare coverage. The scheme has made a meaningful, tangible difference to families by providing a 15% reduction to registered childcare costs, with potential savings of up to 32% when combined with the United Kingdom's tax-free childcare. In order to maximise the benefit of the subsidy for parents, when childcare fees increased in April 2025, I again acted, increasing the subsidy cap of the scheme by 10% to £184 per month per child and raising administrative payments to providers. Almost 22,500 children are registered and active on the subsidy scheme. Since September 2024, £17·8 million has been paid out to reduce childcare costs for eligible working families. That is a significant investment that simply would not have happened had I not prioritised the introduction of the scheme ahead of the strategy. When the scheme is combined with tax-free childcare, working families in Northern Ireland have saved approximately £37·5 million on their childcare costs. I accept that bills are still unacceptably high for some families. I want to go further. In the context of the strategy, I will bring proposals to the Executive that would further improve affordability. In addition, the £80 million that has been allocated by the Executive to date has enabled me to fund the creation of 2,500 more full-time preschool places, with the provision of a free school meal for eligible children. That means that half of our preschool places are now full time, with further increases planned for September 2026. Added to that is the additional funding to support children who face disadvantage via Sure Start, the pathway fund, the Toybox project and a range of programmes to support additional needs or disability. That early investment has made a real and meaningful difference for many children who often find the odds stacked against them. I have clearly demonstrated my intention to enhance and transform early learning and childcare in Northern Ireland through the actions that I have taken forward to date. I am sure that colleagues will agree that that is a significant achievement in a very short timescale. I take the opportunity to acknowledge the positive partnership working across Departments with the early learning and childcare sector and parents in enabling the successful roll-out of those initial actions. I thank all for their continued work and support as we move to introducing and implementing an early learning and childcare strategy for Northern Ireland that builds on the successes to date. It is essential to the success of all cross-cutting strategies that Departments work together in a collaborative and tangible way. That is why I established the cross-departmental task and finish group to ensure that the measures to date and the longer-term strategy reflect each Department's policy needs in the early learning and childcare arena. My officials have also worked closely with the Department of Health, which has statutory responsibility for childcare regulation, including minimum standards for day care and childminding provision, and the Department for Communities to support those on low incomes with childcare costs and those who are economically inactive to get into the workplace. In addition, work continues with the Department for the Economy on supporting training and apprenticeships in the sector and on proposals for a specific business advisory service. Whilst progress from that Department has been very slow, I am grateful that the Economy Minister has led on the recently published scoping study on the sustainability of the childcare sector. The recommendations from that report will also feed into the strategy. The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs has also been at the table to ensure that any planned action is considered through a rural lens. That collaboration has been essential to address the challenges that we face in transforming early learning and childcare. I am committed to continuing with that approach. In tandem with successful cross-departmental engagement, my Department has engaged directly with parents, children and the early years sector. I have attended a number of meetings with the early learning and childcare stakeholder engagement forum, which allowed me to hear at first hand the challenges that they face. I listened to what was said and incorporated proposals in the draft strategy to address a wide range of issues, many of which were mentioned today. A robust evidence base is critical to determining where investment should be directed. I commissioned the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency to carry out the Northern Ireland childcare survey, and the first ever official statistics on childcare in Northern Ireland were published on 8 May this year. It provided insight into a range of issues, including the type and amount of childcare used, childcare costs, summer holiday childcare arrangements and the factors that influence parental childcare choices, including affordability, quality of care and proximity, to name a few. Those findings, alongside the data that is being gathered through the Northern Ireland childcare subsidy scheme, other commissioned reviews and significant stakeholder engagement, are supporting the development of the draft strategy and ensuring that it reflects the needs of children, families and the sector. The strategy will include measures to support the early learning and childcare workforce, recognising the issues with recruitment and retention and the need to truly value and support all those who provide those essential services to ensure the best start in life for all our children. It will build on the early actions to support child development, including for those with special educational needs or disabilities, children in Irish-medium education and those for whom English is not a first language. The strategy will be comprehensive and ambitious, but it will also be realistic. The scale and pace of implementation will depend on the budget that is available. It will include a proposed prioritisation and be structured in a way that enables actions to be scaled up or down or rescheduled. It will be flexible, allowing us to respond to the funding that is available over the coming years. I have consistently said that I would bring the strategy to the Executive by this autumn, and I will do so. If agreed by the Executive, it will be consulted on. I invite the House and Executive to support the strategy and, when the time comes, provide the funding that will be necessary to deliver it. We have too many strategies that are a substitute for delivery. I do not want this one to be another example of that. I thank Members for their contributions to the debate, even if some strayed into party politics. I welcome further engagement with all concerned so that the benefits of a new early learning and childcare strategy are fully realised for children, families and the wider early learning and childcare sector.

1,371 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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