AQW 22871/22-27
Mrs Michelle Guy
Alliance Party
Lagan Valley
Tabled Date: 18/02/2025
Answered On Date: 19/02/2025
Priority Written: Yes
Question:
To ask the Minister of Education, pursuant to AQW 20966/22-27, to detail (i) how much of the £2 million, earmarked from the £25 million Early Learning and Childcare Funding, has been used in respect of scoping and developing a Targeted Business Support Scheme; and (ii) why the full £2 million was not spent.
Answer:
On 23 May 2024, I received Executive approval for a package of early learning and childcare measures to be implemented in the 2024/25 financial year. Within this, £2m was earmarked for a targeted business support scheme for childcare providers. Following engagement between officials through the Task and Finish Group, I wrote to the Economy Minister in July 2024 to formally request that his Department, in conjunction with Invest Northern Ireland, lead on the development and implementation of this measure given their expertise in designing and delivering business support instruments and the need to ensued alignment with existing economic development interventions. The Economy Minister advised that his department needed greater clarity around the scheme objectives and offered to lead a scoping exercise to better understand the support needs of the childcare sector and identify what an appropriate government response should be. Just over £150,000 of the £2m available was requested and transferred to DfE in the September monitoring round to carry out this scoping work which was initially expected to complete by the end of December 2024. The timeframe for completion of the DfE-led exercise was subsequently extended to end March 2025 in order to allow for a more comprehensive assessment. The balance was returned to the Department of Finance as part of the January monitoring exercise, given that this funding is ringfenced by the Executive.
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