AQW 41167/22-27
Ms Kate Nicholl
Alliance Party
South Belfast
Tabled Date: 23/02/2026
Answered On Date: 03/03/2026
Priority Written: No
Question:
To ask the Minister of Education to detail any immediate financial support he can put in place for childcare providers to ensure they can (i) remain open; and (ii) recruit and retain high-quality staff.
Answer:
As part of the £80m budget agreed by the Executive in the last two financial years for the Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) Strategy, I allocated funding to the Department for the Economy (DfE) to lead on a scoping exercise to develop a clearer picture of the business support requirements of the childcare sector. The published report in September 2025 concluded that, while there was insufficient evidence to justify government financial support for the sector as a whole, there was a need for specialised childcare business advice. A copy of the DfE report can be found here. As set out in the draft ELC Strategy, currently issued for public consultation, the establishment of this service is prioritised within the category 2 actions to be taken forward from April 2026. In addition, to support recruitment and retention to the sector, in this financial year I have allocated funding to: the Department for Communities to recruit childminders to the sector through Labour Market Partnerships; additional funding to the Department of Health to recruit more Approved Home Childcarers and enhanced training for the sector as a whole; to the DfE for the development of on-line accredited courses to develop flexible learning opportunities for the sector as well as a mapping exercise to identify gaps in management qualifications. Further proposals to support the workforce, including the recruitment and retention of staff are set out under Objective 3.3: Enhance the Early Years Infrastructure through a Skilled and Valued Workforce and include the identified need for a robust and ambitious ELC workforce plan. The scale and pace of delivery of the final strategy, once agreed by the Executive, will be determined by the resources made available.
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