This release is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example, new administrative data sources.
This chapter provides an overview of the kinds of Early Learning and Care (ELC) settings that took part in the OECD TALIS Starting Strong survey in Ireland in terms of setting characteristics, staffing numbers, staff turnover, and child enrolment numbers. Responses from managers on questions about the setting culture are also presented here.
More than half of ELC settings are located in rural areas or small towns (58.6% of pre-primary settings, 62.4% of settings for children under age 3) while only 10.9% of pre-primary settings and 22.1% of settings for children under age 3 reported their location as city/large city (See Figure 1.1 and Table 1.1).
ELC managers were asked how strongly they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements about the neighbourhood of their setting. The majority reported positively on their setting’s neighbourhood as more than seven in ten managers disagreed or strongly disagreed that there is litter lying around (73.6% of pre-primary settings, 71.8% of settings for children under age 3) or that there was vandalism (76.1% of pre-primary settings, 75.4% of settings for children under age 3).
More than seven in ten ELC managers also agreed or strongly agreed that there are public places where children can play safely (73.9% of pre-primary settings, 76.9% of settings for children under age 3) and that there are nearby services for families (72.0% of pre-primary settings, 77.5% of settings for children under age 3). More than four in ten ELC managers (47.7% of pre-primary settings, 42.1% of settings for children under age 3) agreed or strongly agreed that there are drug related problems in their setting neighbourhood (See Table 1.2 and Table 1.3).
In terms of staffing levels, more than two thirds of pre-primary settings and more than four in ten settings for children under age 3 had less ten staff or less (See Table 1.4).
ELC managers were also asked to report on staff turnover in their setting. More than half of pre-primary settings (57.3%) and settings for children under age 3 (51.0%) reported between one and three new staff joining in the 12 months prior to completing the survey. More than four in ten pre-primary settings (41.7%) and over five in ten settings for children under age 3 (56.6%) reported that between one and three staff permanently left their role in the setting in the last 12 months. Over four in ten managers in settings for children under age 3 (46.6%) reported that between one and three staff temporarily did not work in the setting in the last 12 months (See Table 1.5 and Table 1.6).
Around three quarters of pre-primary settings (73.7%) and more than six in ten settings for children under age 3 (60.6%) had less than 60 children enrolled at the time of the survey (See Table 1.7).
ELC Managers were asked if there were children who wanted to enrol at this ELC setting, during the last 12 months, who were not able to as there were no available places. More than half of pre-primary settings (50.8%) and more than six in ten settings (66.5%) for children under age 3 reported that in the last 12 months children were placed on waiting lists and were still on waiting lists at the time of completing the survey (See Figure 1.2).
ELC Managers were asked to report on the work climate and distributed leadership in their setting. Around eight in ten managers from pre-primary settings (79.8%) and settings for children under age 3 (82.2%) agreed that children have ‘quite a bit’ or ‘a lot’ of opportunities to actively participate in decisions in their settings. More than eight in ten managers from pre-primary settings (81.5%) and over seven in ten managers from settings for children under age 3 (73.7%) agreed ‘quite a bit’ or ’a lot’ that, in their setting, there is a collaborative culture which is characterised by mutual support.
Around eight in ten managers from pre-primary settings (79.4%) and more than three quarters of managers from settings for children under age 3 (77.8%) reported ‘not at all’ or ‘to some extent’ that in their setting they make the important decisions on their own (See Figure 1.3 and Figure 1.4).
ELC managers were asked to break down the percentage of time in their role they spent on the following tasks: administrative leadership tasks and meetings, pedagogical leadership, interactions with children, interactions with parents or guardians, interactions with other stakeholders and other tasks.
Just under three in ten managers in pre-primary settings (29.1%) and more than four in ten managers from settings for children under age 3 (43.7%) spend over 50% of their time on administrative leadership tasks and meetings. Around six in ten managers in pre-primary settings (65.0%) and in settings for children under age 3 (66.7%) spend between 10% and 29% of their time on pedagogical leadership (guiding and supporting teaching and learning).
More than four in ten managers in pre-primary settings (44.6%) reported spending over 50% of their time on interactions with children (See Table 1.8 and Table 1.9).
Managers in both settings were presented with a list of issues that could hinder the setting’s capacity to provide a quality environment for development, well-being and learning of children. They were asked to indicate the extent of their agreement with whether the issues applied in their setting. The biggest issue to the provision of a quality environment was a shortage of qualified staff. Over four in ten managers (45.3%) from pre-primary settings and six in ten managers from settings for children under age 3 (60.0%) reported that a shortage of staff hindered them ‘quite a bit’ or ‘a lot’.
Staff absences were also reported as hindering the settings ‘quite a bit’ or ‘a lot’ at 55.2% of managers at settings for children under age 3. Four in ten managers at both settings (41.9% of managers from pre-primary settings, 41.5% of managers from settings for children under age 3) reported changes in available funding hindered them ‘quite a bit’ or ‘a lot’ in their capacity to provide a quality environment for children.
Issues that managers reported as having ‘not a lot’ of impact on their provision of a quality environment were insufficient utilities (94.5% of managers from pre-primary settings, 92.2% of managers from settings for children under age 3), shortage or inadequacy of play or learning materials (79.5% of managers from pre-primary settings, 70.0% of managers from settings for children under age 3) and shortage or inadequacy of indoor space (62.1% of managers from pre-primary settings, 68.5% of managers from settings for children under age 3) (See Table 1.10 and Table 1.11).
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