To ask the Minister of Education to outline his engagement with pre-school education settings on their readiness to facilitate the extension of the Pre-School Education Programme.

Mr Givan

There has been significant engagement with stakeholder groups and preschool settings on the standardisation of preschool sessions as part of the wider early learning and childcare strategy engagement. A stakeholder engagement forum was established in autumn 2022 to ensure maximum engagement and to assist with the development of costed options for an early learning and childcare strategy. My Department also commissioned an independent in-depth scoping study to assess the state of readiness of the preschool sector to transition to a standardised 22·5 hours a week. That involved detailed surveys for every funded preschool education setting. The scoping study is nearing completion. In addition, my officials carried out extensive engagement in regard to the amalgamation for standardisation pilot. The information gathered will be used to inform further decisions and plans for the phased implementation of standardisation for all preschools and to inform the development of costed options for standardisation for the Executive. It is essential that we have input from a wide range of stakeholders as we take forward that work, and I am committed to ongoing and meaningful engagement.

Mr Givan

The full, detailed costs of standardisation will depend on a range of factors, on some of which decisions have yet to be taken. It will also be informed by the scoping study that is due to report at the end of March. I will engage with Executive colleagues on that in due course. In order to give a figure to the Member, however, we have estimated that standardisation is likely to cost approximately an extra £35 million a year when fully operational, with additional up-front and one-off capital costs of approximately £10 million plus human resource costs. That is on top of the £65 million that the current programme costs annually.

Mrs Mason

Knowing the issues with the workforce in early years settings, has the Minister considered a workforce strategy as part of that engagement with childcare settings?

Mr Givan

The Member raises a point that has already been highlighted to me by childcare providers, which is that the ability to attract and retain people in the workforce is a challenge. That needs to be taken into account in what we are trying to achieve. There is a childcare strategy stakeholder engagement forum, and I will seek to engage with that, as well as with other organisations that make provision in this area. In providing appropriate childcare, we need to make sure that we have the workforce available to make that provision.

Mr Dunne

How long will it take for all sessions to move to 22·5 hours?

Mr Givan

That will be dependent on Executive approval and the availability of funding. Options will be set out in the scoping study. Decisions taken on those options will impact on the speed of transition to a standardised session length. Some preschool settings will be in a position to transition to the standardised session length quickly, while others will take much longer. It is likely to be a number of years before standardisation is fully implemented and all funded preschool sessions are moved to 22·5 hours per week.