To ask the Minister of Education to outline the correct staff-to-child ratio for children up to 12 years of age; and how the Early Years funding cut is likely to impact upon adequate staff cover within funded projects.

All settings which provide care for children under the age of 12 (including groups which offer Pre-School Education Programme places) are required to register with the Health and Social Care Trusts under the Children (NI) Order 1995. DHSSPS officials have confirmed that the staff-to-child ratios for settings working with children under the age of 12 are outlined in Volume two of the guidance to the Order and are:

0 to 2 years = 1:3

2 to 3 years = 1:4

3 to 12 = 1:8

Regardless of group size, at least 2 members of staff should be on duty at all times.

It is therefore a matter for each group, under the terms of their registration certificate, issued by the Health and Social Care Trusts, to ensure that the specified ratios are adhered to.

The Early Years Fund is administered by Early Years – the Organisation for Young Children (EYO) on DE’s behalf under annual Service Level Agreement. Awards may be made towards a contribution towards the salary costs of the group or to meet a deficit between income and predicted expenditure.

The Executive’s Budget has been reduced by the Westminster Government by £1.5bn over the last five years. As a direct result of this reduction there is significantly reduced money to spend on frontline services such as Education. I have taken every action possible to protect Education funding and those frontline services within the Department of Education’s (DE) remit. However, it is simply impossible to protect everything, hence my decision to reduce the funding for the Early Years Fund.

I have endeavoured to minimise the impact to the Early Years Fund as far as possible by ensuring that Early Years Fund funding is available to enable all current recipients to receive continued funding until 31st August 2015.

I will continue to review my budget to establish if a fund can continue beyond 31 August 2015. However any such fund will have to be open to all applicants, not just current recipients, and reflect the policy priorities of the Department of Education.