To ask the Minister of Education (i) whether each child between the age of three and four years is entitled to a funded preschool place; (ii) why preschools have a limit on the number of funded places they can offer; (iii) why preschools may have to cut the number of funded places they offer; and (iv) how preschools who decline government funded children are then able to accept children if their parents pay for a place.

Pre-school provision is an important phase of early education and learning therefore, it is my Department’s aim to provide one year of funded pre-school education for every target age child whose parents want it. In the last eight years, at least 99.8% of parents who stayed with the admissions process to the end received the offer of a funded pre-school education place in a setting of their preference.

Funded pre-school places are provided through the Pre-School Education Programme (PSEP), and accessed via a preference based admissions process. Operational decisions about the allocation and funding of non-statutory pre-school education places is the responsibility of the Education Authority Pre-School Education Group (EA PEG). This group comprises representatives from the statutory, voluntary and private sectors and is chaired by an officer or member of the EA Board. It operates within strict parameters, allocating only sufficient funded places to meet the level of demand in local areas. All non-statutory settings are allocated places for one year at a time, and no setting is guaranteed a minimum allocation, or one that will accommodate all first preference applications.

The EA PEG keeps the provision of funded places under constant review and may contact non-statutory pre-school settings directly to allocate additional funded places should they identify a need, e.g. where there is a shortfall of provision in a local area.

All non-statutory settings are registered as childcare providers under The Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 and as such, have the flexibility to offer fee paying childcare places to parents if they wish, under the stipulation that the relevant requirements of the Minimum Standards are adhered to.