Dear Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare provider, 

In the previous communication, there was an error in the date given for how long the 2023/24 Annual Early Years Sector Profile survey will be available for on the Early Years Hive.

Please see the full communication here with the date corrected and our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

We are pleased to advise that the 2023/24 Annual Early Years Sector Profile survey will be available on the Early Years Hive from today, Tuesday, 7 May until Friday, 31 May.

The Annual Early Years Sector Profile is the primary data source on the Irish Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC) sector. It is developed and administered by Pobal on behalf of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY).

The survey, which has been running for 22 years, plays a central role in informing policy development, assessing the impact of policy change and provides a comprehensive national analysis of over 4,000 ELC and SAC services throughout Ireland. Data from the survey will be published through interactive dashboards on the new Early Learning and Childcare Data website.

While we encourage all services to complete the survey, the completion of this year’s survey within the open window is mandatory for all existing Core Funding Partner Services. Services who wish to become a Core Funding Partner Service in the future must also complete the survey in advance of submitting their Core Funding application. As well as providing information about the sector, this survey enables the capture of data that will help to monitor the impact of Core Funding on the sector. 

The overall number of questions has again been reduced in this year’s survey. To help limit the time and effort required to complete the survey, much of the service characteristics, and further staff information for the Annual Early Years Sector Profile will be sourced from the Service Profile and Core Funding application data. Services are required to update their Service Profile before commencing the 2023/24 Annual Early Years Sector Profile survey.

Many thanks in advance for sharing this valuable information about your service which will contribute to the overall snapshot of the sector.

City and County Childcare Committees are available to assist and support with completing the Sector Profile. In addition, training videos will also be available on the Early Years Hive.

Regards,

Early Years Division