Early child care providers under increasing stress and financial pressure - DCU study

A new study carried out by Researchers at Dublin City University’s School of Inclusive & Special Education, DCU’s Centre for Inclusive Pedagogy, and the Federation for Early Childhood Providers found 95% of early childhood providers (those who owned/ ran an early childhood service) identifying as being stressed, under severe financial pressure, struggling to stay open with little government support and to afford to pay staff. The survey was conducted in May of this year.

The survey was completed by providers from all 26 counties, with Dublin, Cork, Galway, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow seeing the highest number of respondents. Those respondents ran a range of services, including seasonal childcare, full time childcare, part time childcare and school age childcare.

Speaking about the financial pressures they faced, one respondent wrote

“To the most stressful [is] the balancing of the books and all that goes with it… I’m so stressed all the time and that’s for years. The joy is gone from everything in this business except the joy of the children and what I provide for them everyday. That at this stage isn’t enough for me going forward in my life. I’ve built this business up and gave it everything and to have so many worries for myself is a debilitating circumstance.”

Another commented 

“My main source of stress is financial worry, can I pay the staff?”

Lead author Dr Laura Gormley said

“Early childhood professionals play a critical role in the lives of the children they work with, and their psychological well-being significantly impacts this relationship. Over recent years, societal changes, coupled with new policy, has increased the demands and pressures faced by these professionals.

"These findings indicate that early childhood providers would benefit from bottom-up and top-down assistance to positively support their well-being. This is vital if they are to thrive in their professional roles and provide high quality, transformative experiences for our children.

"Our findings are consistent with previous research, showing how early childhood providers’ well-being is inextricably linked to their work environment. Staff wellbeing and the well-being of those leading these services is critical to high quality service provision.”

The study, The Well-Being of Early Childhood Providers in Ireland, is available to read here.