School-Age Childcare Has No Qualification Requirement: What S.I. 575/2018 Actually Says

Everyone in Irish childcare knows about the Level 5 requirement. Far fewer know how much of the sector it does not touch.

Staff working exclusively in a school-age childcare service are not subject to it. Neither are childminders. In both cases the law asks for something quite different, and in the school-age case it produces an oddity: there is no qualification requirement to do the job, but there is a statutory pay rate that depends on holding a Level 7.

What the school-age regulations actually require

School-age services are registered under a separate instrument: S.I. No. 575 of 2018, the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) (Registration of School Age Services) Regulations 2018. It is not the same regime as the 2016 Regulations that govern pre-school services.

Regulation 8 deals with staff. It requires that each employee, unpaid worker and contractor be suitable and competent, and sets out how that is to be assessed: references, National Vetting Bureau disclosures, and international police vetting where a person has lived abroad for more than six consecutive months.

That is the whole of the staffing standard. There is no award, no NFQ level, no major-award requirement, and no list of acceptable qualifications. Suitable and competent, evidenced by references and vetting.

Tusla own regulatory notice on qualifications confirms the boundary from the other direction: the Level 5 requirement is not applicable to staff working exclusively in a school-age service.

And the ratio is a single flat number

Regulation 9(2) sets a minimum of one adult to twelve children at all times while the service is operating. One ratio, no age bands.

Compare that with the pre-school position, where Schedule 6 of the 2016 Regulations runs to six service types and multiple age bands — 1:3 for under-ones, 1:5, 1:6, 1:8 in full and part-time day care, and 1:11 for two-and-a-half to six year olds in sessional pre-school. Our guide to Tusla registration and the 2016 Regulations sets those out in full.

Regulation 9(1) adds a qualitative requirement alongside the ratio: an adequate number of competent and suitable adults on the premises while the service is operating. So the 1:12 is a floor rather than a sufficient answer — a service with a high proportion of children with additional needs, or a split-site operation, can be compliant on the ratio and still fall short on Regulation 9(1).

The oddity: no qualification floor, but a graduate pay rate

Here is where the two bodies of law pull in different directions.

The Employment Regulation Orders operative from 13 October 2025 set statutory minimum hourly rates across the sector, and they cover school-age roles explicitly: a School Age Childcare Practitioner at €15.00, a SAC Coordinator at €16.00, and a Graduate SAC Coordinator at €17.50, that last rate conditional on a minimum QQI Level 7 or equivalent approved by the Department.

So the position in school-age childcare is that you need no qualification at all to be employed, and a Level 7 to reach the top coordinator rate. The qualification does no regulatory work and all of its work in pay. Our guide to the Employment Regulation Orders covers all seven rates and the conditions attached.

For a provider, that is actually a cleaner commercial picture than the pre-school one. Training in school-age childcare is not a compliance purchase, because there is nothing to comply with. It is a quality and retention decision, and at coordinator level a pay-progression one.

Childminding: training, not an award

Childminding was brought into regulation by S.I. No. 494 of 2024, the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) (Childminding Services) Regulations 2024, in operation from 30 September 2024 with two sub-provisions following on 1 February 2025.

Again there is no major-award requirement. Regulation 9(1) requires childminder-specific pre-registration training, first aid training and child safeguarding training, as deemed appropriate by the Minister. Regulation 9(2) requires completion of a Quality Development Programme.

That is a training obligation rather than a qualification obligation, and the distinction matters when buying: what satisfies it is a course the Minister accepts, not an NFQ award at a particular level.

The childminding ratios in Regulation 12 are their own structure: a maximum of six children at any time, a maximum of two under fifteen months — more only with Agency approval, and only where they are siblings — and the childminder own children under ten count towards the total when present.

One historical point worth knowing if you are reading older guidance. A deferral of the Level 5 requirement existed for certain childminders under Regulation 9(6C) of the 2016 Regulations, inserted in 2023, running to 1 September 2026. That date has passed, and the deferral applied to childminders only. Anything still describing it as live is out of date.

Where the Level 5 requirement does bite, and on whom

For completeness, since the boundary is the point of this piece. In a pre-school service, Regulation 9(4) of the 2016 Regulations applies to every employee working directly with children, including supernumerary staff, and to the registered provider where they work directly with children. The Regulations draw no distinction between room leader, assistant and manager — the same Level 5 floor applies to all of them.

It does not apply to staff who do not work directly with children, to employment support programme participants, or to students on placement.

That last exclusion sits oddly alongside the vetting rules, and the asymmetry is worth planning for: a student on placement is outside the qualification requirement but squarely inside the vetting one, because Tusla treats students on placement as unpaid workers. Vetting must be in place before access to children commences, evidence of a disclosure dated within the last 36 months is expected, and for unpaid workers copies of the vetting documentation must be held on file in the service.

There is also a widely repeated claim that a Level 6 is required for a room leader or person in charge. It is not in the Regulations. It is a programme funding condition, which is a different thing with different consequences for non-compliance.

Two practical consequences

If you operate both a pre-school and a school-age service, your staffing compliance runs on two different standards and you should not maintain one qualification matrix across both. A staff member moving between the two crosses a regulatory boundary: working exclusively in school-age care, they are outside the Level 5 requirement; the moment they work directly with children in the pre-school service, they are inside it.

And if you are buying training for a school-age team, be clear with yourself about why. No course is required to register or to pass inspection. What courses buy you there is capability, retention, and — at coordinator level with a Level 7 — a higher statutory pay obligation you are choosing to take on. For how the qualification routes themselves work on both sides of the Irish Sea, see our guide to early years educator qualification routes.