Tusla Early Years Registration and the 2016 Regulations: Ratios, Qualifications and Inspection

Irish early years services are registered and inspected by Tusla’s Early Years Inspectorate, and funded separately by the Department of Children, Disability and Equality. Keeping those two things apart is the key to understanding what is legally required and what is a condition of a funding scheme — because the single most commonly misstated requirement in the sector, the Level 6 qualification for a person in charge, is the second kind, not the first.

The legal basis

Registration, regulation and inspection sit under Part VIIA of the Child Care Act 1991, as inserted and amended by Part 12 of the Child and Family Agency Act 2013.

The operative rules are the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016, S.I. No. 221 of 2016, signed on 4 May 2016 and commenced on 30 June 2016. These are the Principal Regulations, and they have been amended five times:

• S.I. No. 632 of 2016 — exempts staff employed by providers funded under the Access and Inclusion Model supporting children in the ECCE programme from the qualification requirement.
• S.I. No. 401 of 2021, commenced 1 September 2021 — deferred the qualification requirement to 1 September 2023 for previously exempted staff who signed a declaration and hold a Ministerial letter.
• S.I. No. 195 of 2022 — most provisions from 27 April 2022, with the new Regulation 7A from 31 January 2023. It introduced a streamlined renewal of registration process with a new form, extended the required enclosures to include National Vetting Bureau disclosures and evidence of valid insurance, broadened Tusla’s assessment powers, and created certificates of registration which must be issued and displayed prominently, unaltered, where parents and the public can see them.
• S.I. No. 387 of 2023, commenced 1 September 2023 — extended the qualification exemption to 1 September 2026 for childminders previously exempted who hold a Ministerial letter.
• S.I. No. 494 of 2024 — brought childminders into registration, paving the way for childminders to enter the National Childcare Scheme.

School-age childcare is a separate regime under S.I. No. 575 of 2018, commenced 18 February 2019 and amended by S.I. No. 58 of 2019.

The ratios, from Schedule 6

These are the figures most often reported wrongly, because the age bands differ between service types. Schedule 6 sets them out in four parts.

Full day care and part-time day care share one table: 0 to 1 year, one adult to three children; 1 to 2 years, one to five; 2 to 3 years, one to six; 3 to 6 years, one to eight.

Sessional pre-school services: 0 to 1 year, one to three; 1 to two and a half years, one to five; two and a half to 6 years, one to eleven.

Drop-in centres and temporary pre-school services: 0 to 6 years, one to four.

Overnight pre-school services: 0 to 1 year, one to three; 1 to 6 years, one to five.

Note the sessional bands carefully: one to two and a half, and two and a half to six — not the one-to-two, two-to-three, three-to-six bands used for full and part-time day care. That is the detail that most often gets copied across incorrectly.

The qualification requirement — and the Level 6 myth

Regulation 9(4) requires every employee working directly with children to hold at least a major award in Early Childhood Care and Education at Level 5 on the National Framework of Qualifications, or a qualification the Minister deems equivalent. Where the provider works in the service, they are treated as an employee for this purpose.

Regulation 9(5) sets the commencement: for services registered on or before 30 June 2016, the requirement applied from 31 December 2016; for all other services, from the date of registration. Regulation 9(6) contained a retirement exemption for people who signed a declaration on or before 30 June 2016 of intent to retire before 1 September 2021 and who held a Ministerial letter, with the later exemptions listed above layered on top.

Now the correction. The 2016 Regulations set no separate qualification level for the person in charge. Regulation 9 states the Level 5 minimum for employees working directly with children, and that is the regulatory requirement.

The Level 6 requirement for a pre-school leader is a funding-programme condition under the ECCE programme, introduced through the Early Years Quality Agenda, not a Tusla regulation. Higher capitation historically required pre-school leaders to hold Level 7 and assistants Level 5. So a service can be fully compliant with the Regulations while being ineligible for a particular funding rate — two different questions, and worth separating in any staffing decision. Because the current ECCE programme rules on this were not something we could verify from a current primary source, check the Level 6 and Level 7 conditions against the current programme rules or your funding agreement rather than against an article.

Registration

Non-temporary services must apply at least three months before commencing; temporary services at least 21 days. Applications require two references, a floor plan, proof of insurance, the policies, procedures and statements specified in Schedule 5, a safety statement where one exists, and National Vetting Bureau disclosures.

Fees are €80 for full day care, part-time day care, drop-in, temporary and overnight services, and €40 for sessional and childminding services. Tusla assesses the application and may visit the premises. A public register is published online, and since January 2023 a certificate of registration must be issued and displayed. Registration runs on a three-year cycle.

Garda vetting

Vetting must be completed before any person is appointed or allowed access to children — not started, completed. Applications must include National Vetting Bureau disclosure for the provider, each director where the provider is a body corporate, and the person in charge if different. Police vetting from another jurisdiction is required, where practicable, for anyone resident abroad for more than six consecutive months. Vetting records must be retained for five years.

Tusla’s own briefing notes that since 29 April 2016 it has been a criminal offence to work with children or vulnerable adults without Garda vetting. Staff who commenced after that date without vetting must be removed from the service until the disclosure is received, and existing unvetted staff found at inspection give rise to a non-compliance and conditions on registration.

First aid: a requirement without a specification

Regulation 25 requires that a person trained in first aid for children is immediately available at all times, together with a suitably equipped first aid box, safely stored, easily accessible and available at all times.

What the Regulations do not do is specify a course length, a certification body or a renewal interval. Any specific figure you see — a two-day course renewed every two years, for instance — is a sector convention rather than a regulatory requirement. That is a notable contrast with England, where the hours and the three-year validity are set out expressly, as covered in our guide to paediatric first aid under Annex A.

How inspection works

Tusla inspects against the 2016 Regulations, the 2016 Amendment Regulations and Part VIIA of the Child Care Act 1991. Risks identified under other legislation — building regulations, Children First, fire safety, food hygiene, tobacco control — are referred to the relevant statutory agency.

There are three inspection types. Planned inspections form an annual programme, with each service inspected at least once per three-year registration cycle, more often where risk is higher and potentially less often where controls and compliance history are strong. Unplanned or triggered inspections follow parental feedback, incident notifications, compliance checks on a statutory notice, or a change-in-circumstances request. Fit for purpose inspections apply to new registrations and changes to registration. Most inspections are unannounced.

The process runs: preparatory review of previous reports, enforcement history and concerns data; the on-site inspection, covering document review, observation, interviews with staff and management, a premises walkthrough, and structure and process quality including interactions and children’s voice; a feedback meeting on the day; then findings recorded and any statutory notices issued.

Two points about findings that distinguish the Irish system from the English one. Each regulation is recorded as compliant or non-compliant with summary comments — there is no grading scale, so there is no equivalent of an Ofsted judgement. And statutory notices, an Improvement Notice or an Immediate Action Notice, are reported with their status.

On the right of reply: a factual accuracy review may be requested within 10 working days of the draft report, for factual errors only. An Inspection Findings Review may be requested within 10 working days and is heard by an Inspection and Registration Manager, with a second-stage appeal within 5 working days of that outcome, heard by the Inspection Findings Review Panel. The Ombudsman may be contacted at any point.

Publication differs by outcome. Reports for fully compliant services are published on the Early Years Inspectorate website. Where there are non-compliances, a corrective action and preventive action plan is requested, with 10 working days to respond, and the report is published once the non-compliances are rectified. Unresolved issues may lead to a second plan, a Regulatory Compliance Meeting, conditions on registration, or escalation to the National Registration and Enforcement Panel. School-age services are not routinely inspected — only through triggered inspections — so only some have published reports.

Registration versus funding

Tusla registration is a legal precondition to operate. The Department of Children, Disability and Equality administers the funding schemes, and registration is separate from, and a prerequisite for, participation in them.

Core Funding is paid mainly on capacity — the number of places — rather than attendance, and requires Tusla registration, a completed Annual Early Years Sector Profile, and a contract to deliver ECCE or the National Childcare Scheme or both depending on the age ranges served. Its conditions include a fee freeze at September 2021 levels unless an increase is approved, and delivery of the sector pay scale. A Graduate Lead Educator Premium and a Graduate Manager Premium pay extra for graduate staff, the former having replaced the ECCE higher capitation.

The National Childcare Scheme is the parent-facing subsidy, with a universal element and an income-assessed element, for children over six months up to age 15. ECCE is the free pre-school programme — three hours a day, five days a week, 38 weeks a year, September to June — with eligibility at two years and eight months before 1 September and participation for up to two years, and with settings required to deliver a programme following Síolta and Aistear.

A third layer sits above both: the Department of Education’s Early Years Education-focused Inspections, carried out by Department inspectors observing processes and practices relating to children’s learning. These began in 2016 for ECCE-delivering services and were extended in 2023 to the full birth-to-six range, with a revised guide issued in 2024.

Frequently asked questions

What is the ratio for two-year-olds in Ireland?

In full day care and part-time day care, one adult to six children for the 2 to 3 year band. In a sessional service the bands differ: one to five up to two and a half, then one to eleven from two and a half to six.

Does the person in charge need a Level 6 qualification?

Not under the 2016 Regulations, which set a Level 5 minimum for employees working directly with children and no separate level for the person in charge. Level 6 and Level 7 conditions arise under funding programmes.

Can staff start while Garda vetting is pending?

No. Vetting must be completed before a person is appointed or allowed access to children.

Does Tusla grade services?

No. Each regulation is recorded as compliant or non-compliant with summary comments. There is no grading scale.

When is a non-compliant report published?

Once the non-compliances have been rectified, following a corrective action and preventive action plan to which the provider has 10 working days to respond.

What first aid training is required?

A person trained in first aid for children must be immediately available at all times. The Regulations specify no course length, awarding body or renewal interval.

The training that follows from this

The Regulations create three practical training obligations: a Level 5 major award for everyone working directly with children, first aid for children available at all times, and the child protection duties that flow from Children First — covered in our guide to Children First training. The wider safeguarding content is in our guides to safeguarding children and designated safeguarding lead training, and the contrasting English framework is in our guide to the EYFS statutory framework.

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