Written answer
Childcare Services
The Department acknowledged HIVE’s slow performance and a separate September outage, saying Pobal had deployed improvements and was monitoring results. An independent review is developing options to modernise or replace the system, while providers can seek technical support through the Early Years Provider Centre; administrative costs are covered through Core Funding.
1096. Deputy Robert O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality the steps being taken by her Department to address the ongoing issues experienced by early learning and childcare providers across the country in using the HIVE system, particularly the significant difficulties and administrative problems reported by providers throughout the summer; whether her Department has assessed the impact these ongoing system issues have had on providers, including the additional staff time and administrative workload involved in resolving issues and accessing supports; whether she will undertake comprehensive usability and accessibility testing of the hive. [65966/26]
Comment on this
The Department has been aware of an issue with HIVE, since 26th August, leading to longer than usual page load times and slow system performance. The Department engaged proactively with Pobal to resolve it since alerted.
Since then, both the Department and Pobal have continued to investigate the issue and engaged additional expertise wherever there is potential to assist in identifying root causes and solutions.
Pobal have deployed a series of system improvements and are closely monitoring system performance following this deployment to assess its impact, particularly during periods of peak demand.
The Department and Pobal recognise the impact these issues had on services and the importance of restoring confidence in system performance. On 5th and 6th of September, during a regular maintenance update, Pobal experienced an outage. The root cause was identified and has since been resolved. We acknowledged this separate issue added to poor user experience.
Digital systems are central to the administration of early learning and childcare programmes and schemes. To this end, Simplify and Support contained a number of commitments to deliver phased upgrades to the HIVE and other key systems.
An independent third party was appointed in April to review options for a long-term digital system for early learning and childcare, including the option of modernising the existing system or developing a new system and carry out a detailed analysis of the proposed long-term-digital system identified to include functional and non-functional specifications. This project is a priority action for the Department and has progressed at pace over the past number of months.
Funding to support administration costs for providers is included in Core Funding. This replaces the Programme Support Payments (PSP), which supported early learning and childcare providers in meeting the costs arising from the administrative work associated with the Department’s schemes, and for the time required to perform activities outside of contact time with children. The budget previously allocated to PSP has now been incorporated into Core Funding. In addition, the contribution towards staff pay and conditions under Core Funding takes account of both contact time and non-contact time.
If a service provider requires further assistance or encounters what appears to be a system issue, they can raise a case or contact the Early Years Provider Centre (EYPC) for technical support and troubleshooting. EYPC may provide screen sharing support to guide services through the process step by step.
If a systems issue is identified while supporting a provider, EYPC will escalate internally for resolution and will remain in contact with the service provider until the issue is fully resolved.