Government Funding Programmes
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The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth operate a number of Childcare Schemes. These schemes provide free or reduced rates of childcare to eligible children and their parents. Please go to the Early Years HIVE to access the Rules for DCEDIY Funding Programmes.
Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE):
This programme is a universal childcare programme otherwise known as ‘free pre-school’ with the stated objective of providing children with their first formal experience of early learning. It is delivered to children of pre-school age (2 years 8 months to 5 years 6 months) prior to commencing primary school and is provided for 3 hours per day, 5 days per week over 38 weeks per year.
To see when a child is eligible, please use the ECCE calculator available
Community Childcare Subvention Plus (CCSP)
The CCSP Programme provides support for eligible parent/guardians on a low income to avail of reduced childcare costs at participating childcare services. The children who have been registered on CCSP and retain registrations under CCSP Saver Programme are referred to as ‘Savers’. Only children with ‘saver’ status are eligible for CCSP.
No new registrations can be made under the CCSP Saver Programme for children who have not been previously registered.
If a child ages out of the CCSP Saver Programme i.e. turns 15 years of age, the parent will no longer be eligible for reduced childcare costs for this child under this programme.
National Childcare Scheme
The National Childcare Scheme provides subsidies to help parents meet the cost of quality Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare. It will replace all previous targeted childcare support programmes with a single, streamlined and user friendly Scheme.
Under the National Childcare Scheme, subsidies are available for families with children aged between 24 weeks and 15 years who are attending any participating Tusla registered childcare service, including any Tusla registered childminder and school age childcare services.
There are two types of subsidies available under the National Childcare Scheme: a Universal subsidy and an Income Assessed subsidy.
Pobal on behalf of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY), conducts compliance visits with each participating early years and school age childcare service who operates one or more of the National Childcare Programmes. Pobal Compliance Checklists are available on HIVE.
We advise services to maintain a compliance folder/file which can be made readily available to the visiting officer on arrival. This will ensure minimum disruption and speed up the compliance visit. We understand that some services file their records in other ways, but records must be available to enable the visiting officer to complete the compliance visit in a reasonable timescale. There should always be a staff member on site with access to the compliance folder/records in the event of an unannounced visit.
Cavan County Childcare Committee Development Officers are available to support Early Years services and School Age services in relation to statutory regulations –
Contact us on 049 4365856
National Childcare Scheme Sponsor Referral
The National Childcare Scheme makes special arrangements for some children and families to be sponsored by certain public bodies so they can get childcare under the NCS. Families with high levels of need, who require childcare for child welfare, child protection or family support reasons, may be referred for childcare support by a specified “Sponsor Body”. Where such a referral is made, the family will automatically qualify for a subsidy for the number of hours considered appropriate by the Sponsor Body without having to satisfy the scheme’s eligibility, income or enhanced hours requirements. The Scheme will cover the cost of the sponsored childcare, with no requirement for any parental co-payment.
The five statutory bodies specified as sponsors in the Childcare Support Act 2018 are listed HERE
Parent Support Centre – Phone (01) 906 8530 – Monday to Friday 9.00am to 5.00pm
Early Years Provider Centre (EYPC) – Phone (01) 5117222 – email eypc@pobal.ie
Core Funding
Core Funding is a payment to providers designed to meet the combined objectives of:
- Improved affordability for parents by ensuring that fees do not increase;
- Improved quality through, among other things, better pay and conditions for the workforce;
- Supporting the establishment of an Employment Regulation Order through the Joint Labour Committee;
- Supporting the employment of graduate staff; and
- Improved sustainability and stability for services.
Core Funding is funding directly to providers (supply-side funding) and is designed improve affordability, quality, inclusion and sustainability.
Core Funding is open to all registered providers subject to their agreement to the terms and conditions of the funding. It is the ambition of the Department that the maximum number providers choose to participate in this partnership with the State to deliver ELC and SAC for the public good and come into contract for Core Funding. Core Funding however is optional for providers.
More Information on Core Fuding is available on the Early Years Hive
The Early Years Hive
Early Years Provider Centre (EYPC)
A dedicated Early Years Provider Centre (EYPC) has been established by Pobal in order to provide specialised supports to early learning and care service providers in the delivery of DCEDIY childcare funded programmes.
The Early Years Provider Centre will be a specific point of contact for service providers to direct queries regarding existing DCEDIY childcare funded programmes and also the new National Childcare Scheme (NCS).
EYPC Contact Details:
Service Providers should continue to call 01 5117222 to talk to an EYPC representative.
This phone line is available from 8am – 6pm Monday to Friday. (Note: The lines are closed every Wednesday from 9.00am – 10.00am for training purposes)
The EYPC Teams will also continue to support service providers through the following mailboxes:
EYPC@pobal.ie – This dedicated mailbox will be utilised for all early learning and care programme support queries.
