Wicklow County Childcare Committee
Suit 5, Block 6,
Broomhall Business Park,
Rathnew,
Co. Wicklow,
A67 AH39
The National Childcare Scheme (NCS) provides financial support 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.
NCS is a Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth funded scheme which provides financial support towards the cost of childcare to eligible families with children aged between 6 months 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 subsidy options available on the scheme.
Universal subsidy
Rate of €2.14 per/hr (45 hrs max.) available to all parents/carers (on any income level) available from September 2nd 2024:
Income assessed subsidy
These rates vary according to the child’s age and the child’s education status. Income assessed Subsidy provides a higher rate of subsidy available to qualifying parents/carers (reckonable income below €60,000):
The legacy schemes applications are closed. Only families who were registered on them before they closed can continue to benefit from these schemes as long as they retain their eligibility.
The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme and the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) are not affected by the National Childcare Scheme (NCS).
Information regarding what subsidy a parent may be eligible to receive under the National Childcare Scheme is available from the NCS Parent Support Centre on 01 906 8530.
The legacy schemes have now been replaced by the NCS. By replacing the legacy schemes, the Scheme has increased the number of families who can avail of subsidised childcare and removed the many restricting eligibility requirements.
In this way, the NCS aims to combat the poverty traps which may exist within the legacy schemes and to appropriately incentivise employment and education or training for parents, a policy objective that is known to benefit child and family outcomes.
As with all Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth funded support programmes, participation in the National Childcare Scheme is voluntary.
However, it is expected that you would sign up so that your service, as well as the parents of children attending your service, can fully benefit from the Scheme. If your service has accepted the terms of the Core Funding Agreement, you are required to contract with the NCS and/or ECCE for the programme year (e.g. 2024/2025).
For further information on the subsidies including FAQ’s and How to Apply visit the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) website.
The NCS website also includes the NCS Subsidy Calculator; a useful tool to help you estimate how much subsidy you may be eligible to apply for.
The EYPC is open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm (10am to 5pm on Wednesday). The quickest way of contacting the EYPC is by submitting a Request on the Early Years Hive. To do so, log into the Hive and go to the Requests section and click on ‘New Request’.
You can also contact the EYPC by calling 01 511 7222.
