‘Children’s Promise’ Grants Programme 2025 is open!

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All children are born with the potential to thrive and the ‘Children’s Promise’ Grants Programme aims to support community-based organisations working to protect that potential and to support the wellbeing of their families.
The ‘Children’s Promise’ Grants Programme is a funding programme within Katharine Howard Foundation (KHF). KHF focuses on prevention and early intervention initiatives, to support the best life outcomes for young children. This grants programme is a collaboration with Community Foundation Ireland and we are grateful for their support. In 2025, we are delighted to welcome the support of the Sunflower Charitable Foundation for the grants programme.
The ‘Children’s Promise’ Grants Programme is a promise from KHF to provide financial and other supports to selected organisations, to support and develop the potential of the children engaged with the organisations.
The Programme aims to build on the powerful work taking place at community-level to address child poverty with a grants programme of €1,000,000 in financial and non-financial supports over the duration of the programme 2023-27.
The 2025 Grants Programme is now open, and organisations are invited to apply. The closing date for all applications is 20 March 2025 at 1pm.

For further information and to apply please visit the website here

All queries should be made by email only to info@khf.ie

AIM Level 5 equipment – Transfer of Ownership process opens on Friday 28 February 2025

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Dear Service Provider,

The AIM Level 5 Transfer of Ownership process will open on Friday 28 February 2025.

Services with AIM Level 5 equipment which is due to transfer at the end of the ECCE 2024/2025 programme call will receive a notification on the Early Years Hive.

A How to Guide and recordings of the Training Webinars are available in the Help & Support section on the Early Years Hive.

Should you have any queries in relation to AIM Level 5 Transfer of Ownership, please contact the Early Years Provider Centre by raising a request using the following categories:

  • Programme: AIM Level 5
  • Request Type: Equipment
  • Request Type Detail: Transfer of Ownership

Regards,
The Early Years Team

Please review and update your service’s contact details on the Early Years Hive

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Dear Service Provider,

From time to time, the Early Years Provider Centre (EYPC) may be required to contact your service by phone for urgent matters.

To ensure we have your service’s up-to-date contact details, we ask that you please review your details on the Early Years Hive and let us know if either your phone number or email address needs to be updated.

To review your service’s contact details:

  1. Go to the Manage Service Providers page of your Early Years Hive, which is under the My Account menu.
  2. Here you will see the services associated with your organization (i.e. multi-service organisations will see multiple services listed here). Click on your service’s name.
  3. Review the phone number and email address listed in the General section.
  4. If this information is incorrect and needs to be updated, please raise a Request using the User Account Management category, outlining what needs to be changed.

Once we receive your request, we will update your information as soon as possible.

You might also choose to take this time to review your service’s user roles and its Primary Authorised User (PAU) on the Manage User Roles page.

You can add new users by clicking the Create New User button and remove users by clicking the yellow arrow beside that user’s name and then selecting Remove.

To set a new PAU, follow the steps in this guide available in the Help & Support section of the Early Years Hive.

Regards,
The Early Years Team

Childcare Survey of Parents 2022

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From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

Published on 

Last updated on 

This details research conducted to understand parents’ and their children’s use of childcare, and their views and experiences.

Childcare Survey of Parents 2022

AIM level 4 Observation Tool

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Dear Service Provider,  

Please note the process for reviewing and accepting an AIM Level 4 Observation tool has changed. A Child Observation Tool or a Service Observation Review tool (SOR) is now completed by your Early Years Specialist (EYS) directly online and can be reviewed by you directly on the Early Years Hive after is has been created by your EYS. 
 
Your review and accepting of the AIM level 4 Observation Tool is required within 7 days of receiving a Hive notification. If the contents of the Child Observation Tool or a Service Observation Review tool (SOR) is not accepted by you within 7 days, the system will automatically accept to ensure the child’s application for AIM is progressed. 
 
The Observation Tool is used by the EYS to gather information about the child they support. The tool includes the following areas of the child’s development: physical, communication, social and behaviour and health. The information gathered is used with the manager, key person, inclusion coordinator (INCO) or the Educators to plan for the child’s inclusion in their Early Learning and Care (ELC) service and the ECCE programme. For an on-site observation, the EYS will complete the observation tool during the child’s attendance at their ELC service. If an on-site observation is not possible, the observation tool will be used as a Service Observation Review (SOR). The EYS will gather the information from the service provider on Microsoft Teams video call online or by phone. If required, the EYS may complete both an on-site observation and a Service Observation Review. 
 
The information gathered is a starting point for Level 4 Educational Advice and Mentoring. It informs the mentoring, goal development and the application for Level 7 Additional Assistance in the ELC service, if requested. 
 
A guide on reviewing and accepting an AIM level 4 Observation Tool can be found here.
 
If you have any queries on the above, please submit a request on the Early Years Hive by selecting the following categories:  
 
  • Request Programme: AIM Level 4
  • Request Type: How To
  • Request Type Detail: Application
  
Regards,   
The Early Years Team  

AIM Level 5 Equipment – Transfer of Ownership

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Dear Service Provider,

AIM Level 5 Equipment – Transfer of Ownership 

Following the transition of AIM Level 5, the Transfer of Ownership process for AIM Level 5 equipment will open in February 2025 on the Early Years Hive.

The Transfer of Ownership of equipment from Pobal and DCEDIY to the relevant party occurs at the end of the child’s participation in the ECCE programme. The completion of this process will determine the destination and ownership of the Level 5 equipment item.

As per the AIM rules, section 7.20 “ELC services and parent(s)/guardian(s) must engage with Pobal in relation to the transfer of ownership of equipment (including returning signed transfer of ownership forms, as appropriate).

Equipment provided under AIM Level 5 should not be removed from the pre-school until the transfer of ownership process is completed.”

A How to Guide and recordings of the Training Webinars are available in the Help & Support section on the Early Years Hive.

If you require any additional information or support, please submit a request using the following categories:

  • Programme: AIM Level 5
  • Request Type: Equipment
  • Request Type Detail: Transfer of Ownership

Regards,
The Early Years Team

Removal of child name-validation from NCS CHICK registration

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Dear Service Provider,

We are pleased to announcement that the following improvements were released onto the Early Years Hive following last Thursday’s scheduled updates to the portal.
Removal of child name-validation from NCS CHICK registration
 
The process of retrieving a CHICK / registering a child for the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) on the Early Years Hive has been simplified.
When registering a child for NCS, you must still enter the child’s first and last name, their date of birth and the CHICK number. However, now the system will only validate the date of birth and the CHICK number.
This means you will no longer be blocked from completing the registration and therefore required to contact the Early Years Provider Centre (EYPC), if the child’s name being input differs from the name used by the parent/guardian on their NCS application form.
Early Years Hive banner notification
 
An ‘Important notification’ banner is now available to display urgent messages to service providers on the Early Years Hive, such as scheduled maintenance, application deadlines, Force Majeure reminders, etc.
The image gives you an idea of how it looks on the Early Years Hive.
This new function was made in response to the EYPC Customer Survey. We ask that you continue to share your feedback if selected to complete this survey as it helps us to improve our services.
There is no change to the Announcement page, which is where you should go to check for more detailed information.
Regards,
The Early Years Team

 

Mid-term Break Updates:

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Dear Service Provider,

As services are closed for the mid-term on Thursday 20 February and Friday 21 February, with the option to extend to a five-day break, it may be necessary to make the following changes on your Early Years Hive.

We advise making any necessary changes as soon as possible to ensure there are no issues when returns are submitted and payments processed.

 

NCS: Service Calendar and Returns

If your service is closed for part or all of the week, you must mark the closures on your NCS service calendar accordingly. You must also note whether it is a subsidised (paid) closure or not.

For more information, please see ‘How to add a closure’ on the NCS Service Calendar section of Help & Support.

For school-aged/ECCE children, if you are increasing their hours during mid-term, please ensure you do not forget to amend the hours for children whose hours reduce after mid-term. NCS subsidy hours cannot be claimed for hours that a child is in school or ECCE, or hours that your service is closed, and any over-claims are liable to be recouped.

NCS returns must be submitted on the Early Years Hive each week. Returns become available from the last day (Sunday) of the reporting week and must be completed by the following Tuesday and are based on the previous week’s attendance. If a return is not submitted within the required timeframe, all subsidy payments will be suspended until it is submitted.

Changes cannot be made to service calendar opening hours or claim hours once a return for that week has been submitted on the Early Years Hive.

If you require further assistance, please raise a Request using the following categories, ensuring that you include the CHICK number in the request:

  • Programme: NCS
  • Request Type: NCS Calendar
  • Request Type Details: General

 

NCS Bridging payments

A ‘Bridging Payment’ is available to service providers during periods of subsidised closure, if they are unavailable to submit their weekly NCS return i.e., mid-term breaks, Christmas etc.

When submitting the NCS return that is two weeks before the subsidised closure period, the Hive recognises the closure coming up and asks the following: “You have an upcoming closure, do you want to request a Bridging Payment for the dates from “X” to “Z”? (Yes/No)” .

If yes is selected, the payment is made during the week the service is closed i.e. when they are unable to submit their returns. The service must then submit ‘Fast returns’ for this period when they return after the closure.

Important: Please keep claims active at all stages. Please do not amend calendars in regard to bridging payments unless the hours of the service have changed for that period. Example: Normal opening hours 9am – 5pm however over the mid-term opening hours 2pm – 6pm.

For guidance on returns, please see the NCS Attendance Returns Guide.

 

ECCE: Service Calendar

Providers in contract for the ECCE programme are reminded that changes to service calendars must be first approved by County Childcare Committees (CCCs) and parents must be given 20 working days’ notice in writing of any change to the service’s calendar.

Copies of such notices must be kept on file for compliance purposes.

Approved providers in contract for the ECCE Programme must be open for a minimum of 38 weeks (or 182 days) over the programme year.

For further information on service calendars, please contact your local CCC or refer to the ECCE Service Calendar section of Help & Support.

If you require further assistance, please raise a Request using the following categories:

  • Programme: ECCE
  • Request Type: ECCE Calendar
  • Request Type Details: General

 

CCSP Saver Programme: Amending Sessions (e.g. a child is moving from part-time to full-time)

If a registration is changing and needs to be updated from part-time to full-time, please input a CCSP Leaver with the date the child is changing service level. A new registration should then be created with the updated level of service for the appropriate period, within 6 weeks of the start date of the new registration. 

Please see ‘How to end/add a CCSP Saver Programme child registration’ on the CCSP child registration section of Help & Support for guidance.

If you require further assistance, please raise a Request using the following categories:

  • Programme: CCSP
  • Request Type: Registrations
  • Request Type Details: Leaver

Regards,
Early Years Team