Checks to ensure that hours of school and ECCE attendance are not included in NCS registered hours

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​Dear Service Provider,

As you are aware, the purpose of the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) is to provide financial support for parents towards the cost of their childcare with a service provider. The hours of care required are agreed between the parent and the service provider. Once agreed, then the hours claimed under NCS should reflect this arrangement.
It is important to note that the child should only be registered on NCS for hours that they require and intend to be present in the service. In particular, NCS subsidised hours cannot be claimed for hours that the child is in education (i.e. ECCE or school).
For ECCE and school-age children, NCS subsidised hours can only be claimed in the following scenarios during term time:
  • childcare used before preschool or school starts in the morning (e.g. a breakfast club)
  • after-school childcare
 
Children may attend for additional hours on school closure days.
 
Confirmation of your compliance with the rules above can be reviewed as part of compliance inspections. Services are therefore advised to have details of school calendars and school opening/closing times on file for school-age children who attend their facility.
We want to take this opportunity to thank services in advance for your continued co-operation with compliance checks.
Kind regards,
Pobal & DCEDIY Compliance Teams

 

Nurturing Skills Learner Fund (NSLF) reminder for the academic year 2025/2026

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Dear Service Provider,

 

Please note the following regarding the Nurturing Skills Learner Fund (NSLF).

 

NSLF applications for the academic year 2025/2026

 

NSLF applications for the academic year 2025/2026 are now open and will close on 1 May 2025 at 5pm.

 

Please advise your staff to contact NSLF@pobal.ie to request a link to the NSLF Student Portal to register on the NSLF Student Portal, upload employment details and complete the new application process.

 

There are two steps in the application process and, in some instances, the employment record step could take several working days to complete. The numbers applying may also impact.

 

All applications must be submitted prior to the deadline of 1 May 2025. Late and incomplete applications will not be accepted after the deadline.

 

NSLF students continuing from the academic year 2024/2025

 

Pobal will contact continuing students directly in early summer asking individuals to verify their continuing eligibility for NSLF.  Once eligibility is confirmed, a new letter of Conditional Funding will issue to the student for the academic year 2025/2026.

 

Training for continuing students will happen at a later stage and you will be notified.

 

Note: Continuing Students are existing students who successfully received NSLF funding for the academic year 2024/2025 and wish to continue to receive funding for NSLF for Academic Year 2025/2026.

 

Regards,
The Early Years Team

 

Updated Service Profile and May Core Funding Review and Confirm

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​Dear Service Provider,

We are writing to you regards the Service Profile and the May Core Funding Review and Confirm.

 

Updated Service Profile – Changes from 2 May on Early Years Hive

From 2 May you will see the following changes to questions on the Service Profile:

Facility Details section:

  • Two new mandatory questions about wheelchair accessibility will be added. These questions were previously part of the Annual Early Years Sector Profile and will now be blank and are mandatory to complete.

Members section:

  • New mandatory questions are added for each staff type.
  • Two job titles will be removed from the ‘Out of Ratio’ staff type: AIM Level 7 (Assigned to specific children) and Equal Start Resource Allocation. Existing ‘Out of Ratio’ staff with these job titles will be updated to ‘In Ratio Staff.’ These need to be reviewed, and all mandatory fields updated.

All new questions are mandatory, you must review and update information for all existing staff members. Partner Services are responsible for ensuring their Service Profile is accurate and up to date.

A detailed Service Profile guidance document is available soon on the Early Years Hive to help services update their Service Profile.

May Core Funding Review and Confirm

There has been a change to the opening date of the May Core Funding Review and Confirm window, which will now open from the 2 May to 14 May 2025.

This process ensures Core Funding payments continue by allowing Partner Services to check their most recent application information. Partner Services can then choose to:

  1. Review and Confirm with Changes
  2. Review and Confirm without Changes

Partner Services with an approved May Review and Confirm record can auto-populate their Application Module for the 2025/2026 Programme Year to help reduce administration.  More information will be provided soon.

Before completing the Review and Confirm, Partner Services should:

  • Make sure data captured in the Service Profile is accurate and up to date for the 2024/2025 programme year, including hourly rates of pay for staff members.
  • Make sure your Core Funding Application status is ‘Approved.’ If it is ‘Referred back,’ fix the issue and complete the May Review and Confirm process once its status is ‘Approved.’
  • If your most recent ‘Approved’ Core Funding application record has an Update Due Date on or before May 2, 2025, action this during your Review and Confirm process. Use the ‘Review and Confirm with Changes’ option to either replace the departed staff member or reduce your capacity.

After the Review and Confirm window closes, Core Funding payments will continue as per the schedule on the Early Years Hive, as long as your May Review and Confirm status is at ‘Approved.

You can find Core Funding support and training materials in the Help and Support section of the Early Years Hive.

Regards,

The Early Years Team

AIM Level 4, 5, and 7 standard applications available in May

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​Dear Service Provider,

 
Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) Level 4, Level 5 and Level 7 standard applications for the 2025/26 programme year will open on the Early Years Hive in early May.
 
The opening date will be announced on the Early Years Hive in the coming weeks
 
There will also be AIM Level 4 and Level 7 programme readiness training coming soon.
 
Regards,
The Early Years Team

Aistear Blogs #8: Emergent literacy and Aistear

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Link to Blog

This blog looks at emergent literacy in the updated Aistear curriculum framework (2024). In early childhood, literacy involves the development of communication and language(s), as well as the exploration and development of skills, concepts, knowledge and understanding through multi-sensory, multi-modal and interconnected ways. This understanding of emergent literacy supports the recently launched Ireland’s Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Strategy 2024­2033: Every Learner from Birth to Young Adulthood.

The updated Framework, emphasises supporting babies, toddlers and young children in developing a growing understanding of language and print, which forms the foundation for communicating, reading and writing. Emergent literacy is embedded in all of Aistear’s themes but is particularly emphasised in the Theme of Communicating.  This Theme focuses on babies, toddlers and young children sharing their experiences, thoughts, ideas, feelings, interests, needs and rights with others, with growing muinín (confidence) and competence in various ways and for various purposes. All of the Aims and Learning Goals in Communicating are useful in supporting emergent literacy.

Experiencing inclusive and rich communicative environments empowers babies, toddlers and young children to engage daily in a variety of emergent literacy experiences through a slow relational pedagogy. They use multiple ways to communicate, with oral language being just one of these. They may babble, cry, point, scream, frown, make marks, draw and talk to get their messages across. They also learn to listen and take turns in conversations. Extending their vocabulary by learning new words is important, as is learning about other language(s) including English and Gaeilge.

Babies, toddlers and young children enjoy noticing and talking about pictures, books, posters, photos, people, animals and nature. They love singing nursery rhymes and songs. Access to a variety of books is important but they will have their favourites, and it is ok to read these over and over again!  Babies will quickly realise that symbols can be understood by others. They enjoy lifting flaps, feeling textures and pointing to characters in the story. Toddlers like talking about the pictures and making sounds to match the story. Young children enjoy listening to stories being read and discussing the plot. They may also ‘read’ the story themselves. Babies, toddlers and young children quickly learn how to ‘read’ books – holding them the right way up, reading from left to right and turning pages in sequence. Access to books that are culturally relevant and reflect diversity is key. Using puppets and other props to bring stories to life in a playful way provides opportunities to explore characters and events in stories, promoting higher order thinking. The use of open-ended questioning also supports this. Visiting the local library and encouraging reading with families helps make experiences more meaningful.

The role of the agentic educator is to draw attention to literacy in everyday routines and situations. This can include modelling writing messages and reading them back, taking on roles during play, making signs for shops; writing prescriptions for the chemist, writing letters to Santa or making passports. Providing easy access to a variety of mark making materials – such as paint, crayons, chalk, pastels, different types of paper as well as loose parts and other materials to create transient art – is also important. Emphasising the process over the product supports babies, toddlers and young children to express themselves creatively. It is also important to help them develop a love of reading through art and a love of art through books, as art and literacy are very closely interlinked.

The updated Aistear offers educators many ways to support babies, toddlers and young children in developing their emergent literacy. Educators have the knowledge, skills and abilities to interpret the Principles and Themes in a way that is relevant to their individual context. This empowers educators to support babies, toddlers and young children to continue their learning and developing in the area of emergent literacy.

Aistear Blogs: #7: Emergent numeracy and Aistear

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This blog looks at emergent numeracy in the updated Aistear curriculum framework. The Framework aligns with the recently published Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Strategy 2024-¬2033: Every Learner from Birth to Young Adulthood and shares the understanding that numeracy in early childhood involves the exploration and development of mathematical skills, concepts, knowledge and understanding. Through play and meaningful hands-on experiences, babies, toddlers and young children’s lives are enriched by numeracy experiences in their everyday lives.

Central to supporting babies, toddlers and young children’s knowledge and understanding of numeracy are relationships and interactions. Educators, embracing a slow relational pedagogy, can support and extend opportunities for babies, toddlers and young children to build awareness of the variety of numeracy symbols and concepts in the world around them. The daily routine flowing between free-play, guided play and educator-led playful experiences provides opportunities for educators to notice when number, shape and space, size or volume intrigues babies, toddlers and young children. Together, educators with the baby, toddler or young child can build an awareness of the important functions these have in everyday experiences. For example, five strawberries is more than two, the longer piece of timber makes the bridge or, that the metal ball is heavier than the cork bottle top in the treasure basket.

All four aims of Aistear’s Exploring and Thinking Theme support emergent numeracy. Through enjoyable and meaningful play and playful experiences, babies, toddlers and young children come to understand concepts such as matching, comparing, ordering, sorting, estimating, counting, spatial awareness, size, weight, height, length, capacity and money.

To realise these aims in practice requires the creation of an inclusive, numeracy- and maths-rich environment. This means educators provide a range of provocations and age- and stage- appropriate resources for babies, toddlers and young children to safely explore and learn about the role of numeracy in their world. Having items in the learning environment to feel, count, sort, classify and weigh is essential. Some of these items include: interlocking toys, large and small blocks, inset boards, measuring tapes,  jigsaws, sorting sets, art materials, old clocks, money, balls, stacking toys, threading beads, buckets, spades, spoons, ladles, cups, bottle caps, saucepans, sieves, spoons, jugs, kettles, cardboard tubes, pine cones, seashells, scraps of material, hoops, bean bags, balls, balancing beams, blocks, boxes, wheeled toys, tractors, trailers, trikes, balance bicycles, slides, climbing frames, ride-on toys, pull and push toys, climbing frames, slides and ramps. The list is endless!

Educators should ensure that a variety of books, focusing on numeracy related concepts and maths language, are in the learning environment, indoors and outdoors. For example, exploring the concept of small, medium-sized and big through the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Using songs and nursery rhymes that incorporate maths concepts and maths language throughout the day can be very effective in developing babies, toddlers and young children’s mathematical understanding. Educators can also draw attention to numbers in the environment – notices, signs, food containers, shop windows, house numbers and car registrations. Activities like baking, shopping, cooking and gardening are also very useful in developing a positive dispositions towards numeracy and for using maths language in meaningful ways, for example big/bigger/biggest, tall/taller/tallest, wide/wider/widest. These activities can support babies, toddlers and young children’s understanding that mathematics is important and useful.

The updated Aistear positions emergent numeracy as an important part of early childhood education and care, empowering babies, toddlers, and young children to explore, think, and communicate in ways that are meaningful and developmentally appropriate. The Framework highlights the role of the agentic educator and how they use their knowledge and skills to interpret the Principles and Themes of Aistear in their individual context. Educators know the babies, toddlers and young children they work with and adapt the Framework to suit their needs and interests. By seeing the endless possibilities in the learning environment and in local communities, educators can nurture and support emergent numeracy, fostering babies, toddlers and young children’s holistic development.

 

Aistear Blog 7 | NCCA

Nurturing Skills Learner Fund (NSLF) reminder for the academic year 2025/2026

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​Dear Service Provider,

Please note the following regarding the Nurturing Skills Learner Fund (NSLF).
NSLF applications for the academic year 2025/2026
NSLF applications for the academic year 2025/2026 are now open and will close on 1 May 2025 at 5pm.
Please advise your staff to contact NSLF@pobal.ie to request a link to the NSLF Student Portal to register on the NSLF Student Portal, upload employment details and complete the new application process.
There are two steps in the application process and, in some instances, the employment record step could take several working days to complete. The numbers applying may also impact.
All applications must be submitted prior to the deadline of 1 May 2025. Late and incomplete applications will not be accepted after the deadline.
NSLF students continuing from the academic year 2024/2025
Pobal will contact continuing students directly in early summer asking individuals to verify their continuing eligibility for NSLF.  Once eligibility is confirmed, a new letter of Conditional Funding will issue to the student for the academic year 2025/2026.
Training for continuing students will happen at a later stage and you will be notified.
Note: Continuing Students are existing students who successfully received NSLF funding for the academic year 2024/2025 and wish to continue to receive funding for NSLF for Academic Year 2025/2026.
Kind Regards,
The Early Years Team 

NCS: Service calendar and returns Easter break, dates during 14-18 and/or 21-25 April

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Dear Service Provider,

As some services may close for the Easter break, dates during 14-18 and/or 21-25 April, it may be necessary to make the following changes on your Early Years Hive.

Please note Good Friday, 18 April 2025, is not a public holiday.

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. As you know 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 Service 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: Updated 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, for example, mid-term breaks, Easter, Christmas etc.

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 to 5pm however over the mid-term opening hours 2pm to 6pm.

Update

For guidance on returns, as well as updated guidance on bridging payments, 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 Service 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 Service Request using the following categories:

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

Regards,
The Early Years Team