CHOOSING AN EARLY learning and childcare service is one of the first and most important decisions that you will make for your child.
During their formative years, going to preschool, full-day early learning and childcare or school-age childcare will open up your child to a variety of experiences. All of these experiences will help them to reach their full developmental potential.
With so many options available, settling on a choice can be overwhelming at first, so it’s important to know what questions to ask and what supports are available to you so you can make an informed decision.
Which is why we’ve created a guide to help you to find a quality service and make the most of the supports available to reduce your costs.
As mentioned earlier, there are many early learning and childcare services for parents to choose from. There’s no one size fits all solution and it’s about choosing the one that best suits your family’s needs and budget. Start by asking yourself what type of service you need.
Some parents may opt to use a childminder who minds children in their own home, or a nanny/au pair who minds children in your home. Some parents may use day care services. These services can offer part-time and full day services, which may work well for you depending on your schedule.
It’s important to note that different services will have varying approaches to play and learning depending on their own play and learning philosophy. The best way to learn more about the services and philosophies is to speak with the provider directly.
Come prepared with a list of questions, taking into consideration what’s important to you and your family. This is about making sure the service meets your family’s needs and most importantly, that your child will be happy and cared for, and given every opportunity to learn, play and develop.
Also ask questions around costs, their hours, their healthy eating policy, how flexible they are – some services have fines for late pickups – and around the quality of the service. Other things to discuss is how much time the children get to play outdoors and any restrictions when a child is sick.
Take notes if you wish, you’ll be absorbing a lot of new information and you want to remember the important parts. If you don’t feel comfortable taking notes, be sure to write down all the relevant points as soon as you finish speaking with the provider.
If you’re still unsure, Tusla has a helpful guide and checklist to help you make sure you have all of your bases covered.
If you have a child aged between 24 weeks and 15 years of age, you can get a subsidy under the National Childcare Scheme (NCS). The NCS provides subsidies to help reduce families’ early learning and childcare costs.
Anyone, irrespective of income, can apply for and avail of the NCS Universal subsidy. The subsidy is an hourly rate of support to a maximum of 45 hours per week. Families can also apply for an Income Assessed subsidy, which offers a higher rate of support, depending on your income.
Below is the rate of NCS supports:
The NCS is helping to make early learning and childcare more affordable with parents of over 155,000 children already benefitting from the subsidy so far this year.
In addition to the NCS, there are two years free preschool available for all families. The Early Childhood Care and Education Programme (ECCE) follows the same structure as the school year, running from September until June for three hours per day, five days a week. Children are eligible to start their first year of the ECCE programme once they have turned 2 years and 8 months of age by 31 August in the given programme year.
All approved ECCE programme providers must offer free ECCE-only sessions. Parents who have children availing of the ECCE programme are not required to attend or pay for any additional services offered by their provider.
Most early learning and childcare providers have also committed to freeze their fees at 2021 rates as part of the Government’s new funding model, ‘Together for Better.’ You can check if your chosen childcare provider has signed up here.
The quickest way to apply for the NCS is online using your MyGovID, which is associated with your public services card. Most parents already have MyGovID, but if you don’t you can sign up here: www.mygovid.ie.
You can also call the NCS Parent Support Centre on 01 9068530 to receive an application in the post. See www.ncs.gov.ie for more details on the NCS and how to apply.
If you need help with these supports, you can call your local City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) for support and advice! CCCs are a local government funded support designed to help families access supports. Your local CCC will also help you find a nearby early learning and childcare placement.
Almost 4,000 services offer the NCS and over 3,900 offer ECCE. You can use the Childcare Search function on ncs.gov.ie to find these services and their fees.
Currently, very few childminders are registered with Tusla and can offer the NCS or the ECCE programme. However, proposed new childminding regulations, currently subject to a public consultation, are making registration easier for childminders and opening up access to State supports. This means making NCS available for registered childminders and families using childminders.
The subsidies and advice supports are a great help for thousands of parents. More information can be found on www.ncs.gov.ie as well as advice on how to apply.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say