Join Better Start for a series of online mentoring sessions.

Aistear in Practice is a series of online mentoring sessions developed by Better Start to support reflection on practice linked to Aistear, with a focus on quality inclusive experiences for all children.

The August–September 2026 series will include three online mentoring topics: Aistear in Practice: The Key Person Approach; Aistear in Practice: Babies, Toddlers and Young Children’s Schemas; and Aistear in Practice: Emergent and Inquiry-Based Curriculum.

All sessions take place online via Microsoft Teams. Time: 2.30pm to 4pm.

Click here to register

Regards,

The Early Years Team.

Thank you to all who attended the new National Childcare Scheme (NCS) mandatory co-payment functionality webinar on 23 July 2026.

The recorded webinar is now available here.

There is also a copy of the presentation available here.

Two additional online training demonstrations will be held online on the following dates.

*Matching content will be delivered in each session

Further to the recording of yesterday’s webinar, there will be additional resources to support you with submitting NCS claims when the new co-payment functionality is implemented. These resources will be circulated next week.

Your local City/County Childcare Committee (CCC) will be available to assist. You can find information on your local CCC here. The Early Years Provider Centre (EYPC) will also be on hand to offer any practical support that may be needed.

For EYPC support when the new co-payment functionality goes live, you can raise a request on the Early Years Hive using the following categories:

• Programme: NCS
• Request Type: Registrations
• Request Type Details: Claim
• Summary: Co-payment functionality

Please see the below statement from the Department of Children, Equality and Disability.

Statement from DCDE on new NCS Co-payment Functionality

Dear Service Provider,

We are writing to you in relation to the upcoming change in how NCS claims data will be collected, from 31 July 2026.

The purpose of this change is to collect fee information at child-level, which will allow the Department have a deeper understanding of how much parents are paying after deductions and subsidies, and the impact of the National Childcare Scheme on affordability.

To achieve this, new mandatory fields will be added to the NCS claims section of the Early Years Hive. When setting up a new or updating an existing claim, you can:

• Select a fee type from your active fee table, or
• If a child’s attendance pattern is not reflected in your fee table, enter:

-the number of hours and minutes being paid for, and the fee charged for those hours and minutes before any subsidies or discounts are applied.

The system will then automatically calculate and display a parent’s weekly co-payment amount.

This information is vital in order for the Department to understand how the NCS is contributing to delivering the Programme for Government commitment that parents will pay no more than €200 per month for early learning and childcare.

This process has been designed to try to minimise the number of additional steps required of providers, using information providers are already using to calculate co-payment amounts, and to allow providers to export and use the data.

Several features have been included to make the process easier:

• Co-payment information can be exported as a PDF or as a CSV file, for sharing with parents or use for invoicing.
• Multiple claim weeks can be edited at the same time, to deal with different fee types and claims in and out of term.
• For ECCE children, an ECCE subsidy can be applied to ECCE payable weeks based on your ECCE calendar.
• Future NCS subsidy uplifts will automatically update affected claims, reducing the need for manual calculations.

The co-payment information will not be used for Pobal compliance, and there will be no requirement to print out or save the information unless it is useful for you to do so. This change has no effect on attendance rules.

For claims submitted before 31 July 2026, there is no requirement for these claims to be retrospectively updated with co-payment information.

We recognise that these changes introduce additional data entry requirements, however this will provide evidence that is critical to enable future policy change.

Thank You,

Department of Children, Equality and Disability

You and your staff are invited to attend online training on the new co-payment functionality to be incorporated into the NCS claim process, which is due to be available on 31 July 2026. The training is intended to provide you with a detailed overview of the new functionality.

The training will take place on Thursday 30 July 2026 from 2.30pm to 3.30pm.

As mentioned in programme readiness training, the new functionality will be mandatory for completion for all newly created and edited claim from 31 July 2026.

Click here to register for the training on at 2.30pm on Thursday 30 July 2026

The training will cover the following:

• Important upcoming dates
• The updated NCS claim pathway
• An overview of the new co-payment functionality
• New validations
• New co-payment print outs
• Helpful tips
• Early Years Hive demonstrations

A recording of the training, a copy of the presentation and the webinar Q&A will be made available on the Early Years Hive on 24 July 2026.

Regards,
The Early Years Team

For those that have already submitted an AIM Level 7 Standard Application for 2025/2026 and wish to avail of Non-Term support, please submit any AIM Non-Term applications for the summer period before 14 August 2026.

Submitting your application by this date will help us ensure they can be processed before the redesigned AIM Level 7 application process opens for the 2026/2027 programme call, which will become available on the Early Years Hive.

We appreciate your support as we introduce improvements to make the AIM application process more streamlined for service providers.

We encourage all service providers to review and submit any outstanding AIM Non-Term applications by this date.

Contact us  

If you have any queries regarding the AIM programme, please contact the Early Years Provider Centre (EYPC) by raising a request on Hive using the following categories:

• Programme: Select the relevant AIM level
• Request Type: Application
• Request Type Detail: How To

Regards,

The Early Years Team

The information below explains what your AIM notification means and how to understand the support approved for a child.

This part of the notification tells you which support level has been allocated to a child:

This part of the notification gives additional information on what each level of support means. However, only one level will apply to your child as identified in the text box above.

Review Functionality:

There is currently no review functionality available for 2026/2027 applications. Please continue to monitor the Early Years Hive over the coming weeks for further updates.

Resources:

Guidance materials on the support levels awarded, along with common practical examples are available on The Early Years Hive here. Guidance on submitting an AIM Level 4 application can be found here and a Frequently Asked Questions Document is available here.

Contact us  

If you have any queries regarding the AIM programme, please contact the Early Years Provider Centre (EYPC) by raising a request on Hive using the following categories:

• Programme: Select the relevant AIM level
• Request Type: Application
• Request Type Detail: How To

Please continue to monitor the Early Years Hive, further information will be shared over the coming weeks.

Regards,
The Early Years Team

Water Safety Ireland has requested us to inform you that they are currently offering free educational visits to Early Learning and Care Settings and preschools across the country.

As part of these visits, a member of their Education Team will deliver the Hold Hands Water Safety Programme – a fun, interactive and age-appropriate session designed for children aged 3 – 5 years. The programme introduces young children to important water safety messages through engaging stories and activities, helping them to recognise potential dangers around water at home, on farms, at beaches, rivers, lakes, swimming pools and while on holiday. At the heart of the programme is one simple but potentially life-saving message: always hold an adult’s hand near water.

Educators who would like to arrange a free visit can do so by completing the booking form below:

Request a Hold Hands Visit: https://watersafety.ie/hold-hands-form/

For more information about the Hold Hands programme, please visit:

www.holdhands.ie

Kind regards,

Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare Division

The application process for AIM Level 1 is now open for existing graduates.

Applications must be submitted via the Early Years Hive. Applicant guidelines can be found here. Prior to submitting the AIM Level 1 application, service providers must ensure that they have completed their ECCE programme readiness steps and activated the ECCE Funding Agreement.

Applications received by 5pm on Thursday 22 October 2026 will be awarded the additional capitation from the Inclusion Co-Ordinator’s employment start date relevant to the 2026/27 programme. Applicants are encouraged to apply early, as any applications received after this date will not be backdated.

New graduates (i.e. graduating in October 2026) can apply when final exam results have been notified by Mary Immaculate College (expected September 2026).

Should you have any queries in relation to the AIM Level 1 application process please contact the Early Years Provider Centre by raising a Request on the Hive using the following categories:

• Programme: AIM Level 1
• Request type: Application
• Request type detail: How To

Regards,

The Early Years Team

Registrations for the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme 2026/2027 are now open on the Early Years Hive.

The ECCE 2026/2027 programme will commence on Monday 24 August 2026.

You can find guidance on how to register a child on ECCE on the ECCE Child Registration page under Resources on the Early Years Hive.

If you are registering a child for ECCE 2026 who was registered in your service for ECCE 2025, please add an additional, separate registration for ECCE 2026 and do not cancel the ECCE 2025 registration.

Important: If you are registering a child who intends to avail of AIM Level 7 support, please select the correct ECCE AM/PM session they will attend. This information determines the AIM Level 7 capitation funding awarded to the service. Selecting the incorrect session may result in funding being allocated incorrectly or delayed.

Regards,
The Early Years Team

We would like to remind you that NCS subsidies can only be paid once a CHICK has been registered and the parent/guardian has confirmed that all details are correct via the parent portal.

For payments to flow, all claim weeks for a child must be confirmed. Please review any unconfirmed claims for your service and request parental confirmation from applicants where necessary.

How to know if a claim needs to be confirmed by the parent/guardian?

A registration will display “No” under the “All Claims Confirmed by Parent?” column until all claim weeks have been confirmed.

Where a registration is displaying “No” it may be that there is an older claim still awaiting parent confirmation. Parent confirmation only changes to ‘Yes’ when the parent has confirmed all the claims for the child.

Update to Scheme rules

Please note clause 4.13 of the NCS 2026 Funding Agreement, “The Scheme Administrator may, at any time during the Term, establish an administrative process to cancel Unconfirmed Claims. The administrative process will provide for the cancellation of a Registered Claim which has not been confirmed by the Qualifying Applicant within 3 months of the expiry of the CHICK.”

If you have any questions, contact the Early Years Provider Centre (EYPC). Simply raise a Request on the Early Years Hive by selecting the relevant programme and request type from the dropdown menu.

Regards,

The Early Years Team