As part of on-going work to reduce administration and improve efficiency within the government’s childcare subvention schemes, changes have been made to the Payment Schedule for ECCE for the forthcoming programme year, commencing on 27th August 2018.
The key change to the payment schedule for the coming year is that payments are going to be made on a more frequent basis.
There will be 10 payments spread across the programme year (increased from 8 last year). The exact payment dates and payment periods covered are contained in the Payment Schedule.
Service Providers will now receive a minimum of 4 weeks’ payment in every batch payment run, taking non-payable weeks into account. Non-payment weeks are highlighted in the schedule.
The increased frequency and regularisation of payments will assist childcare providers to forecast and manage their services’ finances throughout the programme year.
As announced in Budget 2018, a 7% increase of capitation across the ECCE programme will commence this year, with Standard rate capitation rising to €69 and Higher rate capitation rising to €80.25.
Childcare services are reminded that Higher Capitation applications are now processed by Pobal and that Higher Capitation payments will commence by Payment No. 3, subject to receipt and approval for the 2018/19 programme year.