Minimum NCS subsidy increase As previously communicated, from 2 January 2023, the minimum rate for NCS subsidies increased from €0.50 to €1.40. The increase, which was introduced by Minister Roderic O’Gorman as part of Budget 2023 measures, means that if parents are in receipt of a subsidy which was less than the maximum, they will receive a higher subsidy towards their childcare fees.

Service providers were not required to modify claims where the hours were remaining the same, this was done automatically. However, services were required to recalculate co-payment and issue new parental agreements to parents. To help with this, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) allowed a two-month window until 2 March 2023 to create and sign the new parental agreements. Services are required to have all updated parental agreements in place from 2 March or else they could be found non-compliant during compliance visits.

Parental Agreement Pobal has developed a new semi-automated parental agreement on the Early Years Hive. This new feature is now available on the ‘Parental Agreement and Co-payment’ section of NCS claims on the NCS Registrations page. Once you have calculated the co-payment for an NCS claim, the parental agreement will include all co-payment weekly amounts, the child’s name, the claim to and from date etc. and will be available to download and print from this page. Unfunded NCS closure date functionality has recently been added to the co-payment tool and the parental agreement is also editable.Please see the how-to guide here for more information on the parental agreement.

Service providers may still use their existing agreement template if they prefer, there is no requirement to use this new version. General guidance on creating a parent agreement can be viewed on the Hive here.