Dear Service Provider,

As the October mid-term approaches, please remember to undertake the following tasks for NCS: 

• Update your NCS service calendar to reflect any changes to your opening hours during the mid-term. 
• Update your NCS service calendar with all planned closures noting that all service providers have 10 allowable subsidised closures per programme year. 
• Update claims to reflect any increased hours of attendance during the mid-term and ensure that this is confirmed with the parent/guardian.

Any increased claims must be amended once the children return to ECCE/school post mid-term. NCS subsidies cannot be claimed for hours that a child is in ECCE/school, or hours that your service is closed. Any over-claimed hours are liable to be recouped.

If you are intending on closing for an extended period, please end date any existing claims for this period.

We advise making any necessary changes as soon as possible to ensure there are no issues when returns are submitted, and payments processed.

For further information on service calendars, please see the guidance available on the Early Years Hive here. 

NCS Bridging Provisions

If your service is closed for a full week and at least one of those days is designated as a subsidised closure, you will be given the option to request a bridging provision for the closed week(s) on the NCS return one week prior to the closure.

The bridging provision allows you to receive 90% of the provisional allocations for the week(s) you are closed without the requirement to complete a return on time. You will be blocked from submitting the weekly return during this time as you will only be required to complete a fast return the following week.

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