ECCE Information for NCIP Capital Beneficiaries
The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Scheme will require approved services to provide a sessional 3 hour session for 38 weeks.
Should capital beneficiaries of the National Childcare Investment Programme (NCIP) be accepted into ECCE and request a revision to their service provision targets under NCIP, it has been agreed with the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs that these will be dealt with as follows:
Full-time/Part-time Services
Where a capital grant has been provided on the basis of full-time/part-time places and a minimum of 46 weeks provision, the service will be expected to comply with service provision target conditions of the NCIP contract unless there are exceptional circumstances.
The ECCE is flexible to providers in that they can have a shorter hours pre-school for 2 hours 15 minutes per day over 50 weeks or a sessional service for 3 hours over 38 weeks. Both options are open to all services. If a service is contracted for 46 or more weeks under NCIP and the provider is also accepted into ECCE they can move to 50 weeks for the ECCE children (and the other children if the need is established) and the service can charge parents for the optional extra hours. Full-time/part-time services approved capital funding under NCIP will not normally be permitted to reduce their service provision less than those targets agreed under NCIP.
Sessional Only Services
Where a NCIP capital grant has been provided on the basis of sessional service provision only, if the service is accepted into ECCE, the service will be permitted to negotiate a revision to its capital contract from the number of target weeks previously agreed under NCIP to 38 weeks (plus intervening holidays). A request from a NCIP capital beneficiary to review their capital agreed targets i.e. weeks per year, operating hours (i.e. service provision) should only be processed through NCIP target review following the beneficiary’s approval into ECCE.