Quick summary

Notice matters more than the number

A fee increase announced with several weeks' notice, in writing, tends to be received far more calmly than the same increase sprung on a family with only a few days to adjust their budget. There's no universal legal minimum notice period outside any Core Funding conditions that might apply, but giving families genuine time to plan is one of the simplest ways to keep an increase from feeling like an ambush.

Explain the why, briefly

A short explanation, rising wages, insurance, or general operating costs, does more to preserve trust than most providers expect. Parents don't need a detailed financial breakdown, but a sentence or two showing the increase isn't arbitrary tends to reduce pushback considerably compared with a bare new number on next month's invoice.

Give existing families priority notice

Existing families have budgeted around your current fees and built a relationship with the service. They deserve to hear about a change before it's announced more broadly or applied to new enrolments. Sequencing communication this way, existing families first, signals that the relationship is valued, not just the transaction.

Check Core Funding conditions first

If your service participates in Core Funding, any fee increase needs to be checked against the scheme's fee freeze and maximum fee cap conditions before it's communicated to parents. Confirm current terms directly with Pobal. Announcing an increase and then having to walk it back is far more damaging to trust than a short delay to confirm compliance first.

A simple approach

  1. Confirm the increase is compliant with any Core Funding conditions that apply.
  2. Write to existing families first, with a clear effective date and several weeks' notice.
  3. Include a brief, honest reason for the increase.
  4. Only then update published fee information for new enquiries.

How Tot Tracker helps

Tot Tracker's fee and payment tracking keeps a clear record of what each family has been charged and when fee changes take effect, useful for confirming a new fee schedule has been applied consistently once communicated.

Frequently asked questions

There's no single legal minimum outside any Core Funding fee conditions that may apply, but giving parents several weeks' notice in writing, rather than a short window before the increase takes effect, gives families time to plan and reduces the sense of being blindsided.
Yes, a brief, honest explanation (rising costs, wage increases, insurance) tends to land far better with families than an unexplained new number on the invoice, even if the explanation is simple.
Yes, participating services agree to fee conditions including a freeze relative to a reference level and a maximum fee cap. Confirm current terms directly with Pobal before finalising any increase.
Generally yes, existing families have built a relationship and budgeted around current fees, so they deserve advance notice before a new fee schedule is published more widely or applied to new enrolments.