Quick summary
- Since 2 May 2022, NCS no longer deducts ECCE or school hours from a family's NCS award.
- ECCE provides up to 15 free hours a week, over 38 weeks, aligned with the school calendar.
- NCS is generally claimed for hours outside the ECCE session, wraparound care, or non-ECCE days.
- The two schemes are administered and reported separately, even for a child enrolled in both.
- This removed a long-standing source of confusion where families feared using ECCE would shrink their NCS award.
What changed in 2022
Before 2 May 2022, hours a child spent in ECCE or school were deducted from a family's NCS award, effectively treating the two schemes as competing for the same pool of hours. Since that date, this is no longer the case: ECCE and school hours are not deducted from NCS entitlement, and the two schemes now run independently of each other rather than one reducing the other.
How the two fit together for a typical family
For a child attending the free ECCE programme, registered for up to 15 hours a week, a parent can separately claim NCS for the hours their child attends outside that ECCE session. In practice, this usually looks like wraparound care before or after the ECCE hours, additional days the child attends beyond the ECCE-funded ones, or care during school holidays when ECCE isn't running.
| Scheme | What it covers | Cost to parent |
|---|---|---|
| ECCE | Up to 15 hours/week, 38 weeks/year, aligned with school calendar | Free |
| NCS | Subsidised hours outside the ECCE session, up to the family's awarded maximum (commonly 45 or 20 hours/week) | Subsidised, not free, parent pays the balance |
Why this matters for how you explain fees to parents
A parent who doesn't understand this interaction may assume enrolling their child in ECCE will reduce the NCS subsidy available for the rest of their care, which was true before 2022, but isn't now. Being able to explain clearly that the two schemes are independent, and walk a family through what their combined ECCE and NCS hours actually cover, is one of the more common funding questions new enrolments raise.
Reporting stays separate
Even though a child can be enrolled in both schemes at once, ECCE and NCS have distinct registration and reporting requirements: ECCE registration and attendance on one side, NCS hours logged through the Hive on the other. A service supporting both needs to track each accurately and separately, since they're assessed independently by the respective scheme administrators.
Practical advice
- Explain to new parents, early and clearly, that ECCE and NCS no longer compete for the same hours.
- Structure a child's weekly schedule around the free ECCE session first, then layer NCS-subsidised wraparound hours around it.
- Keep ECCE and NCS records and reporting distinct, even for children enrolled in both.
- Confirm current NCS award maximums (typically 45 or 20 hours/week depending on eligibility category) directly with ncs.gov.ie, since these are periodically reviewed.
How Tot Tracker helps
Tot Tracker tracks ECCE and NCS hours separately against each child's profile, so a family's combined weekly schedule, free ECCE hours plus subsidised wraparound care, is clear to both staff and parents, with each scheme's reporting handled on its own track.