These are the information, deadlines, and announcements for the week of 28th April – 2nd May 2025.
DEADLINES / IMPORTANT DATES:
2nd May 2025: May Core Funding Review and Confirm is open from 2nd –14th May 2025
6th May 2025: Access & Inclusion Model (AIM) Level 4, Level 5 and Level 7 standard applications for the 2025/2026 programme year will open on the Early Years Hive.
7th May 2025: Access and Inclusion (AIM) online information session for Parents and guardians (Flyer attached)
21st May 2025: Supporting Positive Behaviour in the ECCE setting with Dr Mary O’Kane (Booking through Eventbrite below)
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FOR YOUR INFORMATION
May Core Funding Review and Confirm
The Review and Confirm task for May 2025 can now be completed
- R&C with changes
- R&C without changes
Partner Services with an approved May Review and Confirm record can auto-populate their Application Module for the 2025/2026 Programme Year.
This will help reduce administration. More information to follow.
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Mandatory questions added to service profile
From May 2nd additional questions will be added to the service profile:
Facility Details section:
- Two new mandatory questions about wheelchair accessibility will be added. These questions were previously part of the Annual Early Years Sector Profile.
Staff Information:
- New mandatory questions are added for each staff type.
- Two job titles will be removed from the ‘Out of Ratio’ staff type: AIM Level 7 (Assigned to specific children) and Equal Start Resource Allocation.
Existing ‘Out of Ratio’ staff with these job titles will be updated to ‘In Ratio Staff.’
These need to be reviewed, and all mandatory fields updated. All new questions are mandatory, existing staff information needs to be review and updated.
ECCE attendance not to be included in NCS claimed hours
The purpose of the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) is to provide financial support for parents towards the cost of their childcare with a service provider.
The hours of care required are agreed between the parent and the service provider. It is important to note that the child should only be registered on NCS for hours that they require and intend to be present in the service.
NCS subsidised hours cannot be claimed for hours that the child is in education (i.e. ECCE or school).
For ECCE and school-age children, NCS subsidised hours can only be claimed in the following scenarios during term time:
- childcare used before preschool or school starts in the morning (e.g. a breakfast club)
- after-school childcare
Children may attend for additional hours on school closure days. Confirmation of your compliance with the rules above can be reviewed as part of compliance inspections.
Services are therefore advised to have details of school calendars and school opening/closing times on file for school-age children who attend their facility.
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Access & Inclusion Model (AIM)
Access & Inclusion Model (AIM) Level 4, Level 5 and Level 7 standard applications for the 2025/2026 programme year will open on the Early Years Hive on Tuesday 6 May 2025.
AIM non- term 2024/2025
Please submit your AIM Non-term 2024/2025 applications for the summer months on the Early Years Hive as soon as possible. AIM non-term applications may take up to 12 weeks to process.
When submitting an AIM Non-term application, we recommend you submit all dates in which AIM Non-term support is required over the summer period.
Change of circumstance
If you have already submitted your AIM Non-term applications and did not include the required summer dates, please submit a ‘change of circumstance’ review to add the relevant dates.
Please note, AIM Non-term reviews may take up to 6 weeks to process.
A guide on how to submit a change of circumstances review can be found here.
AIM Programme Readiness Training
You are invited to attend AIM Programme Readiness Training 2025. The training sessions will be held at 10am and 2.30pm on Wednesday 7 May 2025.
Please see below the links to register with Microsoft Teams. Please note each session will cover the same training content.
Session 1: Wednesday 07 May from 10:00 am to 11:00 am
Session 2: Wednesday 07 May from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm
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Upcoming Events with Westmeath CCC
AIM – Information session for Parents
Westmeath & Longford County Childcare Committees together with Better Start will host an online information session for parents interested in finding out about the AIM programme.
The session will take place on Wednesday 7th May @ 7pm.
Please share the attached poster with parents of children who may be interested in attending or have any questions on the AIM model.
Booking through Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/1272192645449?aff=oddtdtcreator
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Online Webinar with Dr Mary O’Kane
Supporting Positive Behaviour in the ECCE setting
Westmeath CCC are delighted to welcome Dr. Mary O’Kane for an online webinar for early years educators on Supporting Positive Behaviour in the ECCE setting .
Date : Wednesday 21st May 2025
Time : 7pm -9pm.
Fee : €10
Tickets are available through Eventbrite – https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/1311655931199?aff=oddtdtcreator
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Covid Case Advice
Please see below links to relevant information: Preventing the spread of covid 19 in school or childcare – HSE & Pre_School_ManagementInfectiousDisease.pdf
General Covid-19 queries: Contact HSE on 1800 700 700 between 8 am and 8 pm Monday to Friday and 9 am – 5 pm Saturday and Sunday / HSE Covid-19
