Advice for Parents/Guardians

 

The Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme (NICSS) is a Department of Education initiative designed to reduce the childcare costs of eligible working parents by 15% for all qualifying children. The overarching aim of this scheme is to help working parents with the affordability of childcare costs.

The Northern Ireland Executive has agreed that the subsidy scheme will target working parents who are eligible for Tax Free Childcare (TFC) and have children who have not yet started primary school.  Starting from 1st September 2024[1], any parent receiving TFC, for a child who has not yet enrolled in primary school will be eligible to participate in the scheme, provided their childcare provider is signed up with HMRC as a TFC provider and has registered to participate in the Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme.

[1] The Northern Ireland Executive had provided funding for the scheme up to the end of March 2025.  A decision on its extension will be taken based on evaluation evidence for the period September 2024 – March 2025 and budget availability.

If you are not registered for TFC, but would like to learn more about the scheme, please click here.

How can you benefit?

The subsidy will only be available to parents who register their child with the scheme. 


STEP 1 –   Check that your provider is registered for the scheme

Ask your childcare provider if they are registered for the scheme, as only registered and eligible providers can apply the NICSS subsidy. 


STEP 2 – Prepare by collating all the information required for registration

We will be asking all eligible parents to register their child(ren) from August 5th. Please have the following information ready before starting the registration process:   

A. Tax Free Childcare Payment Reference for your child. This number can be found on correspondence from HMRC and is typically a combination of (Initial letter of their first name) (First three letters of their second name) (number characters) 

e.g. for Adam Smith this could be (ASMI#####) 

We understand that some parents, don’t use the online TFC system, and therefore will not have been allocated with a Tax-Free Childcare Payment Reference.  If this is the case, please do reach out to us at nicssparents@early-years.org  and we will allocate you with a unique reference number that you can use to register your child.

B. Copy of the TFC quarterly confirmation letter/notice for your child.  Please take a screen shot or screen grab of this communication from HMRC which clearly shows: 

1.     name of your child,   

2.     the quarterly expiration date

You will be required to upload this document as part of the registration process. (If you are waiting on HMRC to approve your current eligibly and don’t have a current approval document please use the most recent one for now.)

If you have more than one eligible child, you will need to complete the process separately for each child.


STEP 3 - Registering your child


While August 20th is the deadline for guaranteeing timely September payments; registration remains open for parents throughout the Scheme. We will continue to process registrations as quickly as possible after they have been received.

If you register after this date, you may only be able receive the subsidy for the months following your registration. If you change provider between September 1 and March 31, we will require you to register your child with the new provider to continue to receive the subsidy.  Whilst late registrations will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, please note that there must be a valid reason.

  • We will ask all NICSS registered providers to notify families when their business is approved to take part in the scheme.

  • You can register your interest now using the form below and we will email you with a reminder once registration is open on 5th August. 

 

Watch this short video below to see the registration process for parents:

 

Next Steps 

Please check your provider has registered with the scheme and have the required information ready in preparation for child registration.

If you require any further information or assistance, please complete the form below.