A subsidy scheme to help with the cost of childcare will be extended to primary school-age children from September 2025.
On Thursday, Education Minister Paul Givan announced a £55m package of measures for early learning and childcare that will include an extension of the Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme.
The scheme came into force in September and currently offers financial relief to households with children under primary school age.
The scheme will be extended to include children in primary school from 1 September 2025.
It is estimated the number of children who could benefit from the discount will increase by 60% from the current 15,000 to approximately 24,000, according to the education minister.
“This means that the working parents of school-age children will now receive the 15% subsidy, up to the capped amount, on their childcare bills,” Givan said.
“When this is combined with tax free childcare, it will provide a reduction of up to 32% on childcare bills.”
People who have children in full-time childcare would be eligible to receive up to £184 in support, per child, per month, according to Givan.
The subsidy scheme is provided through registered childcare providers – with discounts passed on to parents.
Speaking to Radio Ulster’s Talkback programme on Thursday, Givan said the expansion of the scheme will “help inform some of the decisions parents would take in balancing how much they work compared to offsetting the cost of what childcare is.
“Some decide it’s not worth working or they reduce their hours because it is more expensive to have childcare and this will help inform this decision.”
Givan announced he is also expanding early years services such as Sure Start, the Pathway Fund, Toybox and the Bookstart Baby Programme.
“Over the next year I will also continue the expansion of pre-school education towards the goal of providing 22.5 hours per week for all children in their immediate pre-school year,” he said.
“At least an additional 100 settings providing the next cohort of 2,000 children with a full-time place will be available by September 2026.”
Givan said work remains ongoing on a planned childcare strategy and he intends to bring it to the Executive in autumn.
“The first and foremost action I had to take was real-time, tangible in terms of financial support in setting up these schemes,” he said.
