My Department strongly encourages service providers to support parents as best they can as they re-engage with early learning and care services.
Childcare services which are reopening over the summer, and are in receipt of a Reopening
Support Payment, are not permitted to increase their fees above the level which was charged in March 2020, before the Covid closures. Where a service has reopened, but parents have decided to delay returning their children to the service, the service may charge the parents a fee to hold a place for their child.
Services have been asked not to charge a holding fee or deposit unless it is essential for the financial sustainability of the service, and if a fee is charged, it should be as low as possible.