Melted Parents NI

30/04/2026

22/04/2026

Erin’s story is one we hear more often than people might think - and one that gets left out of the conversation when childcare support is framed as something only “working families” deserve.

She was pregnant during the pandemic, made redundant, and when the time came to return to work she and her partner worked out that childcare would cost more than she could earn. She ended up taking five years out to care for her children and her mum, and the only way she has managed to get back into employment is by working evenings and Saturdays - something she’s glad to be doing, but which comes with its own pressures on family life.

Erin’s point is a simple one: not every parent who isn’t in paid work has chosen that, and the childcare crisis affects far more than just those who are employed. Childcare isn’t a reward for working - it’s something that supports children, families and communities and the conversation around who deserves help needs to reflect that.

It’s concerning to see this narrative being pushed by the Executive and so prominent in the draft strategy - because when policy is built around the idea that only working parents deserve support, it leaves behind exactly the people who need it most. Erin’s story is not an exception. It’s a pattern, and one that is becoming more and more common as the childcare crisis prices parents out of work entirely, pushing them into the very situation they’re then told disqualifies them from help.

03/04/2026

Happy Easter 🐣 - or not…

Since yesterday, our inbox has been inundated with messages from very upset parents who got surprised by their second fee rise of the year - the third in 13 months.

Unlike our Executive, these parents are not able to enjoy their break as they are now concerned about being able to afford childcare from June when the new fee structure is introduced.

Since last May, Aimee’s bill has gone up by 16% - while the 15% Subsidy Scheme that was allegedly going up by 5% has only had its cap increased by £19. 🫠

Brianna, who needs full time childcare, will now have a bill of £18,200/year (before NICSS and TFC) - if prices don’t go up again in 6 months. 😫

Lanna is also at the same setting - and facing her second increase in six months, from £67.50 a day in January to £75 a day from June, an 11.1% rise, with a new late collection penalty of £35 minimum and a £50 disruption charge added on top.

And Barbara, currently on maternity leave, due to have her baby next week - who enrolled her first child in March last year and has watched the fees rise astronomically twice in the space of twelve months, with no sign of it stopping. She’s now beyond stressed trying to work out how she returns to work and affords two children in daycare with no family support, something she shouldn’t have to be dealing with the week before she gives birth.

These parents, like so many others, are watching whatever the subsidy was supposed to give back get swallowed up within months. This is exactly what we mean when we say that subsidies without price controls and appropriate support for struggling providers are not effective - they are a transfer of public money straight into unchecked fee inflation.

Parents, keep messaging us, sharing your stories and, if you haven’t yet, please complete our price tracker. The link is in our bio.👆

We know the consultation on the draft Strategy is closed, but, unlike the , we won’t overlook lived experience - and we’ll keep fighting for a better childcare system that supports all. ✊
givan.mla .little.pengelly .oneill.sf

27/03/2026

Following further engagement involving the Education Authority, the Department of Health and the Department of Education, the Department of Health has now been able to confirm that nursing support will be made available at each special school summer scheme site.

This represents a workable solution that will enable special school summer schemes to be held this year.

The overriding priority of everyone concerned remains the safety and well-being of children and young people, and EA will continue to work with special school principals to urgently prioritise planning for the summer schemes.

Engagement will also continue on developing and embedding a robust and stable model for year-round health care provision for special schools.

26/03/2026

Devastating news today for parents of children in special needs schools after an announcement from the .

The EA has confirmed that summer schemes at NI special schools will not go ahead this year. The stated reason? The confirmed this week that on-site nursing cover - which the EA said was essential for the schemes to run safely - would not be available.

For many families, these schemes are the ONLY form of respite during what is already an incredibly long summer break. More than that, they are often the only summer provision that children with SEN can actually access - a chance to see their friends, have fun, and enjoy something close to what their mainstream peers take for granted.

While this sits slightly outside our usual focus on nursery and early years childcare, it is absolutely part of the same picture: a system that consistently fails to treat the care and support needs of ALL children - and their families - as a priority.

There is a petition and we need every single parent to sign it 👉 https://c.org/fxmcvHmwQ8

Please, sign it, and share it as widely as you can.🙏 These families cannot be ignored.

We stand with every parent affected by today’s announcement.🫂

This is not good enough.

22/03/2026

Parents, we’ve submitted our formal response to the Draft Early Learning and Childcare Strategy consultation. Our response is one voice, but yours matters as much - if not more! ✊ Please take a few minutes to respond too!

The consultation closes this Tuesday, 24 March. You don’t need policy language, just tell them what childcare has meant for your family, where you’ve hit walls and what would make things fairer.

Click here to read our full response - and to submit yours 👉 https://meltedparentsni.com/blogs/news-views/response-to-department-of-education-draft-early-learning-childcare-strategy

And please share this post with other parents and providers.

The more voices we share, the louder our response will be.✊

A note on our response:

We welcomed that this strategy exists. NI has been the only part of the UK and Ireland without one, and families have paid the price for that for far too long.

But welcoming it doesn’t mean accepting it as it is.

We told the Department of Education NI what’s still missing:

👉 Price controls to stop fees rising

👉 Broader eligibility / not just what theu call ‘working families’

👉 Investment in community and not-for-profit providers

👉 Protection for disadvantaged children before alternatives exist

👉 And a warning from England - where public money became private profit. NI cannot go down that road.

And we told them exactly what needs to change:

👉 Fee caps linked to public funding

👉 A subsidy cap that rises with actual fees

👉 NICSS extended to ALL families

👉 Tax-Free Childcare cap increased in line with fee inflation

👉 An end to hidden charges - notice periods, sick day fees, late collection penalties

👉 Transparent criteria for provider funding

👉 Childcare treated as a cross-departmental responsibility, not just a DE issue

Swipe through to read it all 👆

20/03/2026

Sinead is a mother of three, she worked hard to build career and this week she’s sitting with a spreadsheet trying to work out if any of it still makes financial sense.

Her daycare has just announced a 15.5% price hike coming this July, which on top of her youngest’s increased bill means she now needs to find an additional £51 every single week just to keep her family’s childcare in place. For her, the price of childcare has risen by 66% since 2020 - yet, we hear costs are not as high…

Sinead is not alone: across NI, parents are doing exactly the same maths - weighing up wages against fees, running the numbers on whether staying in work still makes sense, and coming up short. Families are living is a system that is failing them at every turn.

Have your fees gone up this year? Please complete our price tracker - https://meltedparentsni.com/pages/day-care-provider-price-tracker

Every figure counts.✊

16/03/2026

Today’s story highlights the grim reality of so many survivors of domestic abuse in NI - leaving an abusive relationship often means leaving with debt, with children and with a system that makes rebuilding feel impossible.

Affordable, accessible childcare is not just an economic issue. It is a safety issue and a route out. For women trying to rebuild their lives, it can be the difference between independence and being kept in the same position the abuse left them in.

The Executive lists ending violence against women and girls as a top priority yet the ’s Draft ELC Strategy doesn’t mention childcare’s role in supporting survivors once.

We’ve said it before: the childcare crisis is everyone’s crisis, it affects every aspect of society and influences the majority of issues the government is trying to address... We understand we can’t tackle it all at once, but we also can’t treat childcare as a standalone issue.

Addison, thank you for trusting us with your story and for asking us to share it. 🫂💕

11/03/2026

Earlier today we posted that with less than 3 weeks until April, parents and providers were unsure if the NI Childcare Subsidy Scheme would continue.

The department has just announced that the scheme will indeed continue, but only at the 15% rate.

Ths highlights the importance of having an appropriately planned and funded childcare strategy.

Families have faced the stress of potentially having to fork up an extra £184 for their childcare per month, overnight. This rolling, tentative support compromises families planning their finances, providers enrolling in the scheme and any hope for a comprehensive intervention to make childcare affordable.

We need a funded structured and reliable plan to deliver affordable childcare.

10/03/2026

We’ve spent weeks going through the draft Early Learning and Childcare Strategy - and this is our final verdict. 👀

The strategy gets some things right. It names the problems parents live every day: unaffordable fees, an overstretched workforce, families locked out of provision that actually works for them.

🙅‍♀️ But naming a problem isn’t the same as fixing it.

What’s missing? 👉 Price controls. Real investment in community childcare. Concrete timelines. Ring-fenced support for children with additional needs. A genuine plan for rural families. Protections for workers who make the whole system run.

Good intentions aren’t enough. The final strategy needs clear mechanisms, real funding, and a willingness to tackle the market forces that keep childcare out of reach - not just aspirations with no action plan behind them.

Swipe through to see exactly what we think still needs to change - and why it matters for families across Northern Ireland.

📢 The consultation is still open. Your experience matters. You don’t need policy language - just your story. Link in bio.

08/03/2026

Today we celebrate the achievements of women and the progress made toward equality.

But real equality also means removing the barriers that still shape women’s lives.

👉 Access to work.
👉 Economic independence.
👉 Choices about family and careers.

Research with women across Northern Ireland shows that over half of women facing barriers to work say childcare is the reason.

Childcare shapes whether women can enter work, stay in work or progress in their careers. Across Northern Ireland, many women reduce working hours, pause careers or leave employment because childcare is unaffordable or unavailable. Women also make up most of the childcare sector workforce.

And the consequences are measurable. Northern Ireland is the only UK region where the gender pay gap has widened every single year since 2020 - projected to reach 7.9% in 2026, driven largely by women concentrated in part-time roles. Childcare isn’t a peripheral issue. It is one of the reasons women earn less.

Yet in Northern Ireland’s draft Early Learning & Childcare Strategy - an 80+ page document - women are mentioned just three times and there are no concrete measures to address gender inequality in childcare or the labour market.

If we want a childcare system that works, the strategy must recognise the reality:

The childcare crisis is also a gender equality crisis.✊