9th October 2026
Pre-School provision – 12.5 or 22.5 hours per week? Check how many hours your chosen providers will be offering
At this time of year parents of 2 and 3 year olds are thinking of where their children may be going to pre-school in September 2027 however there is another consideration – how many hours per week is the provider offering.
In the past, for most children in Northern Ireland, the pre-school session has only lasted 2.5 hours per day, 12.5 hours per week, with only a limited number of providers offering a full time place of 4.5 hours per day, 22.5 hours per week. However, over recent years there has been a concerted effort from the Department of Education to increase the number of pre-school providers offering 22.5 hours per week so that this will eventually become the standard provision for all children.
To date a total of 207 pre-school settings have transitioned, or are in the process of transitioning, to the longer session length. This provides 4,687 additional full-time pre-school education places, with each of these settings providing children with access to a mid-day meal.
This expansion is a key component of the NI Executive’s Early Learning and Childcare Strategy. Work is ongoing towards transitioning a further 2,200 additional pre-school places across approximately 100 settings each year to full-time provision from September 2027. It will take a number of years for the full roll-out of standardisation to be completed and the speed of transition will be dependent on the resources available from the NI Executive at each stage as well as individual circumstances of individual settings.
Further information
So, when the information on free pre-school places comes out in December, make sure you check how many hours are offered. If it is unclear in the providers’ information available online just give the provider a call as they may be awaiting a decision being made by the Department of Education.
More information on the Pre-School Education Programme – Standardisation is available at https://www.eani.org.uk/services/support-for-schools/pre-school-education-programme-and-standardisation/pre-school-2, this includes a link to FAQs through which you can view a list of all the 2007 pre-school providers who have been approved to transition to 22.5 hours.
More information on the pre-school application process can be found at: https://www.eani.org.uk/parents/admissions/pre-school-admissions-guide.
Information on the admissions application process for September 2027 – June 2028 will be released in December, check back here for further details.