Making Childcare Accessible to All

For many years, there was no state-run scheme in Ireland to provide financial support for childcare. The ambition of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth was to make childcare in Ireland more accessible and affordable than before. It marked a real understanding of the need to protect, nurture and develop our children so they could achieve their potential.

Our objective was to develop a simple, clear and engaging brand that clearly articulated the key points and benefits of the scheme.

We developed the name “National Childcare Scheme”, it allowed us to speak to all stakeholders. It was clearly a national initiative and could easily be abbreviated to NCS.

 Because the topic was children, we felt it should be bright, engaging and friendly. The bee was chosen as an Irish icon – busy and never wasteful, colourful and an essential part of our environment. Bees create something of value and are a key part of the ecosystem – a close parallel for the scheme and the value it creates in the financial system of Irish families.