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OK.

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Hello everyone and thank you for accessing this information session today.

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We're delighted to present a second round of the Business Capability Development Programme, or BCDP, opening to applications this month, February 2026.

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In this video, we will share information about the programme and its structure, eligibility for EC services and an overall timeline.

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We will also provide some case study examples from the previous round to help you visualise what participation in the programme may look like for your service.

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I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands on which we're meeting and pay my respects to Elders past and present.

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I also extend that respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues and community members here with us.

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My name is Emma Lindsay.

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I manage the Innovation and Capabilities programme team, and I'm joined by Irene Villa, one of our senior programme's officers leading BCDP.

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She is also one of our friendly team members who supports your inquiries about the programme.

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We're also joined by Anthony Semann from Semann & Slattery and Associates who are partnering with the NSW Department of Education as both programme partner and one of our training providers delivering the Business Capability Development programme.

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Shortly, Anthony will be providing more information about the programme.

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It's 2 stages, capability areas, and some case studies.

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First, let's revisit the Business Capability Development Programme, or BCDP round two If you're not familiar.

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BCDP round one was a pilot grants programme funded through the NSW Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund, a test and trial programme that ran over the course of 2024 and 2025.

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We are pleased to be able to offer a fresh iteration of the programme running in 2026 through to 27.

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BCDP is designed to support small or stand-alone early childhood and care ECEC providers of up to six services in specific NSW regions.

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The programme is designed to strengthen services, business viability, and sustainability as a service provider through self-reflection and in partnership with your allocated consultant.

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The programme considers your current capability levels across a range of non-pedagogical areas and helps to build the skills and tools needed to excel in business.

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The BCDP is free and tailored to the business needs of your individual services.

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As I mentioned, the programme is delivered in partnership with Semann & Slattery as our programme partner.

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This round we've expanded.

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BCDP is targeted to stand alone or small providers, meaning approved providers who have between 1 (one) to 6 (six) ECE services and which are operating in any of the following 8 (eight) areas in New South Wales. Griffith, Murrumbidgee,

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West Queanbeyan, Penrith, St Mary's, Mount Druitt, Camden, Blacktown, and new services in Campbelltown. To be clear, providers may operate outside of these areas, but services must be located within these eight areas to be eligible for BCDP support.

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Services in the Campbelltown area were eligible to apply in Round 1 (one) of the programme in 2024, so those who took part in both Stage 1 and Stage 2 of Round 1 (one) unfortunately won't be eligible to reapply.

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But if you are in the Campbelltown area and only completed Stage 1 or are newly eligible, we'd love to hear from you.

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Remote, rural, and regional services are strongly encouraged to apply.

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I will now hand over to Anthony to take us through what's involved in BCDP.

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Thanks Emma.

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As Semann & Slattery, we specialise in building organisational capability, leadership, and business resilience.

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So in partnership with the Department of Education, our role in the programme is to work with you to design and deliver the learning experiences, coaching and practical tools that help support services strengthen their operation and plan confidently towards the future.

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So what support does a service get through BCDP?

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The BCDP focuses on non-pedagogical leadership, helping services improve their business side of operations.

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We do this over 2 clear stages.

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So in Stage 1 you'll get up to 12 hours with an Early Years Business Capability consultant who works with you to review your current systems.

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They help you set goals and co-design a tailored and individual action plan.

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This is the first stage; it's called Discover and Plan Stage and it's where each services journey actually begins.

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In Stage 1, Semann & Slattery

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as your programme partner, work closely with your service to understand your current business leadership and service management practises and identify opportunities for growth.

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And so this stage begins with initial phone call to introduce your programme partner and also confirm next steps.

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One on site visit to spend time with your team to gain a deeper understanding of your services context, which is really critical.

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And for services where travel or scheduling is challenging, a hybrid consultation model combining online and in person sessions for flexibility. Across Stage 1,

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participating services will receive up to 12 hours of engagement with a programme partner.

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Together we'll undertake a collaborative business review, a supportive process designed to explore strengths, any challenges you might encounter and opportunities in areas such as governance and compliance,

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community, family and staff engagement,

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change in staff management, administration and operations, risks,

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WHS, assets finance and IT and strategy and business planning.

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We'll explore these capability areas in more detail later in this presentation.

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Services will then be invited to share relevant information to help build a clearer, accurate picture of their environment and their needs.

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Any sharing of personal information will follow appropriate consent and confidentiality processes.

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Following the business review, we'll work together to go design a tailored action plan, and this plan will identify priority goals, outline strategies, tools and support required, nominate Stage 2 learning and support activities and provide a clear road map for ongoing programme participation.

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This plan is practical, it's achievable and it's directly aligned to your services day to day realities.

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It will also guide and support all activities in Stage 2 with opportunities to regularly reflect and adjust as needed.

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And see by the end of Stage 1, every service will have a really clear understanding of where they are now and a shared plan for where they want to get to during the following programme.

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Next, we'll move into Stage 2, where your action plan is brought to life through training and coaching and practical application in your service.

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In Stage 2, you'll access up to 158 hours of targeted support based on your action plan.

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These can include workshops, coaching, team sessions, guidance on digital tools.

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It's flexible and it's actually intended to meet your needs and the context you find yourself in.

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You'll also be eligible for up to $13,650 in access payment to support your participation in the programme, especially to help with backfilling staff or meeting the cost of any activities completed after hours.

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Stage 2 is the implementation stage where services take the plan developed in Stage 1 and we put them in action.

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It's at this stage you'll meet your training provider.

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You'll be working with a consultant either from Community Early Learning Australia, also known as CELA, or one of our team members at Semann & Slattery.

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Based on your context, available resources and identified needs, your service receives support from the programme to build capability and embed improvements.

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This support can be delivered through a combination of face-to-face sessions, online webinars, one on one mentoring or virtual learning.

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This flexibility ensures that the support fits your team's schedule and your service's needs.

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Stage 2 is about turning your tailored action plan into real, lasting change.

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By the end of this stage, services will have stronger business capability, more confident leadership and embedded processes that support long term sustainability.

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The support provided by the programme focuses on real business challenges that your service or your services face.

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Where challenges, shortcomings or areas for growth currently exists for your service. We've identified a range of capability areas that we can focus on to support you throughout this programme.

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These capability areas are grouped by business category and can be tailored to help and strengthen your services, business viability and sustainability and the key capability areas with examples for each group include the following.

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Governance processes and oversight.

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This is help with volunteer boards, onboarding and operations, complying with relevant laws and regulations.

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Assessment and rating, e.g. meeting structures, policy review schedules, complaints, and perhaps even grievance processes.

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Community, family, and staff engagement.

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This has helped with relationship management for prospective, new, existing families, conflict management, cultural competency, and excellence.

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For example, induction processes and packs for new educators, family, and committee members,

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community engagement calendars and building collaborative leadership opportunities.

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Change management - This is help with implementing and communicating change related to new policies and regulations, operations, and leadership.

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For example, transition planning, policy and procedure development, processes for embedding change.

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Staff management - This is help with induction, rostering, recruitment, staff, wellbeing, staff, and team culture.

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For example, succession planning, development of accountability measures, effective team communication, and strategies. Administration processes -

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This is helped with record keeping, supporting payroll, time sheets, online enrolment, digital signing, and support with grant applications e.g. waiting list processes, business continuity protocols, standardisation of admin systems and workflows.

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Operational and risk management -

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This is help with project management and disaster management planning, for example, internal audit calendars, quality improvement plans, and role expectations.

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Work health and safety -

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This is help with hazard identification, safety risk management, and duty of care.

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For example, WHS induction and refresh systems, infection prevention practices, duty of care expectations, safe sleep compliance and monitoring practices and management of high-risk behaviours.

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Property and asset management -

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This is helped with capital works, lease arrangements, long term rentals, maintenance schedules, and property purchasing e.g. asset registers, cleaning service contract oversight, planned upgraded lists for capital works.

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Financial management -

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This is help with managing funding and programmes, staff pay award, yearly budgeting and also billing platforms.

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For example, budget setting and review cycles, procurement and purchasing systems, financial delegation, and reporting. Information technology systems -

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This is help with payroll and time sheets, online enrolments, digital signing, and billing platform.

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This can include data security and privacy, introduction and embedding new IT systems and processes, team training records. And Strategic and Business planning -

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This is help with the help you to embed key operational to full capacity like managing your wait lists, increasing occupancy, marketing advice, for example, short- and long-term plans, strategic workforce planning, grant application processes and procedures, annual reviews, and cycles.

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Now services may choose to seek help to excel in one area or many areas.

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Essentially in your application you'll tell us where the biggest areas of need are and we'll then work together with you through Stage 1 to help you build from there.

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Semann & Slattery and Community Early Learning in Australia (CELA) deliver support informed by extensive ECEC knowledge and sector experiences.

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BCDP delivers a capability uplift to participating services.

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Specifically, it's a free programme to support business leadership and management capability.

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The BCDP focuses on non-pedagogical leadership helping services improve the business side of operations.

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Also it provides tailored and individualised support.

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Each service undergoes a Stage 1 business review up to 12 hours to assess, gaps and needs analysis, its current capability needs, and goals. A tailored stage 2 capability uplift, training, professional development, coaching, and mentoring.

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This package is then delivered varying from light touch, which is 20 to 40 hours, to intensive, up to 158 hours.

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As previously described,

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delivery includes prerecorded webinars, coaching, site visits, self-paced learning, and reflective practice sessions.

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And the support?

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Well it's service specific, it's not a one size fits all and it aims to address what is discovered in Stage 1.

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The programme provides financial support and as a service you can receive an access payment of up to $13,650 across 2 stages to access backfill so staff can attend training and or pay overtime for out of hours learning.

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The overall programme runs from February 2026 to June 2027.

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Now that might sound like a long-time frame at first, but it's designed this way to ensure services are well supported at every step. From February to May in 2026,

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this focuses on the application, the assessment and notifying services of outcomes.

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This is the preparation phase, so no programme activities are required from services during this time.

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Actual programme participation runs from June 2026 to June 2027, and this is where the services engage in two structured stages of support.

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Stage 1 we call ‘Discover and Plan,’ followed by Stage 2, which we call ‘Implement.’

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The extended timeline simply ensures that there is enough time for meaningful support, practical implementation, and sustainable change without placing unnecessary pressure on services.

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Now, while the BCDP officers targeted business support, it has clear boundaries.

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So let's be clear about what the BCDP is not.

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It doesn't provide pedagogical or educational leadership support.

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The BCDP is not focused on curriculum, educational leadership, teaching quality, or compliance with the national quality standard, the NQS.

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It does not replace quality improvement plans, your Quips, or educational frameworks.

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It's not for large providers.

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The programme is only to small providers operating a maximum of eight services.

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It's not a regulatory, compliance or audit programme.

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It's a support programme.

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It's not a compliance check.

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It does not provide funding for infrastructure or capital works.

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Access

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payments are for training related costs, e.g. staff coverage.

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It doesn't provide funds for renovation, building upgrades or large-scale tech purchases.

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And it doesn't solve all business challenges.

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The BCDP supports capability uplift, but services still manage their own operations, their own decision making and implementation.

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It's a short-term programme which has limited capacity support.

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It's not long-term consultancy.

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And importantly, it's not mandatory and may not suit all services.

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Participation is voluntary.

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Services must be willing and able to commit time and staff.

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So, what does actual participation in the Business Capability Development Programme look like in practice?

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In the first stage of the BCDP, we work with over 40 small services across Campbelltown, Dubbo, and Coffs Harbour.

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Each service received tailored support to strengthen business operations, leadership capability, and long-term sustainability.

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So what kinds of challenges did services bring to the programme?

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See, some services wanted support to strengthen long term strategic thinking and put more robust systems into place to guide their operations.

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Others were looking to improve administration processes, digitised systems or strengthen board and governance relationships.

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Many services wanted greater confidence in business decision making rather than relying on our ad hoc approaches.

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And what changed as a result of the programme?

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Well, in one example, a consultant worked with the service leader to go design long term strategies and associated systems that now guide operations and decision making.

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The service leader highlighted clearer future focus strategies and improved systems as key outcomes, noting significant improvements in how the service operates.

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There was also a noticeable lift in staff confidence using digital tools which are now embedded in everyday administration and communication.

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For another service, they reported transformational improvement in governance practices.

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Decision making and administrative efficiencies, staff engagement and morale, and how the service builds and maintains connections with families and their communities.

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They also noticed significant improvements in strategic and business planning capability, adaptability to operational needs and overall sustainability and long-term viability. And across services,

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participants told us that this programme helped them get on top of their administration, to improve their governance and board relationships, embed better systems and feel more confident as a leader.

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Now, how did participants describe that experience?

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Well, one director told us it met us where we were and moved us forward with confidence.

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So these are just some of the outcomes for Round 1, and we're excited to work with more services as

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we move into Round 2.

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I'll now hand over back to the department programme team to share how you can participate in in the upcoming round.

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Over to you, Irene.

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Thanks, Anthony.

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So applications for Round 2 are open on the 16th of February and close 30 March 2026.

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As you can see, this timeline outlines what your journey through the Business Capability Development Programme will look like.

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The timeline shows that from February to May 2026, the focus is on your interactions with the Department of Education, specifically our programme team, to manage applications and assessment processes and notify services of outcomes.

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Applications are first reviewed by the Department's programme team to confirm eligibility.

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If the number of eligible applications exceeds the available places, an independent assessment panel applies weighted criteria to prioritise services based on demonstrated need.

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Following this, Stage 1 runs from June 2026 to September 2026.

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At this time, Semann & Slattery will be your programme partner, guiding and supporting services to develop their unique action plans during Stage 1.

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Then Stage 2 continues from October 26 to June 27.

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In Stage 2, participating services will be supported by consultants from either Semann & Slattery or Community Early Learning Australia (CELA) with training and learning.

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Although the programme spans 18 months, it's not intensive.

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It has been designed to be structured yet flexible, so services can engage in a way that fits with their operational realities and busy daily schedules at a pace and method that suits them.

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By following this journey, services will build stronger business capability, leadership, confidence, and long-term sustainability.

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To apply for the programme, you will need to complete a short application form and self-assessment via SmartyGrants before 30 March 2026.

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If you haven't used SmartyGrants before, you will need to register.

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Registration is free and straightforward process.

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You can save the application as you go and return when ready and continue making changes until you are ready to submit.

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But please note that once you have submitted, you will be unable to make any changes to your application.

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We'll also provide you with an optional readiness checklist to help you determine whether your service is ready to participate in the programme.

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This checklist will be available through the Business Capability Development Programme web page on the Department of Education's website, so you can access it at any time.

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We would also like to take this opportunity to promote some upcoming online application writing webinars will be that we will be running on the 3rd and the 12th of March.

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The application writing webinars will include information on the application process, explain eligibility and assessment requirements, and provide general information on how to prepare your application.

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The details for these sessions will be available on our website where you will have the opportunity to register your attendance, so we'd love to see you there.

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If you have any questions after today regarding BCDP, please reach out to our team through our email at ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au or over the phone on 1800 619 113.

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Alternatively, if you have any questions about the online application system SmartyGrants, you can contact the Support Desk on 03 9320 6888 or via email.

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Thanks again for taking the time to learn about the upcoming launch of BCDP Round 2.

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We are proud of the programme success in 42 services to date and pleased to be able to present this opportunity for another funding round to support even more ECEC services.

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We know small and stand-alone services are a valuable backbone of Early Childhood Education in New South Wales and we're keen to support you to lead with strength, clarity, and sustainability.

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We hope this video has given you a clear understanding of how the programme works, from the initial Discover and Plan stage in Stage 1 through to Stage 2 Implementation, as well as the support that's available to strengthen your services, business capability, leadership, and processes.

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We look forward to supporting your service on this journey and helping you build a stronger, more sustainable future for your team, families, and community.

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If you're ready to take the next step and participate in Round 2, please complete the application form via SmartyGrants.

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We hope to see your application soon.