Refer to Section 3 of the Minor Capital Fund Guidelines

If you are an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO) applying under the Minor Capital Fund, you are required to provide evidence of your status as an ACCO under three distinct categories:

i) You are an independent, not-for-profit organisation, that’s incorporated as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander organisation and/or is a registered community service. Evidence can include:

• registration with the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC)

• organisation’s Certificate of Incorporation

• organisation’s Certificate of Constitution (this document should confirm your not-for-profit status)

• have a registered local business address.

If you are not registered on ORIC, you must demonstrate that your organisation is initiated, based, governed and operated by the local Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander community. Evidence can include:

• organisation’s Certificate of Constitution

• organisation’s list of membership and board of governance. The list should compromise of majority Aboriginal membership.

• documents such as Terms of Reference listing requirement for membership. The membership and eligibility rules for membership are required to be compliant with CATSI (Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander)) Act 2006.

ii) You are accountable to your local community and facilitate local Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples to have input into service delivery and performance. Evidence can include:

• organisation’s business plans and annual service plan.

• documents, project plans, correspondence or equivalent documents demonstrating the organisation has mechanisms in place to capture community needs. This may include surveys, consultation initiatives and outreach meetings.

iii) You are endorsed by the local community leadership to deliver holistic and culturally appropriate services or activities that benefit Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities and people, including empowerment and building strength. Evidence in this regard includes:

• Materials such as annual work plans, annual reports or other equivalent documents that show the organisation has a dedicated, reliable and consistent approach designed to suit the types of services required by communities and is responsive to the needs of those receiving services.

In the first place, it is important to note that the number of per day places you propose to increase with the project must be allocated exclusively to a preschool program:

• if you are a multipurpose service, please note that this grant can only fund the portion of your build resulting in the increase in licensed places allocated exclusively to preschool education.

• if you are a long day care service, consider that the grant can only fund the portion of your build that will increase licensed places for the delivery of a preschool program for preschool-aged children.

• in any of these cases, you must identify the portion of the build and relevant unencumbered space that will not be used to deliver a preschool program for preschool-aged children and provide evidence to substantiate these calculations.

Further, the forecasted increase in preschool places must align with the appropriate regulatory requirements for centre-based services:

• your forecast must be supported by professional plans and unencumbered space calculations prepared by a licensed building practitioner who holds adequate accreditation or registration with their relevant body. Information is available on the Support for Preparing a Grant Application page.

• you must demonstrate how you have calculated your proposed increase in line with regulations 107 and 108 of the Education and Care Services National Regulations and that your design meets all relevant regulations applicable to childcare centres - see Preschool Places Regulatory Requirements for more information.

• in addition, please note that the Regulatory Authority considers your compliance history when you apply for Service Approval to increase the number of approved places.

For those in a long day care setting, you will be asked to identify the portion of the total unencumbered space that is not used to deliver a preschool program for preschool-aged children and provide evidence for the calculation on the proportion of these places. Examples of suitable evidence may include your current per day enrolments for each age group.

You will also be asked to provide evidence that you currently deliver a preschool program in your long day care centre. Evidence may include existing enrolments for each age group, any existing program curriculum for your long day care, among others. If you do not currently deliver a preschool program, you will need to provide comprehensive details on the steps taken to implement a preschool program in your existing or new long day care centre.

Community Preschool

*This is the total number of preschool places being maintained and created that will be used to deliver an early childhood education program to preschool-aged children, for at least 600 hours per year, designed by a degree qualified early childhood teacher, in accordance with The Early Years Learning Framework.

Example: Brave Lions Preschool has a licence for 20 children a day at their current site. They are extending their existing centre-based community preschools to increase unencumbered space. It is expected that they will be able to obtain service approval for a total of 30 children a day after the capital works.

Long day care or Multipurpose

*The Minor Capital Fund program will only fund the portion of your build that will lead to an increase of places for preschool-aged children receiving a preschool education program. Any costs related to the increase of non-preschool places must be funded through other sources.

Example: Happy Children is a long day care that has 50 licenced/per day places recorded in NQAITS. Of these 50, 20 places are allocated exclusively to the delivery of a preschool program for preschool-aged children, and the 30 are allocated to toddlers and babies.

Therefore, this service has 20 existing preschool places. Happy Children long day care service is undertaking an extension work which will allow them to create an additional 30 places. Of these new 30 places, only 15 will be allocated exclusively to preschool-aged children. Therefore, Happy Children is maintaining their existing 20 preschool places and creating an additional 15 preschool places. They expect to have 35 preschool places as a result of the capital works and 80 places per day as per NQAITS.

When ask about the expected total number of places, this applicant should respond 35, as this is the expected total number of places allocated exclusively to community preschool.

Area with a shortfall of community preschool places

The department has undertaken an independent analysis on the demand and supply of community preschool across NSW. Please note this analysis excludes places related to preschool programs offered within a long day care setting.

Areas with a shortfall in community preschool places are identified in the table below:

An SA3 is a Statistical Area determined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Priority will be given to eligible organisations intending to undertake minor capital works to extend or renovate a centre-based preschool in an area with a shortfall of community preschool places as identified by the department’s methodology.

You can determine the specific SA3 for your site address by following these instructions:

1. Navigate to https://maps.abs.gov.au/index.html.
2. Click on Choose a boundary type.
3. In the drop-down options, scroll down and find the section called ASGS 2016 ABS Structures, then select 2016 Statistical Area Level 3 (SA3)*. Your screen should look like this:
4. Type your exact site address into the Find address or place search bar and select your address.
5. Once the map has navigated to your site address, click the space on the map next to the black dot on your site address, and a blue dot will appear on the map.
   
6. Click on the blue dot and a box will appear with the Name and Code of the Statistical Area Level 3 (SA3) for this site address. See screenshot below.

*Please note: the 2016 Census data is still in use as the SEIFA data from the 2021 Census is not yet available.

Please refer to the Application Support Guidelines for further instructions. If you encounter difficulties navigating the ABS map to determine your SA3 code and name, please send an email to capital.works@det.nsw.edu.au.

Eligible long day care and community preschool applicants outside of these shortfall areas are still encouraged to submit an application if they meet the eligibility criteria.

The department will conduct data analysis to assess need and demand for preschool places in the area you intend to service and will also consider the Socio-Economic Index for Areas (SEIFA) and Accessibility and Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA). The department will also consider other elements such as the percentage of not-for-profit services and disadvantaged children in your area.

To complement the department’s analysis, applicants are requested to submit evidence to demonstrate need and demand, such as:

• evidence of limited or non-existent access to preschool education in the local area subject to capital works. This can include references to the limited number of centre-based long day care or community preschool services, whether they are currently at capacity and issues regarding access to these services.

• evidence of current and future demand for early childhood services in the local area subject to the capital works. This can include a waitlist for the service, data showing significant growth in the number of children and families in the area as a result of population growth, new industries or residential development, closure of other early childhood services that were delivering community preschool programs, letters from parents and community feedback, if applicable.

As per the Program Guidelines, construction works must start within 6 months of receipt of a successful Outcome Letter. Minor Capital Fund projects must be completed and acquitted within 12 months of the Funding Agreement being executed. Applicants must provide an expected timeline for project delivery and outline the key project milestones to demonstrate their ability to meet these timeframes to show readiness to proceed.

Provide an expected timeline for project delivery
Provide your best date estimates for when the proposed minor capital works would commence, when the project would be completed and the estimated opening date of the service once capital works are complete. This could be informed by conversations with the certified building practitioner.

Outline key project milestones and timeframe for delivery
Provide a description of the key milestones for your minor capital works project and the estimated timeframes for delivery, noting when the site will be ready for use.

In addition, applicants must confirm the project has been discussed with all affected stakeholders and partners, and show that they have support from all parties involved in the project (e.g. your landlord, council, committee, Schools Infrastructure NSW) and approval to proceed with the minor capital works on the proposed site.

Evidence may include preliminary minutes from discussions with your board or council, letters of support from your landlord, other funding bodies contributing to the project or partners, or a lodged or approved Development Application (if applicable).

You must also provide evidence that indicates you have a suitable project site for the 5-year project period following the completion of the capital works. To meet this requirement, you must own the land, or have a lease or licence for your desired site prior to applying for this grant:

• If you own the land
  Suitable evidence includes a certificate of Title.
• If you have a current lease
  Suitable evidence includes a current 5-year lease or licensed to operate on the site.
• If you operate on a public-school site
  Suitable evidence includes a current lease or license to operate on the site and support from your lessor to conduct capital works on this site. Before applying, please discuss licensing arrangements and your planned project with your current Contract Manager within the Early Childhood, Canteens and Uniforms to obtain support from relevant stakeholders. You will be required to submit evidence in this regard, such as a formal correspondence noting that SINSW, AMU and the School Principal are supportive of your proposal, confirmation of the scope of works, and agreement to make the site available for a ten-year period for the operation of a preschool service.
• If you have another appropriate arrangement
  You will be required to give details of the other appropriate arrangement, and you will be required to attach suitable evidence of this.
  If your current land arrangements are not valid for 5 years, you will be required to demonstrate how you and your landlord will meet the 5-year requirement. For example, you may provide a lease for a shorter tenure and a letter of support from your lessor indicating you are a longstanding tenant and that they intent to extend your lease upon the expiry of your current one.
• The maturity of your proposal and how far along you are with your planning and project development
  
  We will consider whether you are putting forward a mature, well-developed proposal that is ready to kick-off or whether you would benefit from further developing your plans prior to applying.

Your budget breakdown is the total cost of all project elements. You will be asked to provide a detailed list of your project expenses, which clearly demonstrates what sources of funding will be used to cover them.

You must submit a least one quote obtained in the past four months that reflects the final design of your capital works project to substantiate your budget. There is an expectation that all expenses will be supported by a quote.

Applicants engaging a certified building practitioner only
If you are not undertaking minor capital works and are only seeking reimbursement for the cost of engaging a certified building practitioner, your primary project expense will be the building practitioner fees. Please submit a quote and invoice for these services.

Applicants undertaking minor works
If you are both engaging a building practitioner and undertaking minor capital works, your project expenditure will include building practitioner fees, building costs, and other relevant expenses.

When preparing your budget and expenditure table, please ensure that:

• your quote is recent, itemised and reflects the final scope of works and final design for your project. Further funding will not be provided for any design additions or alterations not present on the proposed budget and quotes.

• you are considering all relevant expenses related to your project, including administrative or professional fees, project management, etc.

• you are nominating an adequate funding source to cover each expense. Please review the Minor Capital Fund Guidelines to understand which components can be funded by this grant.

• if you identify elements that cannot be funded with this grant, such as portable equipment, maintenance works, rooms that will be used primarily for purposes other than the delivery of a preschool education program, please identify these costs on your expenditure table and nominate an appropriate funding source.

• you are including both construction contingency and provider contingency in your budget as outlined on the Minor Capital Fund Guidelines. A reasonable allowance for contingency can be included in the project’s expenditure as part of the grant funding requested. It is recommended that you allocate around 10% of the total project cost towards contingency in total.

• your total expenditure (i.e. total cost of the project) matches your total income, demonstrating you have sourced enough funding to cover the costs of your project.

Please note that the department reserves the right to withhold any unspent contingency allowance or underspend in overall project expenditure at the conclusion of a capital works project.

What elements can be funded by they Start Strong Capital Works Grant?

Please refer to the Minor Capital Fund Guidelines for details on what elements of your budget can be funded by this grant.

When you are providing your budget breakdown on the expenditure table, ensure you are not nominating the Minor Capital Fund grant as the funding source for any ineligible elements, as this will delay or impede assessment. You are required to identify the cost associated to these ineligible expenses, such as rooms for toddlers or nursery, and nominate an appropriate source of funding on the expenditure table.

Multipurpose preschools and long day care centres

This grant can only fund the portion of your project that will result in an increase in preschool places. This includes not-for-profit long day care centres who intend to increase the places allocated to the delivery of a preschool program for preschool-aged children. You must demonstrate that any portion of the build that is ineligible for funding will funded either by the provider contribution, or other sources of funding.

The project income is comprised of the grant amount, the provider contribution, and any other external sources of funding.

All financial figures must be provided ex GST throughout this application.

The Grant Amount (mandatory field)
These are the funds requested from the NSW Government under the Start Strong Capital Works Grant (ex GST). The maximum grant amount under the Minor Capital Fund is $100K.

Provider Contribution
This is your organisation’s contribution to the project. This can be comprised of school funds and/or loans. Applicants are required to contribute at least 5% of the total cost of the project with the provider contribution under the Minor Capital Fund.

To demonstrate the availability of preschool funds you may provide a recent bank statement, balance sheet or letter of your CFO committing the funds. To demonstrate the availability of a loan, you should include a letter of offer from your lending entity specifying the amount in offer (ex GST).

Other external sources of funding (not mandatory)
This is any funding by parties other than the Start Strong Capital Works Grant and the Preschool applying for the grant (ex GST). It can include other grants from State, Federal or Local Government, donations from private or public organisations or in-kind services. In-kind services should be quantified as worth $0; for all other contribution types the amount contributed must be specified.

It is not mandatory to have other external sources of funding, but it is highly encouraged.

It is the applicant’s responsibility to confirm the availability and amount of funds contributed by any other sources or in-kind services. These amounts will not be funded by the department.

You will be required to provide evidence to prove the availability and exact amount contributed by these external income sources, such as a letter from your funding entity with these details. For in-kind services, formal correspondence should confirm the offer of services detailing the scope of the offer. In-kind services can be quantified as $0 on your budget.

If an income source has not been confirmed, the applicant must provide and expected timeframe for the confirmation of funding, with evidence to support this.

Income table

The table provided below is an example with fictitious information. In this example, the funding sources breakdown is as follows:

• The total cost of the project or total expenditure is $100,00 ex GST

• Your requested Start Strong Capital Work grant amount is $70,000 ex GST

• the provider contribution is $15,000 ex GST

• there is one other external sources of funding

• a Community Grant is contributing $15,000 ex GST

• the total project income (i.e. the addition of the Capital Works Grant, Community Grant and Provider Contribution) adds up to $100,000 ex GST. Therefore, the total project income matches the total project expenditure thus showing that the provider has raised enough funds to deliver the project.

The total project income (your requested grant amount plus all other sources of funding) must be equal to the total project expenditure (the total cost of the project).

Using the above example:

• total project expenditure amount: (auto-calculation): $100,000 excluding GST

• total project income amount: (auto-calculation): $100,000 excluding GST.