Melanie: Hello everyone and welcome to this Flexible Initiatives trial AKA FIT Information Session.

My name is Melanie Tapulaa’la

I'm in the Innovation and Capability Programs team here in Early Childhood Outcomes.

I'm joined by the other members of our Innovation and Capability Programs team, Rhiannon, Nohra, Irene Vella, Amanda Knowles, Grace Rachmat and Olivia Abbo.

Welcome everyone and thanks for making the time to learn more about the new third round of the Flexible Initiatives Trial.

Before we begin, I'd like to start by acknowledging all the various lands and country we're joining you from.

We recognise the ongoing custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, song lines and stories.

We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.

The FIT Program is a funded initiative of the NSW Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund and following two successful rounds, the ECEC FIT Program is open again for applications from services to support children, families and ECE services and make early education and care more flexible and accessible.

Today we'll outline all the key features of the program and walk you through some scenarios, showcasing some of the things you could do with the funding under the program.

The team will also explain the nuts and bolts of how the program works and outline what you need to think about before you start putting together an application for the program.

We also encourage you to consider attending one of the grant writing workshops that we'll be hosting during the application period.

I'll now hand over to Rhiannon for an overview of the program, why and how it was designed, and who it is for.

Rhiannon: Thanks Mel.

We're excited to introduce the next round of the FIT Round Three.

Though before we get into the details of how FIT Round Three works, let's take a moment to understand the problem we're addressing and why this program is so important.

It won't be news to you, I'm sure. Evidence shows that lack of flexible early childhood education and care is a significant barrier to work and study for NSW families, particularly for parents and carers working part time, casual or shift jobs, as well as those trying to enter or re enter the workforce.

At the same time, we know ECEC services face multiple challenges that limit their ability to offer more flexible options to families.

So how are we contributing to the solution? FIT has been designed specifically to address these challenges. Through grant funding, FIT enables ECE services to pilot and test new or adapted operating models that provide greater flexibility to form an evidence base of learnings from initiatives that the Childcare and Economic Opportunity Fund Board to inform future directions for government.

The program was designed as a two year test and trial program with a total grant value of $20 million. Following two successful rounds. FIT Round three offers an opportunity to trial extended hours of care for preschool age children while continuing to support the establishment of family daycare services in regional and remote areas.

Eligibility for FIT Round 3. We've refined and tightened the eligibility criteria to focus more strategically on targeted areas and service types to build the evidence base of initiatives.

This means the streams have been adjusted from previous rounds, which will impact which services are eligible to apply under each stream. We encourage all potential applicants to carefully review the eligibility requirements for each stream to understand whether their service FITs within the scope of this round.

Ever mindful of child needs and safety, objectives of the trial are to enhance accessibility for families, increase women's workforce participation, improve understanding of local needs and services, capacity to meet those needs, provide support for educators who are delivering the initiative and develop an evidence base to inform future program development.

The FIT Program is a competitive grant whereby successful applicants receive funding to implement their innovative flexible care proposals over a 12 month.

The FIT trial offers funding across 2 distinct streams, each designed to meet different community needs and service types.

These are flexible service delivery and blended service delivery. For those familiar with round one and two, you will note that we have adjusted streams for round 3.

This round focuses specifically on trialling wrap around and extended hours care for preschool aged children while continuing to support family daycare services in regional and remote areas.

Here's a quick overview of each stream. We'll be going into more detail on who can apply and what each stream involves later in this presentation, so please stay tuned to ensure you fully understand the requirements and we will cover later Who is eligible to apply?

There are two streams of funding available.

Stream one flexible service delivery which contains 2 arms of funding.

Stream 1A is for existing eligible services looking to offer extended hours care to preschool age children.

It's the expansion of an existing community preschool, local government, preschool, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO) operated preschools, ACCO long day care and not for profit preschools to provide extended hours care and excludes public preschools.

Stream 1B is focused on increasing access to Family Day care in areas where it's needed most.

It provides funding to support the establishment of family daycare services in inner regional, outer regional, remote or very remote areas facilitated by a qualified educator under an existing approved ECEC service provider.

Stream 2 Blended Service Delivery is designed to support services delivering extended hours care for preschool aged children who are attending a public preschool.

It's the establishment or expansion of delivery of extended hours out of school hours provision of care to children attending a public preschool on a public school site.

This stream is open to all service types as long as they're providing extended hours care to children attending a public preschool.

This is a competitive grant program and all applications will be assessed against clearly defined criteria outlined in the Program guidelines.

Services planning to apply should ensure they can meet these requirements before submitting an application.

It's also important to note that additional waiting will be applied to applications from services located in areas with a safer decile of one or two services based in outer regional, remote or very remote areas, according to the Aria Classification and services such as multifunctional Aboriginal Children's Services, Aboriginal Controlled Children's Services and Aboriginal Child and Family Centres.

Full details on the assessment criteria and waiting are available in the program guidelines on the Department of Education website.

I'll now hand over to you, Grace.

GRACE: Thanks Rhiannon.

Now let's take a look at what's been achieved so far through the FIT program.

In round one, we funded 16 successful services, awarding over 2.4 million in grants.

In round two, that impact expanded 37 services receive grants totalling more than 5.9 million.

Together, these projects proposed some strong outcomes, including the creation of 480 licenced places, over 400 additional hours of flexible care offered each week, and funding for 65 educator and team member positions.

How are these grants making a difference?

The grants have enabled services to create additional places in long day care services and community preschools, extend operating hours including care before and after school and even on weekends, fund new educator and teacher roles, open new rooms or expand their current programs, and establish new family daycare services, particularly in areas with limited access now.

These results highlight how flexible funding can lead to real, measurable change for families, educators and communities.

You can see from our map that round one so successful proposals from across NSW.

Some of the ACEC flexible initiatives that will be provided are extending hours past traditional community preschools hours providing flexible pickup and drop off times and half day sessions giving families the ability to make casualized care arrangements through online booking platform.

Establishment of a new family daycare service in remote NSW.

Partnership between a community preschools and OOSH to provide extended care outside of preschool hours.

You can see from our map that round two saw successful proposals from across NSW.

Some of the ECEC Flexibles initiative that will be provided are create additional places in long day care services and community preschools.

Extends hours and days including before and after school vacation care and on weekends.

Establish 5 new family daycare services.

Partnership between a preschool and OOSH to provide extended care outside of preschool hours.

I will now hand you back to Rhiannon to share some of the changes for round three.

Rhiannon: Thanks Grace FIT Round 3 aims to build on the success of the first two rounds through testing new ways to improve access to ECEC.

There are some changes to the guidelines from rounds one and two, creating further opportunities to expand the evidence base of initiatives across both family daycare and extended hours of care options.

Changes include, As previously mentioned, the streams have been refined to provide a more targeted focus, with each stream now tailored to specific service types and priority areas, which now include expanding existing services, establishing new family daycare services and extended hours for children attending a public preschool.

We've refined and tightened the eligibility criteria to focus more strategically on targeted areas and service types.

This means the streams have been adjusted to better align with the program objectives, which may impact which services are eligible to apply under each stream.

We encourage all potential applicants to carefully review the eligibility requirements for each stream to understand whether their service FITs within the scope of this round.

During assessment, the weighting for location has been expanded to include Inner Regional Areas in addition to Outer Regional, Remote and Very Remote as defined by the Aria classifications.

This change reflects a stronger focus on increasing access to family daycare in communities where it is most needed.

The assessment criteria Order of Priority has been reviewed to place a strong focus on child safety and well being.

Clear guidelines on when minor capital works is required under Stream 2 on Public schools has been updated.

If you think you might need to undertake minor capital works as part of your flexible proposal, make sure you read through the inclusions and caps very carefully.

There is more comprehensive advice and examples of what can and cannot be funded.

And finally, we've simplified the language throughout, added more help and support, updating our glossary application checklist resources and streamlined application form.

The key takeaway here is that it's important you read through the Round 3 guidelines to understand the current requirements.

Let's walk through who is eligible to apply under Stream One.

To begin with, services must operate in NSW.

Eligible service types include community preschools, centre based mobile preschools, local government operated preschools, preschools or long day care services operated by Aboriginal Community Controlled organisations, not for profit preschools and Family Day care services in addition to service type.

To be eligible, providers must be registered with ECCMS or be willing to register, Must be able to comply with the terms of the funding agreement, hold a National Quality Standard rating of at least meeting or above the proposal, must provide or be planning to provide education and care to zero to 6 year old children.

And finally, the proposal must go beyond the services existing or ongoing activities.

This is about testing something new or adapted, not funding business as usual.

Let's now walk through who is eligible to apply under Stream 2.

To begin with, services must operate in New South Wales.

All ECEC service providers are eligible, including before and after school care providers, long day care and Family Day care providers. However, this excludes public preschools.

The existing on new service must be Co located within with a public preschool on a public school site or be located within a short distance of a public preschool such that children can be safely transported on foot between the service and the preschool in addition to service type.

To be eligible, providers must be registered with ECCMS or willing to register, eligible for childcare subsidy or be willing to register.

Must be able to comply with the terms of the funding agreement, hold a national quality standard rating of at least meeting or above.

The establishment of a new service is only permitted where the proposed service will operate as an out of school hours OOSH service.

The proposal must provide or be planning to provide education and care for children in the year before school with the option to extend to children up to 12 years of age.

And finally, proposals must go beyond the services existing or ongoing activities.

This is about testing something new or adapted, not funding business as usual.

I'll now pass you over to Irene to talk you through some example scenarios.

Irene: Thanks Rhiannon.

Hi everyone. Olivia and I are going to run through some example scenarios with you to demonstrate the process behind developing your idea, preparing a budget and implementing your proposal.

You need to look at your proposed initiatives through the lens of your own service type and the needs of your individual community, which may be totally different to the examples we'll be showcasing.

Please note that the following scenarios are provided for illustrative purposes only and do not represent the full range of potential initiatives or local contexts that may be eligible under the program Guidelines.

Applicants are encouraged to tailor their applications to reflect the specific needs and circumstances of their communities.

All of these scenarios we go through today and more are up on our website for you to have a closer look at.

This first scenario that we will run through is for Stream 1A. In this example scenario, the preschool has surveyed its current families and local community.

60% of surveys indicated the need for the additional day of operation and 48% said they would utilise the vacation care.

With more families opting for the six weeks during school terms, Mountain View Preschool develops a plan to open an additional day per week and to commence operating vacation care.

For Terms 1-2 and three of the school holidays, Mountain View Preschool develop their action plan on the steps they'll need to take to set up their proposal.

This includes involving their current staff to determine the availability to extend their work day and a recruitment plan if required.

They identify their budget items and check these against the What Can and Cannot Be Funded section in the guidelines.

Their budget includes staff wages for the additional day and for the additional six weeks of operation for vacation care, regulatory fees to apply for the additional operating days, cleaner fees for the additional days and resources for an additional day per week and for the vacation care period.

The service knows that they are responsible for applying to the regulatory authority to increase their licence days.

During the trial, they collect data to evaluate the initiative and seek feedback from families to make sure they are still meeting their flexibility needs.

Our next scenario is for Stream 1B. In a small remote town, there are not enough early learning places available for families.

An approved provider, Gooroolba Family Daycare, operates one family daycare in the town and another few family daycare services in neighbouring towns.

They have identified the need for an additional family daycare service. They have been in contact with a diploma educator who is willing to operate the new family daycare service in their home.

The educator's home does need some minor capital work upgrades to ensure the premises can meet regulatory requirements.

The approved provider puts together an action plan to seek approval from the council to run an FDC at residential property and seek permission to make changes to the house.

Get quotes on the minor capital works required and map out a time frame for regulatory approvals for establishing the service.

Some of the budget requested in the application includes regulatory and council fees associated with establishing the new family daycare, family daycare coordination unit, costs for supporting the educator, cost for minor capital works, educational resources and staff wages and training.

On signing the funding agreement, the provider will be able to implement the proposal.

They will undertake minor capital works to equip the proposed educator's home to meet the regulatory and safety requirements, seek the regulatory approvals to open the new family daycare.

They then onboard the new diploma educator to train them in the family daycare schemes, policies and procedures.

The family daycare is established allowing children to engage in small group education and care and local health workers are supported to return into employment.

I'll hand over to Olivia to run through the next examples.

Olivia: Thanks Irene.

We will now move on to a blended service delivery example from Stream 2.

This is an example of an application involving a public primary school and a public preschool with an onsite OOSH provider.

Dunbar ECEC is an approved provider in NSW who operates the OOSH located on site at Rivers End Public School where there is also Rivers End Preschool on site.

The OOSH service and the Preschool have identified a growing demand for extended hours of care for preschool aged children.

Through surveys and feedback, an innovative proposal to provide extended hours of care at the before and after school service is formed.

In this scenario, Dunbar ECEC, as the approved provider for the OOSH, will be the primary applicant as they will be assuming responsibility for the education and care of the children outside of their core preschool hours.

The Action Plan endorsement is sought from Rivers and Public School to offer extended care to preschool children in the OOSH service.

They undertake research into communication tools to facilitate effective communication between the two services and with families. Then they develop their budget.

This budget includes staff wages and the cost of training and up skilling staff, the cost of new software required to support effective communication, and collaboration between the two services that seamlessly links the two services and families.

Resources will be included in the budget to ensure that facilities are FIT for purpose and inclusive of the focus age group, the cost of marketing and promotion of the new initiative, and the extended hours of care available for the implementation.

The OOSH purchase purchases age-appropriate resources and furniture to ready the surface for preschool age children.

The selected communication system is rolled out across the two services and families are provided with support to use this new system.

Now we will dive into an example of a stream to applicant in which long day care provider partners with a public preschool.

Glowing ECEC is a long day care service located 200 metres from Blue Bay Preschool.

Blue Bay Preschool has reached out to the long day care as they have many families asking about extended care options.

Glowing ECEC and Blue Bay Preschool have identified a growing demand for extended hours of care for preschool aged children through surveys and feedback.

An innovative proposal to provide extended hours of care is formed by Glowing ECEC.

In this scenario, Glowing ECEC will be the primary applicant as they will be assuming responsibility for the education and care of the children outside of their core preschool hours.

The action plan: The provider collaborates with local authorities to ensure adherence to safety and transportation regulation and maps out The Walking bus route.

They undertake research into communication tools to facilitate effective communication between the two services and families.

They develop a recruitment plan and a budget. This budget includes staff wages for three hours per day. This includes time to transport the children and provide effective supervision and handover focused on the needs of children and continuity of care.

Effective communication and collaboration between the two services requires new software that seamlessly links the two services with families.

Resources are included in the budget to ensure that facilities are FIT for purpose and the inclusive and is inclusive of the focus age group and marketing to promote the extended hours of care for the preschool children.

For the implementation, the services market the new initiative and plan for launch. Additional staff are recruited and on boarded.

The Walking bus plan is finalised and regularly reviewed to ensure safety.

New resources and equipment are purchased, and children are supported and continuity of care and safety are prioritised.

Thank you. I'll now hand back over to Irene.

Irene: Thanks Olivia.

That is the end of our scenarios. These and more are available online.

As I mentioned earlier, keep in mind that this is not a one size fits all grant, and it is important to imagine what you could do with the FIT grant within your local community. Don't be limited by the examples we have provided.

Next up is information about the application process and what services will need to consider before applying.

First things first, read the guidelines. Everything you need to know about the trial is covered in the document.

Remember, to be eligible your service must be assessed and rated with at least meeting the National Quality Standard or above.
Your proposal must be for children 0.

Must be for children aged zero to 6.

Noting for Stream 2 Your proposal must be for preschool children with the option to extend to children up to 12 years of age.

If you're looking to establish a new family daycare, you need to be in inner, inner or outer regional, remote or very remote areas of NSW.

For Stream 2, the service must be located with a public preschool on a public school site or located within a short distance of a public preschool.

FIT has a competitive assessment process. It is important that you take the time to understand the assessment criteria. We will run through them now.

Thanks Amanda.

Amanda: Thanks Irene.

The first assessment criteria is how the proposed initiative aligns with one or more of the key objectives. Ensure that you keep the objectives front and centre when thinking about your proposal.

The more objectives your objectives your proposal aligns with, the higher your score.

These objectives are increasing access to ECEC, increasing women's participation in work or study, increasing knowledge of the local needs for flexibility and capacity to meet those needs, providing appropriate support and working conditions for educators, delivering the initiative and developing in evidence base of a successful flexible models to inform future program development.

The next criteria is local need. Start by assessing your need in the local community and think about how your proposal will meet that need.

You're required to submit evidence of your local need in your application. Approaches used successfully in round one and two include surveys of local families, de identified waiting lists and information about the local community including industry population growth.

Next up we have a demonstration that the initiative is innovative. Think about how your proposed initiative is new to your community. Is it being done anywhere else?

Criteria 4 is all about how you will ensure that the needs of children and staff are met through your proposal. Things to consider are what are the impacts on the children currently attending your service? Have you discussed how the changes will impact your staff with them? How? How will you make sure that your child well-being and the quality of education and care is maintained?

Next criteria is how the proposal will be accessible to all children and families of your local community. What adjustments will you need to make to ensure that all children and families in your local community have the same opportunity to access the flexible offerings? You may also need to consider things like how families where English is not the first language can learn about and be involved in the trial. Each proposal will need to consider different aspects of accessibility that are tied to your local context.

Your application will also be assessed on how you will sustain the initiative beyond the funded. With consideration to participating children and families.
Show the value for money of your initiative and the impact of any fee changes on families.

Evaluate or determine the success of your trial program.

Additional weightings will be applied for applicants who are located in the area with the sea for diesel of one and two from inner and out of regional, remote and very remote areas according to RAF Classification Multi-Functional Aboriginal Children's Services, Aboriginal Control Children's Services and Aboriginal Child and Family Centres.

Once you've considered how your proposal will meet the assessment criteria, you're ready to start putting all together your application.

We strongly recommend that you download the Application Checklist, which outlines all the requirements and allows you to tick off the list to ensure that you have everything prepared and handy before you start filling in the online application form.

Each assessment criteria will require a written response. Draft your responses, keeping track of the word count.

The Application checklist will guide you through with these requirements.

During the stage is when you should start gathering evidence or supporting information that you will want to provide as part of your application.

The application includes a budget breakdown. Put your budget together, referring to what can or cannot be funded section in the guidelines so you're not requesting funding that is out of scope.

Quotes or evidence are mandatory for budget items over $10,000 and for any requests related to minor capital works.

Stream 2 Funding for minor capital works on a public preschool, sorry public school site or public preschool site will be managed and completed by the Department's AMU. They'll be subject to additional process and approvals in line with the AM US requirements. These applications will not need to provide quotes, however, we'll need to provide an outline of expected works and an estimated cost.
For these applications it is important for applicants to review the guidelines carefully as there is some specific information relevant to AMU's requirements and how funds will be paid.

You'll also need to prepare a projected timeline considering what and when you'll be implementing your proposed initiative. This would include any regulatory or council approvals, staff recruitment, purchasing of resources and equipment.

Once you have all this information, you're ready to reply online via Smarty Grants. If you haven't used the system before, you will need to register. Registration is a free and straightforward process.

You can save the application as you go and return when ready and continue making changes until you're ready to submit. Notice that once you've submitted, you will be unable to make any changes to your application or submit any further information or documentation back to you.

Over to Irene.

Irene: Thanks, Amanda.

The application is open for six weeks, so please do not leave your application to the last day. Give yourself plenty of time to submit your application well before the due date.

The closing date and other key dates for your program are available on the website.

FIT cannot cover retrospective funding, meaning you cannot use the FIT grant to reimburse costs for work already done, initiatives already delivered, or items already purchased before the funding was officially granted.

You also cannot use FIT for activities that have been funded by another state or federal grant program.

It is important to note that successful proposals do not guarantee any outcome regarding applications to the regulatory authority or local council.

If successful, you may be approached to be involved in media opportunities. We will help you navigate this.

You are required to participate in evaluation activities including case studies, interviews or surveys with family staff, directors or providers.

You will also need to provide data on the uptake and usage of the FIT in your service. Specific requirements will be included in the funding agreements. Funding agreements need to be signed prior to starting the implementation of your initiative.

If you have multiple ideas and wish to submit more than one application, please contact us so we can provide tailored support.

For assistance with the online application system, please contact the SMARTY Grant Support Desk.
Any questions about the program, contact us. The team is here to help you.

Contact details are on the screen in the Program Guidelines and the Application Checklist.

I will now hand over to Mel to wrap up the session.

Mel: Thanks, Irene.

Finally, we would like to take the opportunity to promote some upcoming online workshops.

The workshops will include information sharing and small group discussions with a focus on budgets.

Get the most out of your application by thinking big and including every detail.

Timeline, how to plan the implementation of your successful proposal.

Assessment criteria, how to respond to each criterion.

The details for these sessions are available on our website where you will have the opportunity to register your attendance. We would love to see you there.
Thank you for your time today. We hope you found this useful.

Remember that further information in a Q&A is available on our website.