There is strong evidence that a lack of flexible early childhood education and care (ECEC) service offerings is a significant barrier to work and study for NSW families, particularly for parents and carers who are in part-time, casual or shift work.

We also know that ECEC services face a range of a barriers to meeting this need.

The 2-year Flexible Initiatives Trial has been especially designed to target these barriers by providing grants for early childhood education and care services to test and trial new or adapted operating models, including:

• extending hours of operation beyond traditional working hours
  

• providing flexible pick-up and drop-off times

• giving families the ability to make irregular care arrangements

• establishing new family day care services in rural and remote areas

• partnerships between 2 different service types to provide extended or wrap around care arrangements.

Applications

Applications for grants under the program are now closed.

To learn more about the trial, we encourage you to:

• read the detailed program guidelines to understand what was required for round 2 applications
• have a look at the example scenarios to learn about what type of initiatives services may trial
  
• contact our team with any questions.

Key dates

Round 2 of the Flexible Initiatives Trial is now closed. Applications are being assessed and round 2 funding will commence in 2025.

Contact

Early Childhood Education Information and Enquiries team
1800 619 113
ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au