0:00
Welcome to this webinar on the 2026 Start Strong for Community Preschools program.

0:04
Thanks for making the time to be with us.

0:06
I know you've all got extremely busy schedules.

0:09
Purpose of today's session is to provide an overview of the 2026 program and respond to some common questions we've received about the program to date, including through the registration process.

0:20
It's important to note this won't be the only opportunity for engagement on the 2026 Start Strong program

0:25
As always, the team is available to respond to queries, questions and clarifications that you may need.

0:31
Before we begin, let me acknowledge that we're all meeting on unseeded Aboriginal land.

0:36
I'm hosting this session from the lands of the Dharug people, so let me acknowledge their Elders past, present and emerging.

0:42
I'd like also to acknowledge the ongoing, ongoing custodians of the various lands on which you all work today and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people participating in this session.

0:52
As a department, we strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in New South Wales achieves their potential through education.

1:01
To some housekeeping before we get started.

1:04
This session is scheduled to run for one hour.

1:07
Your microphones are muted and cameras are disabled because there's so many of us on the call.

1:12
Importantly, the Q&A function is open.

1:15
You can find the Q&A function at the top of your screen.

1:17
Please type your questions and our team of moderators will do their best to reply during the session.

1:23
We will also use your questions to inform a Frequently Asked Questions document, which we will publish online.

1:29
We're presenting slides.

1:30
If you can't see the slides, please comment in the chat function and we can reissue the help instructions in the chat section.

1:36
We will not discuss individual service details in this forum, but please reach out to us via email if you do have a question specific to your service.

1:46
A short optional survey will be available at the end of the session for your feedback.

1:51
If you jump to the next slide, please.

1:54
So my name is Joe Parsons, I'm the Executive Director for Programs and Local Operations.

1:58
Joining me today is Natalie McCall, who is our Director of Sector Programs.

2:03
Before discussing the 2026 program, I did want to acknowledge the critical role that the community preschool sector plays in providing quality, affordable preschool for children across NSW.

2:13
This is a crucial workforce, one in which we entrust the care, education and safety of our precious children each day.

2:21
The 2026 Starts Strong Program was announced on the 30th of October.

2:24
I trust you've had the time to review the program guidelines available on the Department's website and your funding letters that were recently sent through the Digital Hub.

2:34
Through Start Strong, the NSW Government remains committed to supporting access to affordable, quality preschool education for children across NSW, regardless of their circumstances.

2:44
Importantly, at the program level, the core program objectives, outcomes and program architecture remain the same as the 2025 Program.

2:54
Key objectives are listed on the screen and the 2026 program reflects the four key areas: to improve affordability of preschool education, to support quality uplift in preschool education, to drive improved outcomes for children and to incentivise increased enrolment and attendance in quality preschool programs in the years before school.

3:14
NSW Government is driving improvements to safety, quality and equity in early childhood education and care so that every child in NSW can thrive, and our Start Strong preschool programs are helping to achieve this.

3:26
NSW Government has confirmed its decisions about funding rates, eligibility and spending rules for 2026 and these are set out in the guidelines which we will take you through today.

3:37
It's important to note the overall scale of funding and the scope of families and services supported by Start Strong isn't changing in 2026.

3:45
The total value of the Start Strong for Community Preschools Program in 2025 was between approximately $480 million and $550 million.

3:53
This remains the same for 2026.

3:56
What we are doing in 2026 is directing more of overall program funding to the children who need it most.

4:03
I'm going to hand to Nat McCall now, as I said, who is our Director of Sector Programs.

4:08
Nat will provide an overview of the key changes to the 2026 program.

4:13
And then following this, we will cover off some of the questions we've received during registration and there'll be time for a Q&A as well.

4:20
So over to you now.

4:21
Thanks, Joe, and good afternoon.

4:23
My name is Nat McCall and I'm joining you from Dharug land.

4:26
I want to pay my respects to the custodians of this land.

4:30
I'm proud that our 2026 program prioritises First Nations children and facilitates their access to quality preschool education.

4:38
The NSW Government has made some changes to ensure funding is directed towards safe, quality services and to help early childhood education and care be more affordable for the families who need it most.

4:50
We've also made some simplifications and clarifications in the guidelines this year.

4:54
As Joe outlined, program changes have been made to ensure funding is directed to safe quality services.

5:00
From January, services that receive Start Strong funding and do not meet the National Quality Standard may be directed to participate in quality improvement programs to lift their rating.

5:12
The Department may withhold funding from services that consistently do not meet this rating.

5:18
Also, the spending rules make clear that Program Payments can be used for activities that maintain or improve a services quality rating, including professional development and training.

5:30
Another key change is that we have simplified the fee relief responsibilities by revising the reserved fee relief mechanism.

5:38
I'll speak to that in a little bit more detail in a moment.

5:42
Another key change is that the 2026 guidelines provide clearer information for new program applicants about their applications and the assessment criteria to be granted funding.

5:53
Finally, we're prioritising funding for low socioeconomic areas and for regional and remote areas.

6:01
And we're increasing fee relief for the families who need it most.

6:06
Let's talk about those changes to fee relief funding first.

6:09
Just onto the next slide, please.

6:12
So in 2026, there'll be two categories of fee relief.

6:16
The maximum fee relief rate of up to $4456 dollars (depending on hours enrolled) will be for children eligible for the maximum rate.

6:26
And the second rate up to $3656 (depending on hours enrolled) will apply for all other children.

6:35
To be eligible for the maximum fee relief rate a child must meet at least one of the following criteria.

6:42
They must be enrolled at a service in a low socio economic area, that is, in SEIFA Decile of 1 or 2 or enrolled in a service in a remote or regional area.

6:53
That is ARIA rating of inner regional, outer regional, remote or very remote; or enrolled in a service operated by an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation or ACCO.

7:07
Or be a child who is eligible for equity loading.

7:10
That is children of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander background; children with disability or additional needs; and children from low income families.

7:20
Let's move now to the changes in relation to unspent funds.

7:28
From 2026, reserved fee relief will no longer be a component of the Start Strong for Community Preschool program.

7:33
Instead, fee relief funds that are not currently being applied to a child's enrolment fees are considered unspent fee relief funds.

7:43
Unspent funds become surplus at the end of the year.

7:48
Unspent funds is also the term for Program Payment funds not yet utilised or remaining at the end of the year.

7:56
But unspent fee relief cannot be used like Program Payments.

8:01
Unspent fee relief can be used to reduce the cost of additional charges to families accessing fee relief.

8:09
Any unspent funds that providers have at the end of the year are deemed surplus funds.

8:16
Surplus funds will need to be documented through financial accountability statements and thus follow the surplus management processes set out in the guidelines.

8:25
You'll see in the guidelines that the surplus management processes provide that surplus funds can be retained by services up to 10% of their total allocation or $30,000, whichever is higher. And there's also provision for providers to apply to retain surplus funds above this threshold where there is an operational need.

8:47
There are a range of resources available to you on the Start Strong for Community Preschools website.

8:52
We hope these resources will support you to understand and apply the 2026 program, and we will be updating and adding to these support resources in the coming days and weeks.

9:03
At the moment you'll see a funding planning tool and links to information about quality areas.

9:08
Frequently Asked Questions, guidance in calculating and managing fee relief, including examples, as well as materials for families will shortly be available on that website.

9:20
So what's next?

9:22
The 2026 program Terms and Conditions will be released in the Digital Hub for this program and the Mobile Preschool Funding Program in the coming days.

9:32
Your acceptance in the Digital Hub will also cover acceptance for the Disability and Inclusion program and a ATEL or the Additional Targeted Equity Loading.

9:43
If you receive funding under Start Strong for Long Day Care, you will need to accept the terms and conditions in ECCMS and you will get a separate email regarding that.

9:53
A webinar on how to accept Terms and Conditions in the Digital Hub is being held tomorrow at 2:00 PM and you are still able to register for this session if you would like.

10:03
Just a reminder that funding letters were issued to providers main email addresses on the 6th November and they are all available to download on the Digital Hub at any time.

10:15
If you have not yet accessed the Digital Hub, please visit the Digital Hub information page on our website for more information about how to get access.

10:25
Finally, importantly, in early December, as in previous years, Quarter 1 payments will be processed for those who have accepted the Terms and Conditions in the Digital Hub.

10:36
And now I'll hand back to Joe for questions.

10:41
Thanks, Nat.

10:42
So let's jump into the questions we received through the registration process or through our inquiry channels.

10:48
I'd like to welcome Liam Crook, who's our Relieving Manager of the Community and Mobile Preschools Funding team.

10:54
I think we can see Liam on the screen now. Liam will join Nat and I in responding to your questions.

11:02
So in terms of the pre submitted questions, there were some themes running through them.

11:08
And so what we've done is summarise a number of them and we'll just speak to them now and provide responses to them.

11:14
So there was 1 theme that was present in many of the questions we received, which was around explaining the reasons behind the changes to fee relief.

11:23
As I hope we've made clear today, the objective of the changes to fee relief has been to reallocate more of the Start Strong funding to helping make early childhood education and care more affordable for the families who need it most.

11:35
We will be monitoring the impact of these changes on participation rates throughout 2026.

11:42
We also received some questions around whether or not the Government is expecting fees to be reduced and will services be penalised for raising fees due to cost changes. Nat is going to take us through the response to that one.

11:57
So of course the Government doesn't have a role in setting fees for community preschools.

12:01
And when determining a services enrolment fee structure, of course, providers should continue to consider the full cost of delivering early childhood education and determine the fees necessary to support delivery before the application of the Start Strong for Community Preschools Program Payments and Fee Relief.

12:20
In circumstances where services need to adjust their fees above CPI, such as when it's needed to meet reasonable increases in operating costs or to decrease or a decrease in fee relief funding, the department simply asks that the service retain evidence of the reasons for the fee increase.

12:39
Thanks, Nat.

12:40
We also received a question in with regards to Program Payment funding.

12:45
And the question was why has Program Payment funding reduced for children that attend less than 600 hours?

12:51
So to clarify, Program Payment funding has been indexed by 3.5% to a maximum of $8480 for children enrolled for 600 hours or more per year.

13:02
All Program Payments have been indexed and there has been no change to the way the program payment is scaled across hours of enrolment.

13:09
So that response, there is a clarification, no changes to the way the Program Payment is scaled across hours of enrolment.

13:18
We also received a question regarding whether or not the department will be issuing a letter to families explaining the changes in fee relief funding.

13:26
I'm going to throw to Nat for that response.

13:29
Yes, we will be.

13:30
So families will be able to access updated information on the 2026 program on our website.

13:35
We have a special Start Strong for Families web page and we'll also publish shortly a PDF families flyer which you might like to share with families.

13:45
We know these are important resources and we are in the process of updating materials online from the 2025 program to refer to the 2026 program at the moment.

13:55
Thanks, Nat.

13:56
We received another question regarding whether fee relief can be directed to operational costs in 2026. Nat's covered off on this slightly in the update, but I'm going to throw to Liam for the response to this question.

14:09
Thanks, Joe.

14:10
Good afternoon everyone.

14:11
It's good to be here with you.

14:13
So the 2025 Fee Relief spending rules required providers to first use surplus funds to reduce the cost of additional charges to families accessing fee relief in the first instance.

14:24
If there were still any extra funds after that, providers could then choose to spend these on operational costs.

14:30
In 2026, providers are still required to reduce additional charges.

14:33
In the first instance.

14:35
We did see some questions coming through asking what these additional charges might look like.

14:39
These could include things like membership fees, enrolment fees, incursions, excursions, building or maintenance levies, or any other costs that you may traditionally pass on to families that could be covered through any unspent fee relief funds that you have after you had first directed it towards reducing the cost of enrolment for 600 hours.

14:59
Providers have the choice to spend any unspent funds still remaining in 2026 on either providing additional fee relief for children not eligible for the new maximum rate of fee relief; for reducing third day fees; or reducing daily fees for children that aren't accessing fee relief at your service.

15:17
Fee relief funds are required to be spent in this way because the purpose of fee relief is ultimately to reduce the cost of early childhood education and care to families.

15:26
Any fee relief funds remaining unspent at the end of the period will be captured in the acquittal process that you all go through each year and the surplus management process that Nat spoke to will apply.

15:37
The surplus management process provides that surplus funds can be retained up to 10% of total allocation or $30,000, whichever is higher.

15:45
And this will apply as the total of Program Payment and Fee Relief Payment combined.

15:50
And there is a provision for providers to apply to retain surplus funds above this threshold where there is an operational need.

15:58
Thanks for clarifying that one, Liam.

16:01
Continuing with the theme, another question we received was, I understand that for 2026 there won't be reserved fee relief anymore, but will be looked at as unspent funding.

16:12
Can you tell me what happens with the fee relief we have reserved from 2023, 2024 and 2025. Reserved fee relief funds from previous program years will need to be retained and returned to the department in line with at the relevant program guidelines. From September 2025, the department has begun contacting ECE providers that reported unspent funds through their 2023 Financial Accountability Statement and supporting services with a phased process to return unspent funds to the department.

16:46
Returning unspent funds through this process is in line with the 2023 Terms and conditions of the Funding Agreement and associated program guidelines.

16:54
The Department is currently working through return of Start Strong for Long Day Care funding as part of a phased approach ahead.

16:59
You do not need to take any immediate action.

17:02
If your service has reported unspent funds in the 2023 Financial Accountability Statement, the department will contact you.

17:08
As always, for more information or help, please do not hesitate to contact us.

17:15
Continuing with the theme of surplus funds, another question we received was are any surplus funds from the Fee Relief Payment included in the surplus 10% or $30,000 carry over from the Start Strong funding or is this refunded separately or adjusted from future payments. Over to Liam for this one.

17:36
Thanks.

17:36
And yeah, I did.

17:37
I snuck in a bit of a short answer to this one before, but the full answer is that, you know, we recognise that some providers may have surplus or unspent funds at the end of the calendar year, including unspent fee relief funds.

17:50
Any surplus funds are documented through the Financial accountability statements.

17:54
And from 2026, fee relief will also be included under the surplus funds management process that's outlined in Section 7.6 of the 2026 Program guidelines.

18:05
Again on that, the surplus management process provides that surplus funds can be retained up to 10% of total total allocation or $30,000, whichever is higher.

18:14
And you can apply to retain all surplus funds across program and fairly funds that fall above this 10% or $30,000 threshold where there is an operational need.

18:27
Thanks Liam.

18:29
Another question here, what implications does a child being on the low income healthcare card or pension card have on Start Strong funding?

18:38
Excellent question.

18:39
Children from low income families will be eligible for equity loading, so they'll be topped up to receive the highest base rate of Program Payment regardless of the services SEIFA decile.

18:50
It's only scaled based on the number of hours that are enrolled at the service and the age of the child.

18:55
You can refer to the tables in the appendix of the program guidelines to see exactly how that looks.

19:00
But if they are eligible for equity loading, they'll be topped up to the highest base rate of Program Payment regardless of SEIFA decile. They will also receive the maximum rate of Fee Relief Payment regardless of where the service is.

19:14
Thanks for clarifying, Liam.

19:16
We'll stick with you for this next one.

19:18
Are there any adjustments, surplus or deficit, if enrolment numbers differ greatly from those of the census from the previous year?

19:26
Yeah, absolutely.

19:27
So funding for the 2026 calendar year is based on the data entered in the 2025 Annual Preschool Census.

19:35
As many people in the room would know, the program moved from being a financial year based program through to a calendar year program in 2024.

19:44
What that means on a practical basis is there are no longer backdated census adjustments.

19:50
In the past we used to have adjustments at the start of the calendar year.

19:54
This would be halfway through the financial program period.

19:58
It was a bit of a tricky balance, but now that the program is done on a calendar year basis, we don't have those anymore.

20:06
What we have is that the enrolments that you have in your census one year will then form the basis for your funding the next.

20:14
The same process applied for this calendar year and it is going to again apply for next calendar year.

20:20
Now, if your enrolment significantly increase in 2026 compared to the enrolments that you had at the August 2025 census, you may be eligible to request a funding review.

20:30
A funding review applies under certain circumstances and the categories, eligibility criteria and a range of other further information is available in the funding review guidelines that are on the website.

20:43
You'll see it in the left hand side menu.

20:45
When you're looking at the program guidelines or the Start Strong for Community Preschools page. You'll find the link to that there.

20:51
We will also be releasing a voluntary fee relief data collection early next year to collate information from services who may require a top-up Fee Relief Payment.

21:01
This has been in place for a number of years now and more information on that will be released closer to the collection.

21:08
Thanks very much, Liam.

21:10
Another question here around the consent form.

21:13
So if families have just signed a new consent form in August, do they need to sign a new one for 2026?

21:18
Going to throw to Nat for the response to this one.

21:20
So yes, yes, unfortunately we know it can be difficult to obtain all of those approvals every year, but it is important that providers arrange for parents and carers as well as staff to complete the consent form every year.

21:36
Consent forms may be updated on a yearly basis and our consent form is available on the website.

21:43
Providers should also have families complete a new form if any details in the original consent form require update or adjustments if there are any changes over the course of the year.

21:53
And we acknowledge the impact of revising consent forms just prior to the 2025 Census and thank services for supporting families to complete those forms in a short time frame.

22:04
We know that wasn't easy.

22:05
We acknowledge the impact that that had.

22:08
It is important though to get new consent forms printed and distributed for 2026 and signed this year.

22:17
Thanks.

22:17
Now a question on with regards to Service Safety Net

22:22
So what impact will the new 2026 funding have for current Safety Net services?

22:26
I'll respond to this one.

22:27
So annual programme payment funding for Safety Net services has been indexed from sorry $163,860 in 2025 to $169,600 in 2026.

22:43
Fee relief payments have also been indexed.

22:46
The children enrolled in Service Safety Net services will be classified as being enrolled services in ARIA+ Inner Regional, Outer Regional, Remote or Very Remote areas - as per Service Safety Net eligibility criteria - and are therefore all eligible for the maximum rate of fee relief.

23:06
Another question here, can the Start Strong 2026 acceptance be accepted in January 2026 so that the payment arrives in 2026, not in December 2025?

23:16
Over to you now.

23:17
Yes.

23:18
So providers can decide to delay the acceptance of the 2026 Terms and Conditions so that they receive their Quarter One Program Payment in January 2026.

23:28
We will process the first quarterly payments in December for those who have accepted Terms and Conditions before the cut off date December.

23:40
Thanks Nat

23:40
Now and a final question in terms of what came in ahead of this session and some clarification around the three day guarantee.

23:49
So the question was how will three days early childhood enrolments work?

23:53
And Liam's going to respond to this one.

23:57
Thank you.

23:57
And just quickly on the T&C question before, once the Terms and Conditions go out, many of you will get a phone call from my team or other lovely members of the department who will be calling to make sure that you get support with the T&Cs

24:10
If you have any questions or need any clarification on that.

24:13
So if you are looking to delay your payment until January 2026, and if you're speaking to us, we will absolutely make sure to note that down.

24:22
If you're ready to accept quickly, please just send us an email through and we can note that down to make sure that your payment does indeed come through in January 2026.

24:31
And as for the question around the three days of early childhood enrolments, the three day guarantee is an activity test delivered by the Australian Department of Education and it's not associated with us here at the NSW Department of Education.

24:47
The three day guarantee is related to the delivery of Child Care Subsidy, not Start Strong for Community Preschools Program funding.

24:54
And if you do have any questions or if you're interested in finding out more information on this, I would encourage you to look to see if there's any information that has been published on any Australian Government websites, direct any questions to the Australian Department of Education, or perhaps check in with any peak bodies or networks to see if they have additional information on this Australian Government initiative that they might be able to provide to you.

25:19
Thanks for clarifying that one, Liam. We've received a few questions on the whiteboard.

25:25
Nat's got that open on her screen next to me.

25:28
So maybe the best way to go through these, Nat, is to read the question out and then the response.

25:35
As we said at the beginning, questions we receive today will form part of an updated Q&A document or Frequently Asked Questions documents.

25:45
So we can we can certainly provide written responses to these questions through that.

25:50
Nat, do you want to just step through the questions we've received and the responses?

25:55
Sure.

25:56
We received the question "If we have surplus funds and are approved to keep the 10% or higher in 2026, does that reduce the funding we received in 2027?

26:06
We don't want to create a situation where we'll be worse off in 2027."

26:10
I can understand that.

26:11
So yes, if your service is approved to retain a surplus, this will not impact your funding allocation in the following year.

26:19
Funding allocations are based on enrolment information submitted as part of the Annual Preschool Census each year in August, so it won't affect future payment years.

26:30
Liam, there's a question here that maybe you are well placed to answer.

26:34
The question is: "does the 600 hours still include staff development days?"

26:41
Yeah, thanks for that question.

26:43
600 hours refers to 600 hours of enrolment.

26:48
The period that you set out for your enrolments is, you know, that's something that is decided by each service at their discretion.

26:56
And you know, we recognise that the preschool year may include staff development days.

27:01
It may include public holidays.

27:03
There are things that may fall onto days that a child is enrolled and they may not be able to attend on that particular day, just as they might be sick on a particular day and they may not attend.

27:13
At the end of the day, funding is based on enrolment information that is submitted through the Annual Preschool Census.

27:18
And what we would suggest is that we're we're staff development days or public holidays or any other kind of events that may impact service delivery.

27:27
Ee would just encourage you to consider the needs of your staff, your community, the families that are enrolled at the service as you're planning around that.

27:36
But ultimately, the 600 hours is calculated based on what you've provided to us in the Census.

27:41
So if the dates, dates, weeks, times, days that you submitted in the Census include staff development days, then yes, they will be captured in that 600 hour period.

27:52
Thanks for clarifying, Liam.

27:53
And I think there's one more that Nat will will take us through now.

27:57
Liam, there's a question here.

28:02
Sorry guys, you've just muted

28:04
Sorry, I was on mute.

28:05
I thought that might happen at one point this afternoon.

28:07
Just start that one again please.

28:08
No problem.

28:09
Of course, Liam, there's a question submitted during the webinar.

28:13
"Do 3 year old children with English language needs get full funding if they attend for 600 hours a year?"

28:21
Thanks Nat.

28:22
So children with English language needs receive funding based on the characteristics of their enrolment and the service that they attend.

28:29
So with regards to the English language loading, there is an English language loading available and children that has been declared in the Census as having English language needs, then you will receive an additional language loading of $531 across all locations.

28:47
The English language need is not part of the equity loading criteria that is there.

28:55
So funding will be based in terms of the Program Payment base rate that you would be receiving for this child.

29:01
It would be based on the other enrolment characteristics of the child, if they are eligible for the equity loading top up or not, how many hours that they attended the service, the service location in terms of safer decile.

29:13
But regardless of what that Program Payment base rate is, if you have ticked the English language loading tick box, you would receive an additional $531 loading.

29:22
No matter where you're located and how long the child is attending for, you will receive that $531.

29:30
Thanks Liam for clarifying.

29:32
I think there is one more question that's comes through on the whiteboard, which looks to be about the Digital Hub.

29:38
So Nat, do you want to take us through that one?

29:40
Yeah, so it's a, it's a good question and important to reiterate.

29:44
The question is: "how are we agreeing to the funding via the Digital Hub or ECCMS?"

29:49
So Liam, do you want to talk to the mechanics of how to access the Terms and Conditions on the Digital Hub and agree to the funding?

29:58
Yes, absolutely.

30:00
This stuff is my bread and butter.

30:03
So the, as you may have heard, if you have attended the onboarding webinars that we've had over the last six months, depending on what what tranche of the onboarding you're in, you may have heard that the funding agreement for 2026 will be available to sign in the Digital Hub this year.

30:19
It will be released to you before the end of Term 4 and you will receive an email that will detail how to accept the 2026 funding agreement.

30:27
This will include instructions and it'll also give you information on the deadlines for acceptance.

30:34
As Nat mentioned earlier in the webinar as well, there is also a another webinar tomorrow that is all about the funding agreement for 2026 and what it will look like in the Digital Hub and how that will work.

30:46
We would encourage you to register and come along to that if you are interested.

30:51
The link for registration has been posted in the published Q&A section of the Teams meeting if you would like to access that there.

30:59
Even if you can't attend, if you register, you would then get information about when the recording is made available.

31:05
Some information about the 2026 Terms and Conditions was also included in funding letters that were sent out to the providers on and around the 6th of November.

31:15
And to be to be clear, you'll hear this again tomorrow.

31:18
You'll see this in emails and things. If you are funded under certain program that are not yet in the Digital Hub -

31:24
a prime example of this is the Start Strong for Long Day Care program -

31:29
You will also be required to accept the Terms and Conditions in ECCMS like you traditionally have.

31:34
You will receive a separate email about that, that will have most of the same information, except it will provide you with instructions on how to accept in ECCMS.

31:44
It will provide information on anything that is particularly relevant to the program that you're accepting it for.

31:50
So you may receive 2 emails, one about the Digital Hub, one about ECCMS

31:54
But if you are a provider that just has a community preschool service or community preschool services and you're only accessing funding under Start Strong for Community Preschools, the Mobile Preschool Funding Program, the Disability and Inclusion program or the Additional Targeted Equity Loading.

32:10
You will only need to accept once in the Digital Hub this year and there'll be lots of information provided to you to support you to get that done.

32:17
And if you are having any issues with it, you'll be provided with contact information to reach out to us for support.

32:23
And many of you will get a phone call from one of the lovely staff members here who will also be able to check in with you and see if you need any assistance along the way.

32:31
Because ultimately, for all of those who do wish to accept to get payment in December, we want to make sure that we can get all of you having your funding agreement accepted and ready to go.

32:41
And we will be doing our utmost to make sure that you've got all the information you need to do so.

32:47
Thanks, Liam, super helpful response there.

32:50
We have got one other question that has multiple parts to it and it's related to fees.

32:56
I would prefer that we provide that one in writing.

33:00
There looks to be a little bit of complexity to it in that there are a number of sub questions.

33:04
So please look out for our FAQ document, which we will update very soon after this webinar and we will make sure we provide a response to that question that's come through regarding fees in writing so it's clear.

33:19
I don't want to provide a quick response and unwittingly mislead people or or create ambiguity.

33:28
So we'd much prefer to respond to that one in writing.

33:32
I think that is all the questions that we have that were outstanding.

33:36
I know the team have been doing a great job responding live to many of the questions that have come through.

33:43
I wanted to thank everyone for taking the time out of your day to join this afternoon's webinar.

33:49
We hope you found it valuable as you planned for 2026.

33:53
As I said, this isn't the end of the conversation around the 2026 program.

33:57
The team are available for any queries, questions or clarifications that you may have.

34:03
So I do encourage you to reach out to the team if you have questions or require clarification on the guidelines.

34:12
As I said if you do have further questions that weren't answered today, please contact the team.

34:17
The email address is ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au or you can call the team on the Information and Enquiries line.

34:29
That's 1800 619 113.

34:34
That is everything from me.

34:37
I understand there is a short survey we would like you to complete if you have time.

34:44
There should be a slide with a QR code, so we'll leave that one up there for a while.

34:49
If you're able to undertake that survey, that would be much appreciated.

34:54
Nat or Liam, is there anything you want to say in closing before we before we sign off?

35:01
No, thank you, Joe.

35:02
Thank you everyone for joining.

35:03
We know it's a busy time of year for you and so we appreciate your time today.

35:08
I hope this webinar has been helpful for you, but of course, reach out to us if you have questions and we will be adding to the resources online some further information to help your guidance and your understanding of the 2026 program.

35:22
Thanks, Nat.

35:22
Thanks, Liam, and thanks everyone for your participation this afternoon.

35:26
Much appreciated.

35:27
Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday afternoon.

35:29
Thank you.

• Start Strong for Community Preschools Q&A session - Questions and Answers (PDF 150 KB)