ZOIE

Hello and thank you for watching. In this video we discuss changes to the Start Strong for Community Preschools program guidelines for 2025 with a focus on continuous improvement, a high level program overview and details about the SEIFA transition. A second video is available that will discuss fee relief payments and surplus and refunds.

We acknowledge that we are recording this video from the lands of the Darkinyung people. We also acknowledge the ongoing custodians of the various lands on which you all work today, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people watching this video. We pay respects to Elders, past and present, as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in New South Wales achieves their potential through education.

As part of continuous improvement efforts, the 2025 program guidelines include minor adjustments from 2024. This means there are no major changes to how the program is delivered in 2025.

Any changes made to the program guidelines have been based on sector and other stakeholder feedback, and some of these adjustments are highlighted in the current slide.

The 2025 guidelines include changes to improve clarity, consistency, and to meet requirements for accessibility and the Grants Administration Guide.

Amendments have been made to the language and content to improve clarity and consistency throughout and across the preschool funding guidelines. Some dedicated sections of the guidelines have been moved around for easier navigation. Some examples are the fee guidelines section and the link to the funding review guidelines, which have been now moved to their own dedicated sections. A key dates section has also been added in response to sector feedback.

Changes have also been made to improve the accessibility of the program guidelines. For example, some tables have been removed to provide greater accessibility for people with vision impairment.

We trust these changes will benefit services and make information quicker to find. The navigation bar on the left hand side, which was introduced in 2024, has been retained and should also help you navigate through these guidelines.

LIAM

The Start Strong for Community Preschools program provides funding to eligible community and mobile preschools in New South Wales to support services in delivering affordable, quality preschool for 3 to 5 year old children.

Funding is provided in two streams - program payments and fee relief payments, both of which are made directly to services.

As per the spending rules in the Program Guidelines, program payment funding can be used for operating expenses such as employee related costs, educational resources, language or cultural programs, technology costs and facility management such as rent, maintenance, upgrades or cleaning.

Fee relief funding is to be used to reduce the daily fees as much as possible for 600 hours of enrolment per year for eligible children accessing fee relief at the service.

The graphic at the bottom of the screen shows the data reporting and funding cycle. This begins with entering service and child level data into the Annual Preschool Census, which informs funding allocations for the following calendar year. For example, funding in 2025 will be based on the 2024 census that services completed in August this year.

Approved providers must accept the funding agreement before payments can be made.

Reporting under Start Strong also requires that services acquit funding received through annual financial accountabilities. Reporting is either completed for the calendar year or financial year, and this is based on services annual reporting periods. Financial accountabilities are also the mechanism for the surplus and refund process, which will be covered in the second video that is available on our website.

Within the standard funding cycle, there are also funding review guidelines that support services in extenuating circumstances. To request a potential funding adjustment, for example, where a service has experienced a significant increase in enrolments, which is causing the service to experience financial hardship, a service may be eligible to submit a request for a funding adjustment. Further details on the process and eligibility criteria are outlined in the funding review guidelines available on our website. For services who wish to request a funding adjustment, we recommend taking a closer look at the criteria and guidelines.

As you know, changes were made to SEIFA classifications under the 2024 Start Strong for Community Preschools program. This was necessary as there have been significant socio economic changes in the last decade, and change was needed to ensure that funding is provided to the children who need it most. The department implemented SEIFA transition arrangements during 2024, following consultation with the sector that took place in 2023 to support services with the changes to SEIFA classifications.

The SEIFA transition arrangements implemented this year are ending on 31st December 2024.

This means that services will no longer be funded under their previous SEIFA band from 1 to 18. 2025 funding for all services will be based on the new, SEIFA deciles from 1 to 10. This will be a change to services who have not yet been funded based on their new SEIFA decile.

There is no change for services already funded based on the new SEIFA deciles. Your funding will continue to be based on your new SEIFA decile as it was this year.

In November 2023 the department-issued information on SEIFA deciles to services by email from our funding inbox. If you are a new service, this information was provided in your application approval letter. These emails will be reissued for your reference. If you have any questions please contact the department using the contact details listed on the screen. You may also wish to refer to the program guidelines, which provide instructions on how to identify the SEIFA decile for a service.

The 2025 Funding Planning tool is available on our website to assist you with 2025 budget planning, and is loaded with the funding rates for next year.

Thank you for watching. If you have any questions, please contact the Department by calling the Information Enquiries line on 1800 619 113 or by emailing ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au. To learn more about reserved fee relief funds and the surplus and refunds process, please watch the second video.

MACKENZIE

Thank you for watching. In this video we'll talk about Start Strong for Community Preschools fee relief payments spending rules and provide information about surplus and refunds.

We acknowledge that we are recording this video from the lands of the Dharawal people. We also acknowledge the ongoing custodians of the various lands on which you all work today, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people watching this video. We pay respect to Elders, past and present, as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in New South Wales achieves their potential through education.

We'll start by looking at the fee relief payment spending rules.

So, the Start Strong for Community Preschools program provides funding to eligible community and mobile preschools in New South Wales to support services in delivering affordable, quality preschool for 3 to 5 year old children.

Funding is provided in two streams - program payments and fee relief payments, both of which are made directly to services.

The purpose of the fee relief payment is to reduce the cost of early childhood education and care for families.

Your service receives the funding to pass through to your families in the form of reduced fees.

We understand that fees differ across services in New South Wales, reflective of the different operating costs.

This means that some services may be able to offer 600 hours per year of preschool for no charge. Other services may need to charge a fee, and some services may have surplus fee relief funding once daily fees have been reduced to zero.

The spending rules provide guidance on how fee relief funding must be used, and how surplus fee relief funding can be used.

In the diagram, we can see the primary use of funding is to first reduce daily fees for 600 hours of preschool for families claiming fee relief.

If there's extra funding after reducing daily fees, the fee relief can be used to lower other charges like enrolment or excursion fees.

If all charges are covered, the remaining funds can be used to reduce costs for extra enrolment hours, lower daily fees for non-fee relief families or cover operating expenses as per program payment spending rules.

Funding amounts are based on the previous year's enrolment data, so the 2024 Annual Preschool Census informs 2025 funding.

Reserve fee relief funds may occur if enrolments decrease from the previous year, children attend multiple services and claim fee relief elsewhere, or families haven't completed a declaration form.

Payments are made on a per term basis, so we recommend tracking surplus and reserve funds on a per term basis for ease and accuracy.

We'll take a look at an example of fee relief funding in action across a year.

This scenario will be available on the website and we encourage you to review it in further detail there.

In 2023, Happy Learners Preschool reported 25 children enrolled for 600 hours or more in the Annual Preschool Census. This data determined their fee relief payment for 2024.

In Term 1, Happy Learners received funding for 25 children totalling $4,347 per child or $1,086.75 per child per term. Only 20 children claim fee relief, leaving 5 places of fee relief funding to allocate as reserved fee relief funds.

In Term 2, with 2 new enrolments claiming fee relief, Happy Learners now had 22 children receiving fee relief and 3 places as a reserve for relief funds.

Then in Term 3, when a child left in Week 4 the rest of the term was placed aside as reserved fee relief funds. A new enrolment in Week 7 meant the recently reserved funds were allocated to this child. The funds for weeks 5 and 6 became surplus fee relief.

Another child left in Week 8, leaving 2 weeks of reserve funds. There was no child enrolled to replace the child who left in Week 8, meaning the last 2 weeks of term moved from reserved funds to surplus fee relief funds.

In Term 4, Happy Learners started with 21 children claiming fee relief and 4 reserved places. No enrolment changes occurred during Term 4.

So in summary, at the end of the calendar year, the funding result for Happy Learners was 5 places of reserved fee relief funds in Term 1, 3 places of reserved fee relief funds in Term 2, 3 places of reserved fee relief funds and 4 weeks of surplus fee relief funds in Term 3, and 4 places of reserved fee relief funds in Term 4.

At the end of the calendar year, the reserved funds are kept aside and returned to the department. The service expended the surplus fee relief funds.

Now we'll take a look at surplus and refunds.

While providers are encouraged to expend all annual Start Strong funding in accordance with the spending rules, we understand that some providers may still have a surplus at the end of their reporting period. Providers are allowed to retain surpluses under a threshold, although they may choose to return it if they prefer.

If the surplus is over 10% of the service's annual funding, or $30,000, whichever one is higher, these funds may need to be returned to the department.

The department began a trial for services to retain 2023 surplus funds, provided they met certain criteria. The trial has now been incorporated into the program from 2024.

The financial accountability process is mandatory and will continue to be a mandatory component of the program in 2025. Providers will have the opportunity to apply to retain surplus funds.

So, to retain surplus funds above the threshold, services must follow the process outlined on the screen.

Firstly, all providers will complete the mandatory reporting and acquittals process.

Then, providers that have a surplus above 10% or $30,000, whichever one is higher and feel they have an operational need to retain the surplus, can submit the voluntary online SmartyGrants form requesting to retain their surplus.

Providers will need to outline how they will spend the surplus in line with program objectives, spending rules and indicate an expenditure timeline. The department will then consider the request and advise the provider of the outcome.

Thank you for watching. If you have any questions, please contact the department by calling 1800 619 113 or emailing ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au.