Start Strong for Long Day Care
Start Strong for Long Day Care (LDC) directly supports quality preschool delivery across NSW. This funding is designed to reduce preschool fees, making 600 hours of early childhood education more affordable for families.
Key information
In 2025, families can access fee relief for preschool-aged children through the Start Strong program.
Under Start Strong, long day care (LDC) services, Occasional Care Services (OCC), mobile education and care services, and Multifunctional Aboriginal Children’s Services (MACS) will receive funding to support children aged 3 and above, provided they meet the Start Strong eligibility criteria.
The 2025 Start Strong for Long Day Care program guidelines include key updates to support services and make early childhood education more affordable for families.
Updates include:
- fee relief amount for 4-year-old children has increased to $2174 per year per eligible child
- fee relief amount for 3-year-old children has increased to $515 per year per eligible child
- service eligibility criteria expanded to include State regulated services such as occasional education and care services and mobile education and care services, meaning they will be considered eligible for funding under any of the Start Strong for Long Day Care funding streams
- improved process to identify eligible new services in 2025
- updated information for transferred services to support transferring and receiving approved providers
- information on how to manage reserved fee relief and surplus fee relief funds
- key program dates added to support services to plan for Start Strong funding
- updated information on fee relief data submission, with advice on fee relief adjustments for 2025 to be provided to services separately.
Program guidelines
More information
Frequently asked questions and answers are available on the 2025 Start Strong for LDC FAQs webpage.
Services are not required to apply for this program. The department will conduct relevant checks to identify and confirm the eligibility of services. Eligible services will be contacted by the department to confirm funding arrangements.
In 2025, families may save up to $2,174 per year in fee relief for children aged 4 and above, and up to $515 per year in fee relief for children aged 3.
The fee relief declaration and consent form (PDF 120 KB) and template letter (PDF 299.2 KB) for 2025 Start Strong for LDC are available and can be provided to the families of eligible children aged 3 and above.
Families must complete a fee relief declaration and consent form (PDF 120 KB) to access fee relief. This form will help the family inform your service whether they would like to receive fee relief from you and provides consent for their child’s data to be shared as outlined in the privacy note.
Families will need to complete a form for each service their child is enrolled. Fee relief declaration and consent forms should be completed prior to children attending your service in 2025. This will ensure fee relief is provided to families from the first week your service operates in 2025.
To assist services to communicate the fee relief declaration and consent form to families, a template letter (PDF 93 KB) that services can download and place on their letterhead is available. This letter explains the process to access fee relief and how and why the declaration form must be filled out.
Services will be required to provide data to the NSW government about children who are accessing fee relief. A document outlining these requirements will be released soon and shared with third-party-software providers.
Finding an early childhood education and care provider
Visit our Choosing a quality service page to help find early childhood education and care providers closest to your home or work.
You should contact services directly for information on their funding arrangements and enrolment availability. You can contact providers using the details in the search results.
Contact information
Early Childhood Education - Information and Enquiries
- 1800 619 113
- ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au