The 2025 Start Strong for Long Day Care (LDC) program commences on 1 January 2025.

The department’s web pages contain many resources for approved funded providers to understand their responsibilities including, Early Childhood Contract Management System (ECCMS), Financial Accountability and Transition to School Digital Statement.

Start Strong for Long Day Care supports eligible services to:

• improve the service they provide through supporting capability uplift of early childhood teachers (ECTs) and educators, the attraction and retention of ECTs and educators and purchase of educational resources and program development
• reach out to their community to offer and promote quality early childhood education
• reduce the cost of early childhood education for families by providing 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.

Changes 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
• occasional education and care services and mobile education and care services who meet the service eligibility criteria are considered eligible for funding under any of the Start Strong for Long Day Care funding streams
• an improved process to identify eligible new service in 2025. Checks will be undertaken by the department during the year to identify and confirm the eligibility of new services
• information for transferred services has been updated for transferring and receiving approved providers
• how to manage reserved fee relief and surplus fee relief funds has been clarified and strengthened
• key program dates have been added to assist services in planning for Start Strong funding. For more information see Section 2.2 Program key dates in the guidelines
  
• fee relief data submission is no longer a requirement. The department will provide separate advice on fee relief adjustments for 2025
  
• a 2-year trial of 3YO Program Payments operated during 2023 and 2024. The department is currently considering arrangements for 2025 and will provide separate advice once available.

Yes, fee relief will continue for 3 year olds in 2025. Eligible 3 year olds will receive $515 per year per eligible child.

Yes, the 2025 Start Strong for LDC program guidelines have been updated to include information about fee relief for 3 year old children.

Yes, information about fee relief for 3 year old children is available on the department’s Start Strong for families webpage and within the LDC families flyer (PDF 443KB)

The Fee relief declaration and consent form (PDF 120 KB) for 2025 Start Strong for LDC is available and can be provided to the families of children who are at least 3 years old on or before 31 July 2025.

To assist services to communicate the fee relief declaration and consent form to families, a template letter (DOC 300 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 must keep current, complete, and accurate records in connection with the funding agreement. The approved funded provider (AFP) must retain all records for 7 years after the termination of the Funding Agreement. If the AFP ceases to operate then the AFP must ensure all records remain accessible to the department for the entire 7 year period.

Services are not required to apply for the 2025 Start Strong for LDC program. The department conducts regular checks to identify and confirm the eligibility of services. Eligible services will be contacted by the department to confirm funding arrangements. See Sections 3.1.3 Identifying eligible services and assessment of eligibility process and Section 11.1 New services of the guidelines for further details.

Services are encouraged to give priority of access to:

• children who are at least 4 years old on or before 31 July in that preschool year and not enrolled or registered at a school
• children who are at least 3 years old on or before 31 July in that preschool year and are:
  • children from low-income families
  • children with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background
  • children with disability or additional needs
  • children with English language needs
• children who are at risk of significant harm (from a child protection perspective).

There is no order of priority assigned to the list of points above. Services should give priority to the groups outlined above before any other groups, including 3-year-olds not eligible for equity loading.

See Section 3.3 Priority of access in the guidelines for further details.

Services use the 4YO+ Program Payment in a number of ways to improve the quality of the preschool program they provide and support the capability uplift of early childhood teachers and educators.

Funding must be expended according to Section 6.1 - 4YO+ Program Payment spending rules.

Services use the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment to reduce the cost of early childhood education for families by providing up to $2174 per year in fee relief for children aged 4 and above.

Services use the 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment to reduce the cost of early childhood education for families by providing up to $515 per year in fee relief for children aged 3.

Funding must be expended according to Section 6.4 - 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment spending rules.

Services can continue to charge these levies. Services will need to retain evidence of the reasons for additional charges for funding compliance reviews.

Providers are not permitted to increase their service’s fees to offset the benefit of the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment or 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment.

Before fee relief or any other subsidies (for example, the Child Care Subsidy) is applied, the fee for children in the same cohort must be the same irrespective of eligibility for fee relief at the service.

In circumstances where it is necessary to adjust fees, such as due to reasonable increases in operating costs, approved providers must retain evidence to support.

The department will be monitoring fees and additional charges through annual reporting and compliance processes.

Eligible children who are at least 4 years old on or before 31 July 2025 and have nominated to receive fee relief from your service will receive up to $2,174 of fee relief.

Eligible children who are 3 years old and not yet 4 years old on or before 31 July in 2025 and have nominated to receive fee relief from your service will receive up to $515 of fee relief.

Fee relief is provided as a weekly reduction averaged across your service’s total operating weeks of the year. See Section 6.4 - 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment spending rules.

Fee relief for 3 year old children enrolled in preschool programs at LDC services is an historic investment in affordable quality preschool provision for 3-year-old children and provides a path to higher fee relief for families in the year before school. This is acknowledged in the different fee relief payment amounts between 2 years before school and the year before school.

The flat rate annual allocation per enrolment for eligible children is divided by the number of operating weeks for the calendar year and applied as a weekly reduction to a family’s session fee or gap fee (after the Child Care Subsidy has been applied).

Information is available to help you calculate fee relief to pass on to families.

Fee relief begins from the time of enrolment.

If a child starts later in the year, the weekly fee reduction does not change but you only apply fee relief for the weeks of enrolment . This is because services must spread the fee relief across the number of weeks they are open and apply the fee relief as a reduction to weekly fees for each child from the week the child’s enrolment starts at the service.

The 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment must be applied as a weekly reduction to a family’s session fee or gap fee after the Child Care Subsidy has been applied.

Example 1:

The Singh family enrols their 4 year old child, commencing from January 2025 for the full year of 50 weeks.

The service would calculate weekly fee relief as $43.48 ($2,174 ÷ 50 = $43.48)

The Singh family may be eligible to receive up to $2,174 in 4 year old fee relief in 2025. ($43.48 x 50 = $2,174). This is applied as a weekly reduction to the session fee or gap fee after the Child Care Subsidy has been applied.

Example 2:

The Ahmad family enrol their 4 year old child, commencing in June 2025 for 30 weeks of the full year of 50 weeks.

The service would calculate weekly fee relief as $43.48 ($2,174 ÷ 50 = $42.20)

The Ahmad family may be eligible to receive up to $1304.40 in 4 year old fee relief for 2025 over the 30 weeks of enrolment. ($43.48 x 30 = $1304.40). This is applied as a weekly reduction to the session fee or gap fee after the Child Care Subsidy has been applied.

Information is available to help you calculate fee relief to pass on to families.

Information is available to help you understand how to calculate fee relief.

Yes, eligible children who are 3 years old and not yet 4 years old on or before 31 July in 2025 and have nominated to receive fee relief from your service will receive up to $515 of 3 year old fee relief from the first day of their enrolment in 2025.

Yes. The fee relief will have no impact on the amount of Australian Government Child Care Subsidy (CCS) families receive. See the case studies for a practical example of how the fee relief can be calculated.

Yes, all eligible children enrolled at an eligible service can access fee relief. Families do not have to be eligible or receiving the Australian Government Child Care Subsidy (CCS) to be eligible for Start Strong funding. The child must be a confirmed enrolment in the service data captured in the Child Care Subsidy System.

Where a family’s gap fees have been reduced to zero in a regular billing period, the remaining fee relief is considered a surplus, see 8.2 Surplus fee relief funds for more information. The provider must first spend surplus fee relief funds to cover any additional charges imposed on the eligible child, such as levies.

Remaining surplus fee relief funds from the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment may then be used to reduce the fees for children that are at least 4 years old on, or before, 31 July 2025 (the child’s birthdate must be on, or before, 31 July 2021) at the discretion of the service, for example children of families with greatest need.

Remaining surplus funds from the 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment may then be used to reduce the fees for children that are 3 years old and not yet 4 years old on, or before 31 July in 2025 (the child’s birthdate must be on, or between, 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2022) at the discretion of the service, for example children of families with greatest need.

Remaining surplus fee relief funds may be used to further reduce the fees for children already accessing fee relief at the service or to reduce the fees for children whose families did not nominate the service on the declaration and consent form. Families of children whose fees are reduced using remaining surplus fee relief funds must have submitted a declaration and consent form.

Families can only access fee relief at one service at any given time. At each service their child is enrolled, parents/carers/guardians must complete a declaration and consent form to nominate which service they will access the fee relief from.

For mixed service centres/multipurpose centres, where the service receives funding under Start Strong for LDC and Start Strong for Community Preschools, families can only access fee relief from one funding program. Parents/carers/guardians must complete a Start Strong for LDC declaration and consent form and a Start Strong for Community Preschools declaration form to nominate which funding program they will access the fee relief from.

This means families cannot access two instalments of fee relief at the same service. See Section 9 Children enrolled at multiple services.

Services are not responsible for repaying any fee relief funding provided to families who have incorrectly asked for it at their service. The department will monitor access to fee relief through data collections in 2025.

Yes, a family may change their nominated service at any time. At each service their child is enrolled, the parent/carer/guardian must complete a new declaration and consent form to confirm their change in nominated service.

When a family wishes to change their nominated service to claim fee relief, the family must:

• ensure the new nominated service is participating in the Start Strong program
• complete a new declaration form and return it to the current service indicating that the family has chosen another service to receive fee relief
• complete another declaration form for the new service indicating the family chooses the new service to receive fee relief
• all these steps should be done prior to the new service applying fee relief for the family.

Service providers are required to retain all completed declaration forms for compliance purposes.

Where a child leaves the service, funding for that enrolment is considered reserved fee relief funds until the next eligible child that takes up that enrolment.

Reserved fee relief funds cannot be used until an additional eligible child nominates to receive fee relief from the service.

More information on reserved funds is included in Section 8.1 Reserved fee relief funds – where a service’s current enrolments are less than what is funded and Section 8.3 Reserved fee relief funds and changes in enrolments throughout the year.

While families can access fee relief at only one service for their child, each service the child is enrolled in during the representative week will be provided the full allocation of 4YO+ Program Payment in line with the program funding calculations for each eligible enrolment. More information is included in Section 4 Calculation and payment of funding in the guidelines.

If a service has made an error, it should back date funding to the beginning of the child’s enrolment in 2025 by applying a credit to the family account.

Services should ensure they are meeting the Terms and Conditions of their funding agreement.

Where families have a shared custody arrangement in place, they may be eligible for 4YO+ Fee Relief and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment if they:

• share care responsibilities
• are each liable for childcare fees
• have each completed a Declaration and Consent form
• have an Australian Government Complying Written Agreement (CWA) in place.

The service should work with the child’s parents to apply the one allocation of fee relief available to both parents and ensure that this is reflected in each parent invoice.

The 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment is paid to services who then pass it on to families in the form of reduced fees.

The first instalment of the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment is larger to enable services to pass on fee relief to more eligible children. This payment system ensures services with more children accessing fee relief at their service than their initial funding allocation will receive more of their allocated fee relief earlier in the year to cover the gap.

The 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment will be paid in 2 instalments according to the schedule below:

75% of the service/s initial funding allocation from December 2024 – for period January to September 2025

25% of the service/s initial funding allocation from July 2025 – for period October to December 2025.

See Section 5 Payment of funding for more information on the schedule of payments.

The purpose of the fee relief declaration and consent form is to allow the families of eligible children to:

• nominate which service the family will receive fee relief from
• declare whether the child is enrolled at another service, and if so, nominate which service the family will receive fee relief form
• consent to the child’s information being provided to the department for the purposes outlined in the declaration and consent form

Section 7 Documenting fee relief contains further informaiton on provider obligations.

Fee relief declaration and consent forms should be completed prior to children attending your service in 2025 or upon enrolment in 2025.

This will ensure fee relief is provided to families from their first week of attendance.

Families cannot access fee relief unless they complete a fee relief declaration and consent form.

Yes, families of eligible children must complete a new fee relief declaration and consent form for 2025 Start Strong for LDC.

The fee relief declaration and consent form obtained from families for 2024 Start Strong for LDC does not apply to 2025 Start Strong for LDC.

The fee relief declaration and consent form can be used for all eligible children who are at least 3 years old on or before 31 July 2025. Families will need to complete a separate form for each eligible child enrolled at your service.

Families cannot access fee relief unless the parent/carer/guardian completes a fee relief declaration and consent form.

Services are responsible for ensuring families complete the form. Services are encouraged to work with families to understand any concerns or barriers to completing the form. Services should record why a family has not been able to complete a form.

It is at the discretion of the service whether to backdate fee relief by applying a credit to the family’s account.

If a service has sufficient fee relief funding, it is strongly encouraged to back date funding to the beginning of the child’s enrolment in 2025 by applying a credit to the family account.

Services should record why a family was delayed in completing a fee relief declaration and consent form.

Yes, services are required to collect a completed fee relief declaration and consent form for all enrolled children that are eligible for fee relief, regardless of whether the family wants to access fee relief at your service.

A completed fee relief declaration and consent form is required for consent for a child’s information to be provided to the department for the purposes outlined in the declaration and consent form and in Section 7.1 Fee relief declaration form.

A family can indicate that they do not want to access fee relief at your service in the parent/carer/guardian declaration section of the fee relief declaration and consent form.

Services must provide fee relief declaration and consent forms to the families of all enrolled children that are eligible for fee relief. Services must retain completed forms for the purposes of reporting and compliance reviews.

Services are not required to provide the forms to the department unless requested.

Services must ensure they can meet the fee relief reporting requirements where consent from the parent/carer/guardian has been provided. Section 17.2 Record keeping and funding compliance review and Section 7.2 Fee relief invoicing and data contain further information on provider obligations.

Services must indicate in their software system if the parent/carer/guardian has completed the fee relief declaration and consent form and has given consent for the child's information being provided to the department.

Services must keep current, complete, and accurate records (including fee relief declaration and consent forms) in connection with the funding agreement.

The approved funded provider (AFP) must retain all records for 7 years after the termination of the Funding Agreement. If the AFP ceases to operate then the AFP must ensure all records remain accessible to the Department for the entire 7 year period.

Yes, where a family changes their nominated service the parent/carer/guardian must complete a new fee relief declaration and consent form to confirm the change and consent for their child’s information to be provided to the department.

No. A transferring approved provider must not transfer unexpended funds to the receiving approved provider (e.g. as part of a sale of business) either by way of adjustment between the 2 parties or any other means. Any unexpended funds, reserved funds and surplus funds must be returned to the department. See Section 11.2.1 Transferring Approved Provider for more information.

The receiving approved provider is not required to provide fee relief to the families of eligible children at the service before:

• service eligibility has been confirmed
• the provider has accepted the 2025 Funding Agreement in ECCMS
• the service receives Fee Relief Payment funding into the nominated bank account.
  

The provider is responsible for any business consequences of an operational decision of the provider to provide fee relief prior to fee relief payments being received or for any of the other reasons listed above.

In the meantime, you may advise families that the department is in the process of confirming your service eligibility. Once confirmed and funding received, you may provide fee relief funding to families.

There is no guarantee the receiving approved provider will receive any funding in 2025.

Please refer to Section 11.2.2 Receiving Approved Provider of the guidelines.

New services may be identified based on NSW enrolment data provided by the Australian Government from the representative week in February 2025 and June 2025.

The department will conduct checks in approximately March 2025, July 2025 and January 2026 to identify and confirm the eligibility of services that have opened and are providing education to enrolled and attending children. This is in addition to eligibility being identified in the February 2025 Data and June 2025 Data. The service’s opening date may be later than the service approval date. All eligible providers will receive communication from the department. The department may invite new services via an application process during 2025. See Section 2.2 Program key dates for further details on dates.

The January 2026 application process is expected to close in early February 2026. Process outcomes are expected by April 2026. If eligible, the process will be used to calculate 2025 funding back dated to the date of opening in 2025; and Instalment 1 payments in 2026.

See Section 11.1 New service of the guidelines.

The Transition to School Digital Statement is a mandatory requirement of the 2025 Start Strong program for children in the year before they commence school.

The Transition to School Digital Statement communicates a child's prior-to-school learning and development to their new school, to support continuity of learning.

Early childhood teachers and educators must complete a Transition to School Digital Statement for each child in their year before school.

For more information go to Transition to School Digital Statement.

Yes, services are required as a condition of funding to complete the Transition to School Digital Statement. The statement can be used in conjunction with other methods that are suitable for your service, families, and your local primary teachers.

The platform currently only allows for statements to be sent directly to public schools. However, services can save a statement created on the Transition to School Digital Statement as a PDF and email it to an independent, Catholic school or to the family if the child is being registered for home schooling.

Yes, consent from a child’s parent/carer/guardian must be obtained before creating a statement for the child using the platform.

Yes, consent is required for both the fee relief declaration and consent form and the Transition to School Digital Statement.

Services must ensure all staff who will use the platform are provided with the department’s Privacy Collection Statement and agree to the enrolment process before they are enrolled to use the platform. Staff will be required to confirm this as part of the enrolment process into the platform.

If a parent or carer does not provide consent, you cannot create a Transition to School Digital Statement (TTSDS) for their child. ECEC services should record when TTSDS consent is not provided for eligible children accessing Fee Relief funding and retain for funding compliance.

The Fee Relief does not have to be returned by the family.

Completion of the Transition to School Digital Statement is recommended for children in the year before they commence Kindergarten.

This will vary due to individual service and community needs, it is recommended that it is completed at the end of the year before school with variations for individual children, family, and service needs.

Professional learning and helpful resources are available on the department’s Transition to School webpage to support teachers and educators in early childhood services to provide meaningful information in the Transition to School Digital Statement.

No, if a family has stated in their fee relief declaration and consent form that they are not claiming fee relief from the service, then a Transition to School Digital Statement is not required.

However, it is recommended that service provides a Transition to School Digital Statement to the family, as the statement makes visible the child’s learning and development whilst at the service.

The Early Childhood Contract Management System (ECCMS) provides a secure portal for service providers to access information about their funded service(s) and the funding they receive.

Refer to the ECCMS service provider guide (PDF 278.1 KB) and frequently asked questions for additional support with ECCMS.

Yes, service providers must ensure that their details are up to date both in ECCMS and NQAITS portal.

Section 15 Administrative requirements of the 2025 funding guidelines identifies Approved Funded Provider responsibilities and Pages 23 to 35 of the ECCMS service provider guide (PDF 278.1 KB) details how to update.

Any amount between $0.50 and $2 in ECCMS is simply an administration placeholder so your funding specification can be set up in ECCMS.

It does not represent your funding amount. The funding amount will be updated when your payments are uploaded into ECCMS.

Start Strong for LDC funding, including fee relief, is based on enrolment data, not attendance.

Funding is exclusive of GST. If the approved provider is registered for GST, the department will calculate the GST payable by the approved provider and add this to any funding payments.

It is then the responsibility of the approved provider to remit GST received to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Adjustments to 4YO+ Program Payment funding will be applied by the end of 2025 to reflect an increase in Equity Enrolment numbers only, using data from the representative week of 24 February to 2 March 2025 (February Data).

A 4YO+ Program Adjustment Payment is calculated as a flat rate of $1,583 multiplied by additional Equity Enrolments of 600 hours or more from the representative week in 2025 (once selected), when compared to the June 2024 Data.

4YO+ Program Adjustment Payment calculations will include children who are at least 4 years old on, or before, 31 July 2025 (the child’s birthdate must be on, or before, 31 July 2021).

Equity Enrolments:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children; or
• if the service is located in a geographic area (Statistical Area Level 2) with a Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) Decile of 1 or 2 (ranking within NSW) on the Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage 2021.

The 4YO+ Program Payment and 3YO Program Trial Payment will be paid in 2 instalments

1. from January 2025 – for period January to June 2025
2. from July 2025 – for period July to December 2025.

The 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment will be paid in 2 instalments:

1. from December 2024 – for period January to September 2025
2. from July 2025 – for period October to December 2025.

Funding will not be paid unless the approved provider has accepted the Early Childhood Outcomes Commissioned Programs – Funding Agreement – Terms and Conditions – 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 (Terms and Conditions) in the Early Childhood Contract Management System (ECCMS) more information is included in Section 5 Payment of funding.

You will receive a payment advice from the department via email for each payment made.

If your approved provider is registered for GST, the department will create and email a Recipient Created Tax Invoice (RCTI) along with a Payment Advice.

The department will communicate initial funding amounts, including a breakdown of loadings and the number of eligible fee relief enrolments funded, to the approved providers of eligible services via email.

Payment amounts for each service are also recorded in the Early Childhood Contract Management System (ECCMS). Follow these instructions to log in to ECCMS to view payments for each service:

1. To log into ECCMS, access the portal link and log in using your myID.
2. On the ECCMS menu, click Funding Specification.
3. Click the Start Strong for LDC (SSL) funding specification for the service.
4. Click the Payments tab.
5. View the payments made for each service. The payment type can be identified in the Schedule Name column.

Please note that the funding amounts communicated to approved providers via email and in the ECCMS exclusive of GST. The funding you receive may include GST – this depends on whether the approved provider is registered for GST.

4YO+ Program Payment funds can be used to cover shortfalls in fee relief funding.

4YO+ Program Payment funds may also be used as an interim measure to provide fee relief to families of eligible children aged at least 4 years old on, or before, 31 July 2025, where the initial 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment allocation does not cover the number of eligible children accessing fee relief.

The funds need to be expended during the 2025 calendar year, unless otherwise agreed to by the department. 4YO+ Program Payment funding that is not fully spent in accordance with the spending rules is considered Unexpended Funds.

The provider must maintain records or documents as evidence of expenditure and provide it to the department if requested for the purposes of reporting or funding compliance reviews. Further information on record keeping requirements is available in Section 17. Financial accountability.

In situations where 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment funds received by the provider are not sufficient to provide fee relief to all the families of eligible children, a fee relief adjustment may be made.

The department will provide separate advice in 2025 about the timing and process for adjustments to 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment.

Your Payment Advice and Remittance Advice are sent to the email address you advised when you set up your bank account details on the EFT form. This email address may be different from your contact details in ECCMS.

If you have not received your Payment Advice, Recipient Created Tax Invoice (RCTI) or funding allocation email, please first check your spam and junk email folders.

Please email the department if you wish to change the email address that your Payment Advice and Remittance Advices are being sent to.