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

Services use the 4YO+ Program Payment and 3YO Program Trial 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 and 3YO Program Trial 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.

Yes, funding for the 3YO Program Trial Payment has been extended to December 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 funding 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.
• 4YO+ Program Payment and 3YO Program Trial Payment funding rates have increased.
• Occasional education and care services, or a 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.
• Funding for 3 year old Program Trial Payment has been extended to 31 December 2025.
• New service eligibility process improved. 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 2.1 Program key dates in the guidelines.
  
• The Fee Relief data submission is no longer a requirement. The department will provide separate advice on fee relief adjustments for 2025.
  
  

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 and 3YO Program Trial 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 and 3YO Program Trial 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 and 3YO Program Trial 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 split the one allocation of fee relief 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.

If the Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) covers the entire fee relief, there is no need to provide fee relief to these children.

You may use these funds for other children, please see the Fee Relief section of these frequently asked questions.

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.

Yes, a currently enrolled child who is not yet in compulsory schooling is eligible for funding in 2025 provided they meet other child eligibility criteria and have completed a new fee relief declaration and consent form for 2025. Once this child leaves the service to attend school, the fee relief allocated to them is considered reserved fee relief funds until the next eligible child takes up that enrolment.

3YO Fee Relief starts from the date of enrolment.

A child the age of 3 years old and not yet 4 years old on, or before 31 July in 2025 will receive the 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment from their first day of enrolment at the service in 2025 for the whole calendar year.

An example is a child starting their enrolment at a Long Day Care service in January 2025. The child is turning 3 years old on the 20 July 2025 and is eligible to receive the 3YO Fee Relief Payment from their first day of enrolment at the service in 2025 for the whole calendar year

The 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment is calculated as an annual flat rate allocation of $515 per enrolment for eligible children, irrespective of the number of hours the child is enrolled per week.

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) allocated across the total service operating weeks for the calendar year.

If a child is 4 years old on, or before, 31 July 2025 they will receive the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment from their first day of enrolment at the service in 2025 for the whole calendar year

An example is a child starting their enrolment at a Long Day Care service in January 2025. The child is turning 4 years old on the 5 June 2025 and is eligible to receive the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment from their first date of enrolment at the service in 2025 for the whole calendar year.

The 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment is calculated as an annual flat rate allocation of $2,174 per enrolment for eligible children, irrespective of the number of hours the child is enrolled per week.

No, 4YO+ Fee Relief payments cannot be used to provide 3YO Fee Relief, and vice versa.

Surplus or reserved 4YO+ Fee Relief payments may need to be returned to the department.

Please see Section 8. Reserved and surplus fee relief funds of the program guidelines.

No, 3YO Fee Relief payments cannot be used to provide 4YO+ Fee Relief, and vice versa.

Surplus or reserved 3YO Fee Relief payments may need to be returned to the department.

Please see Section 8. Reserved and surplus fee relief funds of the program guidelines.

No, surplus or reserved 4YO+ and 3YO Fee Relief funds cannot be used on program payments.

Surplus or reserved 4YO+ and 3YO Fee Relief payments may need to be returned to the department.

Please see Section 8. Reserved and surplus fee relief funds of the program guidelines.

No, funding is not transferable across services, this means that you are unable to transfer funding provided for one service to another.

Surplus funds and reserve funds rules apply to each service only. Any unexpended reserved or surplus funds must not be transferred to a different service and may need to be returned to the department.

Please see Section 8. Reserved and surplus fee relief funds of the guidelines.

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 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 services provide 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 and 3YO Program Trial 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).

A 3YO Program Trial Payment is calculated as a flat rate of $ 771 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.

3YO Program Trial Payment Adjustment Payment calculations will include children who are at least 3 years old on, or before, 31 July 2025 (the child’s birthdate must be on, or between, 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2022).

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 and 3YO Program Trial 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.

3YO Program Trial Payment funds may also be used as an interim measure to provide fee relief to families of eligible children aged 3 years old and not yet 4 years old on, or before 31 July in 2025, where the initial 3YO Fee Relief Trial 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 and 3YO Program Trial Payment funds that are not fully spent in accordance with the spending rules are 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.

Hello everyone, good morning.

My name is Emma.

I am a Senior Programs Officer in the Long Day Care Funding team.

Thank you all for joining the ECE Connect online session on the Start Strong for Long Day Care program.

We can see that the numbers are rising, so we'll just give it a couple of minutes for services to join, work through any technical issues, and then we will get started.

While we are waiting for the others to join, we would love to hear from you and learn which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander country you are on today.

It would be great if you could write your response in the question and answer or the Q&A chat section.

You'll be able to see the Q&A button at the bottom of your screen.

Great, thank you.

Let's jump to the next slide.

Today I am joining from the lands of the Burramattagal people and acknowledge all the various Aboriginal lands you are joining us from today.

I recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the ongoing custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live.

I pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging as ongoing teachers of knowledge, song lines and stories.

I also acknowledge and pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues joining us today.

We all strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child in NSW achieves their potential through education.

Before we start the session, I would like to go over a few housekeeping items.

This presentation will be recorded and published on the Department of Education website by the end of April.

The published recording will include captions and a transcript.

The microphone, camera and chat functions are disabled during the presentation.

You may ask questions via the Q&A function.

However, we ask that you engage with the presentation as most of your questions are likely to be covered in today's session.

We have a team that will be able to respond directly to as many of your questions as possible.

We are unable to answer service specific questions in the Q&A function today.

We can only answer general questions about the program. Though you're welcome to contact the department using the contact details at the end of the session.

At the end of the session, our speakers will answer some of your questions live.

The Q&A function and the Q&A portion of the session will not be recorded.

We value your input and feedback.

We'll be using Menti during the session to hear from you directly.

Menti allows live collection of information for us all to see.

You can use a mobile phone to participate and we will also put the Menti links in the Q&A function.

Following the session, an information package will be sent to participants.

This will be available separate to the session recording by the end of April.

It will be informed by the questions answered and unanswered and your engagement in the Menti activities.

Once the presentation is finished, a survey will appear.

Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts on today's session so we can continue to develop content that is beneficial to the sector's needs.

For those who've just joined, my name is Emma and I'm a Senior Programs Officer in the Long Day Care Funding team.

My fellow speakers will introduce themselves throughout the session.

Today you will also hear from Virginia, Em and Ivana.

Firstly, I'd like to introduce you to Peter Harvey, the Director of Sector Programs.

Thanks, Emma and fantastic to be here.

A really beautiful acknowledgement of country there.

So thank you for that and for facilitating today's session.

As Emma mentioned, I'm Peter Harvey, I'm the Director of Sector Programs, which means a fair bit to people inside the building and probably not a lot to everyone out there in the real world.

I have the pleasure of delivering the Start Strong for Long Day Care program as well as the kind of complementary program for community preschools with all of the team that you'll see today and many more behind the scenes.

Really, I just wanted to say, one, thank you for joining us today, but two, thank you for all the work that you do with children every single day to give them the best start in life.

This is so important.

As you know, and as we know, because the research is really clear in this space, it tells us that 90% of a child brain development happens before they turn 5.

And we know children who participate in quality preschool education programs for at least 600 hours in the year before school arrive at school better equipped with the social, cognitive and emotional skills that they need to learn and to thrive.

And that's exactly what we're trying to do with our Start Strong for Long Day Care program.

And great to see how you're implementing that in quality preschool in your services.

And the Long Day Care team today have been listening to all of your feedback during 2024 and have made some significant improvements to processes and the way that we communicate so that we can better support you.

Today's session is going to cover the most common questions that we've received over the last 12 to 18 months that we think you want to know about and particularly focused around fee relief rules and spending rules as well.

We're always keen to hear more. Em mentioned for a bit of a survey at the end.

Do tell us what you found useful.

Tell us what you want to hear about in the future and we're always happy to learn.

Back to you Em. Fantastic, thank you, Peter.

In today's session, we will cover elements of the 2024 and 2025 Start Strong for Long Day Care program.

We will cover the topics that providers and services most commonly ask us about.

In Topic 1, we provide a program overview and highlight improvements we have made.

In Topic 2, we talk about fee relief funding, including spending rules and calculations, and reserved and surplus fee relief funds.

In Topic 3, we cover program funding, including spending rules and unexpended program funds.

In Topic 4, we speak of how you can prepare for the upcoming 2024 Start Strong for Long Day Care financial accountability statement process.

And in the final portion of the session, it will be a question and answer where the speakers will answer common questions posted in the Q&A function.

First, let's provide a brief overview of the 4 funding streams for the Start Strong for Long Day Care program.

Let's jump to the next slide.

Again, thank you.

The Start Strong for Long Day Care program provides funding to deliver affordable, quality preschool education to children aged 3 and above who are enrolled in an eligible long day care service in NSW.

There are 4 streams of funding.

The funding rates have increased for all funding streams in 2025.

You can see the increase in the annual rate per enrolment from 2024 in the light blue boxes to 2025 in the dark blue.

The 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment enable services to improve affordability for the families of eligible children by reducing the cost of early childhood education.

The 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment is calculated as an annual flat rate allocation of $2,174 per eligible enrolment and the 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment is calculated as an annual flat rate allocation of $515 per eligible enrolment.

The annual rate varies per enrolment.

Loadings are provided for Equity Enrolments.

These are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and/or if the service is located in a geographic area with a high level of disadvantage as determined by the Australian Government.

Approved providers will receive one amount of loading per equity enrolment.

The 4YO+ Program Payment is also scaled for hours of enrolment.

Children who are enrolled for 600 hours or more per year will receive a higher rate of funding.

See Section 4 of the 2025 program guidelines for the full breakdown of funding rates and calculations.

Later in the session, in Topics 2 and 3, we will explore the fee relief and program funding spending rules in more detail.

The 3YO Program Trial Payment has been extended to December 2025.

Let's jump to the next slide again please.

Fantastic, thank you.

Funding allocation emails were sent to providers of eligible services from February 2025.

Instalment 1, which is 50% of the annual allocation, will be paid to the provider from the 28th of March 2025, though please allow 10 business days for the funds to appear in your account.

The remaining 50% will be paid in Instalment 2 from July 2025.

Now let's go over 2 common questions about your funding and payments and let's jump to the next slide.

Perfect, thank you.

How can I check what funding my service is eligible for?

Eligible funding mounts, a breakdown of loadings, and funded fee relief enrolments are all outlined in your funding allocation email.

This email was sent to the approved provider in November 2024 and again in February 2025.

To find the email in your inbox, you can search for the subject line 2025 Start Strong for Long Day Care Funding Allocation or search for the sender ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au

If you cannot find your funding allocation email in your inbox, please first check your spam and junk mailboxes before emailing the department.

Another question we receive is I have received a payment, how can I check what the payment is for?

There are 3 places you can identify what the payment is for.

The first is check your payment advice that is sent from the department via email for each payment made.

The reference number column will indicate what funding stream the payment is for and the details column will indicate what service the payment is for.

You can check your payments in the Early Childhood Contract Management System known as ECCMS.

You can also check your instalment amounts in the funding allocation email sent to the provider.

At the end of this email, there are also step by step instructions on how to read your payment advice and how to log into ECCMS to check your payments.

The Long Day Care Funding team strive for continuous improvement in our processes and program.

Since mid 2024 we have improved the way we communicate to you.

Our email updates are clear and timely.

We heard from providers that information and calls to action can get lost within long emails.

That is why we now include the key messages at the top.

Each email update now begins with a blue box that provides an in short summary of the email and the next steps.

We also include all critical information within the email so that you don't have to navigate through hyperlinks and web pages to piece together information.

Our responses to your email inquiries are within 5 business days.

In 2024, the Long Day Care Funding team responded to over 9,000 email inquiries.

For 90% of emails, we responded within 5 business days and we're looking to lift this response rate in 2025.

The process for submitting fee relief data has been simplified to make it easier for services to report their fee relief spending and receive a 2024 fee relief top up if needed.

What we heard from providers and services in 2023 was that the fee relief data submission process was complex and a significant administrative burden.

In 2024, this process is now voluntary.

You only need to submit fee relief data if your service’s fee relief funding in 2024 was not enough to cover all eligible children.

If you receive sufficient fee relief funding, no action is required of you.

You only need to complete a single submission for the full 2024 reporting period.

A Fee Relief Data submission guide and manual template were available to support services as soon as the process opened.

The 2024 Fee Relief Data submission was open from the 31st of January 2025 to the 21st of March 2025.

Providers will receive outcomes and payments from the 31st of March 2025.

In 2025, we're looking to improve this process further based on learnings from 2023 and 2024.

For more information, More information, sorry, on the 2025 fee relief funding top up process will be available later in 2025.

The Start Strong for Long Day Care program guidelines include key updates to support services.

The service eligibility criteria is expanded to include occasional and mobile education and care services.

This means these services are eligible for all f4 funding streams.

We've improved processes to identify eligible new services in 2025.

We've updated information for transferred services to support transferring and receiving approved providers.

We've improved the flow and readability of the program guidelines and we've updated resources including regularly updated 2025 FAQs, a new 2025 Declaration and Consent form, case studies for calculating fee relief and updated ECCMS Service Provider Guide which details how to update your contact details, how to change your bank account details and much more.

If you have a question about the Start Strong for Long Day Care program, we can better support you initially via email than over the phone.

When you contact us via phone, you'll first speak to an Information and Enquiries Officer from the NSW ECEC Regulatory Authority, who can provide general information only.

They may then triage your call to a Funding Officer from the Long Day Care Funding team who can also only provide general advice over the phone.

When you contact us via email, your email is triaged according to the topic.

It is directed to the subject matter expert in the Long Day Care Funding team who can then provide general and service specific advice in their response.

Now we will move on to Topic 2 where Virginia will talk about fee relief funding.

V you're on mute just to start. We can't hear you yet.

Apologies.

Great.

There you are.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Virginia and I'm a Senior Programs Officer in the Long Day Care Funding team.

I'll be providing a very brief overview of the fee relief funding streams of the Start Strong for Long Day Care program.

Under 2025 Start Strong for Long Day Care program fee relief is available for families with eligible children.

The funding is designed to help families reduce their out of pocket expenses for early childhood education and care.

So who is eligible?

In 2025, the annual fee relief allocation for 4 year old plus children is $2,174 per eligible child.

In 2025, the annual fee relief allocation for 3 year old children is $515 per eligible child.

So how do you apply fee relief for eligible children?

Fee relief must be applied weekly as a direct reduction to a family session fee or gap fee after the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) has been applied.

This ensures that families experience ongoing, consistent financial support throughout the service’s operating weeks.

A key change to note is that from 2024 onwards, fee relief funds cannot be used for expenses covered under program payment spending rules.

This includes items such as salaries and wages for ECTs and educators, education and functional resources or other program related costs.

This ensures that fee relief is only used to reduce costs for families, making early childhood education more accessible and affordable.

So now let's go through a practical case study to understand how 3 year old fee relief is applied.

Imagine a child is enrolled at your service with the following details.

They were born in September 2021.

Their daily session fee is $115.

They are enrolled for 2 days per week.

They receive no Child Care Subsidy (CCS), they have no additional fees, and the service operates for 50 weeks per calendar year.

Let's go through the steps to determine eligibility and amount to be applied.

So Step 1, confirm the child's eligibility.

First, we check if the child qualifies for 3 year old fee relief in 2025.

As the child's birthday falls between the 1st of August 2021 and the 31st of July 2022, they're eligible for 3 year old fee relief.

Step 2, check for a signed fee relief declaration and consent form.

Check that a fee relief declaration and consent form has been signed requesting the service applies fee relief funds to their child's enrolment.

Step 3, calculate weekly fee relief allocation.

The total fee relief available for this child in 2025 is $515.

Since the service operates for 50 weeks, we divide the total by 50, which is $10.30 per week of 3 year old fee relief.

This means that the family is entitled to receive $10.30 per week in fee relief.

Step 4., calculate the weekly fee before fee relief.

As the child attends 2 days a week and the session fee is $115 per day, The total weekly fee is $230.

The family's total weekly fee is $230 before any fee relief is applied.

Step 5, apply the fee relief to the weekly fee.

Now we subtract the weekly fee relief $10.30 from the total weekly fee relief of $230, which is $219.70.

So after applying 3 year old fee relief, the family's remaining out of pocket cost is $219.70 per week.

In the next slides we will look at some common questions as they relate to the case study.

What if the child does not attend?

The weekly fee relief, 3 year old fee relief, does not change.

Fee relief is based on enrolment, not attendance.

What happens if a child reduces their enrolment to just one day a week?

The weekly 3 year old fee relief does not change.

The number of hours or days enrolled does not impact the weekly fee relief amount.

The reduction is applied consistently each week across the service’s operating weeks.

Importantly, providers cannot impose minimum enrolment requirements.

Families will be eligible for weekly fee relief regardless of how many days their child attends.

So our next question, what happens when the child turns 4 after the 31st of July 2025?

The weekly 3 year old fee relief does not change.

A child receives one fixed rate of fee relief for the entire 2025 calendar year based on their birthdate.

If a child is eligible for 3 year old fee relief, they will continue to receive it for the whole year as they turn 4 after the 31st of July 2025 cut off date.

What if a child turns 4 before the 31st of July 2025?

The child is eligible for 4 year old plus fee relief from their first day of enrolment in 2025 and will continue receiving it for the entire calendar year.

For example, if the child turns 4 on the 30th of March and their first day of attendance is the 1st of January, they are entitled to be paid the 4 year old plus fee relief rate from the 1st of January.

Similarly, what if a 2 year old turns 3 before the 31st of July 2025?

The child is eligible for 3 year old fee relief from their first day of enrolment in 2025 and will receive it for the full calendar year.

For example, if the child turns 3 on the 31st of July and their first day of attendance is the 1st of January, they are entitled to be paid the 3 year old fee relief rate from the 1st of January.

This means a child's fee relief payment category is paid from the start of date of their enrolment in 2025, provided they turned 3 or 4 on or before the 31st of July 2025.

Now let's go over 2 important scenarios regarding fee relief allocation.

How do we apply fee relief for children with separated parents?

The service should work with both parents to split the single allocation of fee relief.

This should be clearly reflected in each parent's invoice insurance, ensuring transparency and accuracy in billing.

Next question. Are currently enrolled children who will be attending school in 2025 eligible for Start Strong fee relief?

Yes, as long as the child meets the eligibility criteria and the family completes a fee relief declaration and consent form for 2025, they can receive fee relief.

However, once the child leaves to attend school, any remaining fee relief funding becomes Reserved Funds, which means it cannot be used unless another eligible child takes the place.

Well, what if I don't have enough fee relief funding?

In cases where the initial fee relief payment allocation is not enough to cover the number of eligible children accessing fee relief, then 4YO+ Program Payments may be used as an interim measure to provide 4YO+ fee relief.

Similarly, 3YO Program Trial Payments funds may be used as an interim measure to provide 3YO fee relief.

This ensures that all eligible families continue to receive support while funding adjustments are managed.

It is important to note that 4YO+ fee relief program payments cannot be used to provide 4 year old, 3 year old.

Sorry, my apologies.

It is important to note 4YO+ Fee Relief Payments cannot be used to provide 3YO fee relief and vice versa.

And 3YO Program Trial Payments cannot be used to provide 4YO+ fee relief and vice versa.

Top up funding for 2024 was determined through the voluntary fear relief data submission which opened in January 2025 with outcomes and payments progressed from the 31st of March 2025.

The 2025 fee relief funding top up process is currently under review with further updates expected in late 2025.

So some more questions, can I use fee relief for one service and apply to children enrolled at another service?

No, funding is not transferrable across services.

This means that you are unable to use funding provided for one service in another service.

I have too much fee relief, can I use this on education resources and staff salaries?

No. Surplus or Reserved fee relief funds cannot be used on program payment spending rules.

Surplus or Reserved fee relief payments may need to be returned to the department.

And finally, for this section, what services should do if they have not expended all their fee relief funds?

There are 2 categories of remaining funds, Reserved fee relief funds and Surplus fee relief funds.

I'm now going to hand over to my colleague Ivana to talk about these 2 categories.

Thanks V.

Hi everyone, My name is Ivana and I'm a Programs Officer in the Long Day Care Funding team.

Now let's take a closer look at the Reserved fee relief funds, what they are and how they should be managed.

Reserved fee relief funds are remaining funds when a service's current enrolments are lower than the number of funded places.

This can happen in situations such as a child leaves the service and creates a vacancy, a family chooses not to receive fee relief from the service, or an enrolment place remains vacant for an extended, typically 12 weeks or more.

In these cases, the unused fee relief funds must be retained and cannot be used until another eligible child is enrolled and nominates to receive fee relief from the service.

Additionally, services may be required to return any unallocated funds to the department as part of the program’s compliance requirement.

Next slide please.

Thank you.

To understand Reserved fee relief funds, let's walk through a case study.

In 2025, a service received 4YO+ fee relief funding for 30 enrolments, but due to changes in enrolment, some funds became Reserved fee relief funds.

We'll have a look at 3 different scenarios.

So Scenario 1 they're lower enrolments than funded.

So the service currently has 28 enrolled children eligible for 4YO+ fee relief. Funding for the 2 vacant enrolment places becomes reserved., so that's 2 * $2,174 which totals $4,384.

This funding cannot be used until the vacant enrolment places are filled.

Then we have Scenario 2. A family does not nominate to receive fee relief funding.

So one eligible child chooses to claim fee relief from a different service.

Funding for one vacant enrolment place then becomes reserved, so that is the total of $2,174.

Again, this funding cannot be used until a new eligible enrolment is added.

And then we have Scenario 3, a child leaves the service. So one eligible child leaves and the enrolment place remains vacant for the rest of the year.

The reserved amount in this case is calculated as the weekly fee relief rate, then multiplied by the remaining operating weeks in the year.

This funding also remains reserved until the place is filled.

In all these scenarios, the provider must retain these funds and may be required to return them to the department if they remain unallocated.

Now let's have a look at a common question regarding Reserved fee relief funds.

What if a vacant enrolment place is filled within 12 weeks?

If an eligible child fills the vacant enrolment place part way through an extended period of approximately 12 weeks or more, the Reserved fee relief funds for the weeks before the child's enrolment began will be considered Surplus fee relief funds.

For example, if a child enrols from week 5 onwards, the fee relief funds for the first 4 weeks when no child was enrolled become Surplus funds.

Now, let's further explore Surplus fee relief funds, what they are and how they can be used.

Surplus fee relief funds occur when a family's gap fees have been reduced to zero in a regular billing period, leaving remaining fee relief funds that cannot be applied to the child's fees.

So what can services do with these Surplus funds?

They must be used in the following order.

Firstly, they can cover additional charges for the eligible child, such as levies.

Then, they may be used to reduce fees for other eligible children at the services discretion.

This could mean prioritising families with the greatest need in line with the Section 3.3 of the Priority of Access guidelines.

Then, you may further reduce fees for children already receiving fe relief or children whose families did not nominate the service for fee relief.

However, any remaining Surplus funds must be retained and services may be required to return them to the department if they are not utilised.

To better understand how Surplus fee relief funds work, let's go through a case study.

In 2025, a family sends their 5 year old child to a service where the daily session fee is $137.

After applying the Child Care Subsidy, the family's daily gap fee is $13, meaning they pay $26 per week for 2 days of enrolment.

The service operates for 52 weeks per year and also has additional charges such as levies.

Let's break down how fee relief is applied in this scenario.

Step 1, calculate the weekly fee relief allocation.

So the child is eligible for $2,174 in fee relief, which is spread over 52 weeks, providing $41.81 per week.

Step 2, apply fee relief to the weekly gap fee.

So the weekly gap fee in this scenario is $26 minus the $41.81 of the weekly fee relief then equals negative $15.81.

So that means the fee is reduced to 0.

And since the fee is fully covered, the $15.81 remains as Surplus funds.

Step 3, use Surplus fee relief funds. So we have the $15.81 in Surplus funds.

This is first used to cover additional charges such as levies.

Any remaining surplus funds may be used to reduce fees for children from families with the greatest need in line with Section 3.3 of the Priority of Access guidelines

Services must ensure proper use of surplus funds, keeping records and complying with funding requirements.

Now let's go over a couple common questions about surplus fee relief funds.

So the first question is, do we apply fee relief if the Additional Child Care Subsidy covers all the child's fees to4 0?

No, in this case the full weekly fee relief entitlement is considered Surplus fee relief funds since no further reduction to fees is needed. Question 2, I have retained Reserved and Surplus fee relief funds, what should I do?

Providers must report on Reserved and Surplus fee relief funds in the financial accountability statement, which is issued in May each year.

The Department will review the financial accountability to ensure compliance.

If there are unexpended funds, the Department may send a request seeking their return.

We will now move on to Topic 3, where Em will talk about program funding. Over to you Em.

Thanks Ivana.

Hi everybody, My name's Em and I am a Program officer in the Long Day Care Funding team.

Together, let's explore program funding in more detail.

Services can use the program funding in a number of ways to improve the quality of the preschool program they provide and to support the capability uplift of early childhood teachers and educators.

To help your service to use its program funding in meaningful ways, Section 6 Spending Rules and Activities of the program guidelines provides examples of how a service can spend both 4YO+ Program funding and 3YO Program Trial funding.

Section 6 has a comprehensive list of suggestions to help improve your service’s quality and to meet the spending rules, but you may have additional purchases or activities that do not appear in our list of examples.

You can progress with your proposed activity if you're confident that it complies with the spending rules.

Similarly, 3YO Program Trial Payment funds may also be used as an interim measure to provide fee relief to families of eligible children aged at least 3 years old and not yet f4 years old on or before 31 July in 2025.

And again, this is where the initial 3YO Fee Relief Payment allocation does not cover the number of eligible children accessing fee relief.

Now, let's take a look at some specific questions about the spending rules.

Firstly, if I have leftover program funding from 2024, can I spend that in 2025?

No 2024 program payment funds do need to be expended during the 2024 calendar year unless otherwise agreed to by the Department.

Under the Terms and Conditions, providers may be required to return any unexpended funds to the Department.

We will discuss Unexpended funds further into the session when we have a look at financial accountabilities and reporting.

Let's take a look at another common question about the spending rules.

I received my program funding in March 2025., can I use this program payment funding for purchases that I made earlier in the year?

Yes, program payment funding may be applied to expenses incurred earlier in the 2025 calendar year.

The expense must align with Section 6 Spending Rules and Activities of the program guidelines.

The approved 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.

We do want to hear more about your real life examples of how program payment funding is used to promote quality uplift in your service.

We do want to celebrate your stories.

We'd love it if you could share your stories with us by emailing ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au

You might like to include photos, learning stories, feedback from families and your communities.

Examples could be used by us as showcases during our regular sector updates, emails from ECE funding and case studies for our 2026 program guidelines.

Now move on to Topic 4, where we'll welcome Ivana back to talk about financial accountability statements.

Thanks Em.

I'm very excited about all the stories and potential photos.

Let's now look forward to an upcoming program requirement, the 2024 financial accountability.

Next slide please.

Thank you.

Firstly, what is the financial accountability statement?

Providers funded under the 2024 Start Strong for Long Day Care must submit a financial accountability statement for each individual service that received funding.

The financial accountability statement is the way you tell the department how Start Strong for Long Day Care funding has been spent.

In the statement, you provide details on how the funding in each payment stream was expended, including details of any Unexpended funds.

Why are we completing a financial accountability statement?

This is a mandatory requirement under the Terms and Conditions of your funding.

The purpose of the financial accountability is to provide assurance that public funds have been expended for their intended purpose.

Where there are Unexpended funds, Reserved funds, or Surplus funds, an invoice may be raised by the department requesting repayment of those funds.

The financial accountability statement is not used to determine fee relief funding top ups.

Fee relief funding top ups are managed separately through the fee relief data submission process.

This 2024 fee relief data submission was open to providers in February 2025.

Now let's have a look at how you complete these statements.

Financial accountability statements are submitted in the Early Childhood Contract Management System or as we call it, ECCMS.

The financial accountability statement must be submitted by an ECCMS user with SP-Admin access level.

A user that who has SP-User access level or FS-User access level may enter information in draft only, but only an SP-Admin has the authority to click Submit.

When a financial accountability statement is added in ECCMS and available for you to complete, an email notification will be sent to the main email address of the provider that is listed in ECCMS.

Now let's have a look at the timing for this process as well.

The financial accountability statements for 2024 Start Strong for Long Day Care funding will be released in May 2025.

Providers will have between 4 to 6 weeks to complete.

There are resources available that can help you with this process.

Let's have a look at where you can access them.

There is a webpage called Financial Accountability - Information for Services.

This is currently being updated for 2024 and will be available prior to the release of the financial accountability.

This page provides information including frequently asked questions and important resources for services to assist with completing the financial accountability statements through ECCMS.

There is also a Financial Accountability Return Guide available each year.

This is currently also being updated for 2024 and will be available prior to the release.

This is a step by step guide that walks you through each line item in the financial accountability.

It will contain an example of a completed accountability statement with pop ups for instructions and also short instructional videos to walk you through the process.

There are also a couple email addresses you can utilise to get in contact with us about this process.

For help with completing the financial accountability statement, please email us at ECEAudit.funding@det.nsw.edu.au

And for help with the Start Strong for Long Day Care spending rules and fee relief funding top ups, please email us at ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au

There are certain things you can do in preparation for the release of the 2024 financial accountability statements in ECCMS.

Firstly, you can prepare by extracting your funding and expenditure reports from your software system and/or you can contact your accountant for help with this process.

There are of course also the resources available that we mentioned in the previous slide, such as the FAQs and the guide, which you can read through for guidance.

Another important item on your To Do List in ECCMS is completing all your outstanding financial accountability statements from the previous years.

If you have not done so already. Reminder here that this is a mandatory requirement.

The department will review that 2023 Start Strong for long Day Care financial accountability statements and contact any services that may need to return Unexpended funds.

Another useful thing to do in preparation is to check that your SP-Admin has access to ECCMS. If they're experiencing login issues, please contact ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au for help.

Next, you can check the Main Details tab under your Service Provider menu and make sure your contact details are up to date.

Another thing you can do in ECCMS is under the Funding Specification menu after clicking on the Start Strong for Long Day Care service row, you can check the funding you have received if you navigate to the Payments tab.

Alternatively, you would be able to find this information in any past Payment Advice emails as well.

We heard from you and wanted to address a common question we receive about financial accountability statements.

What is a manual financial accountability statement?

A manual financial accountability statement differs from the financial accountability process in ECCMS as it is only available for services in exceptional circumstances such as transferred or ceased services.

This manual statement is a PDF document sent by the department via email and is a way to report on how funding was expanded outside of the ECCMS process.

The providers who received this PDF document must complete it and submit it via return email.

Now back to Emma. Thank you.

Thank you, Ivana.

In 2025, we look forward to continuing our partnership with you.

We are continuing our commitment to provide clear and timely updates, to respond to your emails within 5 business days, improve processes and update FAQs with commonly asked questions.

Together, we can make a positive difference for young children by uplifting the quality of preschool programs and supporting the growth and development of early childhood teachers and educators.

As a reminder, here are some resources and key contacts for you after the session.

Just on the next slide, we have those available for you.

Our recording will now end here and the presentation will be sent to you by the end of April.

Now let's have a look and talk through some of your questions.

These questions along with the frequently asked questions will be sent out to you in an information package by the end of April.

The team have identified common themes in the questions you have asked in the Q&A function and we have 3 questions that we will answer live now.

We will answer here in a general capacity, but please contact us by email if you require more specific information.

If we could jump to the next slide. The first question that we commonly have seen in the Q&A function is, can a family change which service they nominate to receive fee relief from and what is the process for a family changing this nominated service?

Yes, a family can change their nominated service at any time.

At each service their child is enrolled, the parent, carer, or guardian must complete a new declaration and consent form to confirm their change in nominated service.

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

More about this is in our 2025 Frequently Asked Questions page.

I'll hand over to V, who will be able to answer another question for us.

Thanks, Em, I really appreciate it.

You'll note that we're using quite shortened names for each other. That's part of the fact that our teams worked together for a long time. So I'm also known as V, which is why they're saying V.

So one of the questions is, and it's a really good question as well, if you know a child is eligible but the parents have not returned the form, are you able to backdate the payments once you receive the consent form. Tt's 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 backdate funding to the beginning of the child's enrolment in 2025 by applying a credit to the family's account.

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

And services are really best place to find out the why that this is not happening.

So yes, it is at the discretion of the service, but we really do actively encourage you to provide backdated fee relief if you have sufficient fee relief funds.

Em before you answer the next question, I've just had an added question that I've been asked to respond to as well.

We're getting quite a lot of questions regarding when will the webinar be shared.

It'll be shared at the end of April 2025.

Now over to Em to answer the last question.

Thank you, V.

Final question for today.

How long do we have to hold onto funds that need to be returned to the department?

You need to hold on to these funds until notified by the department.

These funds are identified in the annual financial accountability statement processed that's released in May each year.

We will shortly be issuing return of fund letters for the 2023 year.

The 2024 financial accountabilities will be released in May 2025 and you can find more information about this in Section 17 of the program guidelines.

Well, thank you all for participating in today's session.

Your questions and contributions help us to make the program more successful.

As a reminder, the presentation and information package will be sent out to participants by the end of April 2025.

On the screen, you'll see a QR code to a Microsoft Forms survey.

Please do take a few minutes to share your thoughts on today's session.

Your input helps us to continue creating and developing content that's beneficial to the sector's needs.

We will close the presentation here.

We hope you have a fantastic rest of the day.

Thank you all very much for joining.

[End of transcript]