Natalie: We will. We'll kick off in a few moments, just giving a little bit of time for others to join.

If you'd like to have a go at the Q&A function and enter the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Country in which you are joining us, you're welcome to do so.

I can see the numbers ticking up, so we might get started.

Thank you for joining us today, for coming along to the Start Strong for Long Day Care program webinar.

My name is Natalie McCall and I'm the Director of Sector Programs.

This session is to provide you with an overview of the 2026 program and to answer some of the common questions we've received, including through the registration process.

I want to begin by acknowledging that I am hosting this session from the lands of the Dharug People.

I acknowledge the ongoing custodians of the various lands on which you're joining today and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait people, Islander people participating in this session.

At the Department of Education we pay respects to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, song lines and stories.

We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education, and I'm proud that Start Strong prioritises First Nations children and facilitates their access to quality preschool education.

Some housekeeping matters before we get into the content. This session is scheduled to run for 60 minutes. It is being recorded and will be posted on the web page and distributed to all attendees. Microphones and cameras are turned off because there's so many of us.

We would like you to watch and listen the webinar.

So we're holding, we, while the question and answer function at the top of your screen will be working and you can post questions there.

I've asked the moderators to hold off responding to questions until we reach the question and answer component at the end of the webinar so that you're not distracted by the question and answer in the chat.

You'll find that most of your questions will be answered during this webinar.

And of course, this is not your only opportunity to ask questions.

We won't be discussing individual service questions today, but please email us directly if you have questions about funding for your particular service.

We are presenting slides right now, so if you cannot see the slides, please comment in the question and answer function and we'll reissue the help instructions there.

At the end of today's webinar, there'll be a short optional survey for you to provide your feedback. Your participation in the webinar and feedback are really important to us. They help us to improve the advice and the support that we provide to you. So thanks so much for being here.

What are we talking about today?

Today's session is organised into 5 parts.

We'll start with an overview of the 2026 Start Strong for Long Day Care program, including the key changes for next year.

Then we'll talk about program payments and fee relief funding for 2026.

After that, we'll cover how to get ready for the changes coming next year.

Finally, we'll finish with a question and answer session.

You will find that most of your questions will be answered during the session, but the moderators will respond to any questions that you've posted during the webinar, and if so, that you can focus on the webinar itself.

Let's make a start.

In this first section, we'll focus on the changes to the Start Strong for Long Day Care program in 2026.

What's changing and why?

The 2026 Start Strong program was announced on 30th of October 2025.

The NSW Government has confirmed the funding rates, eligibility criteria and spending rules for the 2026 program, all of which are laid out in the Program Guidelines available online.

I trust you've had time to review the Program Guidelines and your Provider and Service Profile letter, which was sent to you via email on the 5th of November.

Start Strong's objectives are on the screen and the 2026 program reflects these 4 key areas.

Start Strong provides funding to improve affordability of preschool education, to support quality uplift in preschool education, to drive improved outcomes for all children and to incentivise increased enrolment and attendance in quality preschool programs in the 2 years before school.

In 2026, the program continues funding to support the accessibility and affordability of quality preschool.

The program's architecture continues, it supports long day care services through program payments and it supports families through fee relief.

Support also continues for the same age group for 3-year-old children until school age.

The scale of Start Strong changing has not changed.

Both program funding and fee relief funding has been indexed.

In 2025, the total value of the Long Day Care program was between approximately 340 million and 370 million.

In 2026 this has increased to between approximately 350 million and 380 million.

So what has changed?

While the scale of funding and the families and services supported by Start Strong are not changing in 2026, we are directing more of the funds to the children who need it most.

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

The government is driving improvements to safety, quality and equity in early childhood education and care so that every child in NSW can thrive.

Our Start Strong programs are changing to help achieve this.

In relation to quality, program changes have been made to support an uplifting quality across the sector.

For example, we've made clear that in the program payments can be used for activities which support enhanced quality, including professional development.

Also, services that receive Start Strong Program funding and do not meet the national quality standard, may be directed to participate in quality improvement programs to lift their rating and the department may withhold funding from services that consistently do not meet the rating.

There are changes in how we allocate program payments and fee relief.

We're making quality early childhood education and care more accessible by prioritising funding to low income areas and increasing fee relief for families with the greatest need.

For example, fee relief payments will increase for children eligible for maximum funding, which includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children attending a service in a regional or remote area, or children attending a service in an area of relative socio-economic disadvantage.

The team will speak to this in further detail shortly.

We've also made some clarifications and simplifications.

The department has simplified fee relief responsibilities by revising the reserved fee relief terminology.

There's now clear terminology for fee relief management.

Fee relief funds are not currently being applied, that are not currently being applied to a child's enrolment fees, will not be considered remaining fee relief funds and at the end of the year, any remaining fee relief funds become unspent funds and maybe need to be returned to the department.

We're also making a change so that payments will now be made in 4 equal quarterly instalments.

Those are some of the high level changes and we'll go into a little bit more detail now.

Let me hand over to Emma Isaacson, the Senior Project Officer in the Long Day Care Funding team to explain program payment funding.

Emma: Thanks Nat, and thank you everyone for joining.

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

Today I'll be taking you through program payment funding.

In Section 2 we will talk about the 2026 program payment funding and the key changes including important updates for both not-for-profit and for-profit services, the provider profile and service profile letter emailed to providers at the beginning of November and how program payment funding will be calculated.

We'll also cover the new spending rules and what happens with any unspent program payment funds.

In 2026, the key changes to program payment funding include prioritising funding to services located in low socio-economic areas and making a distinction between funding rates for not-for-profit and for-profit providers.

We will explore the program payment funding rates in the next 2 slides for both not-for-profit and for-profit providers.

As mentioned, in 2026, the program payment funding rates and calculations are different for not-for-profit providers and for-profit providers.

In this table you will see the 2026 program payment funding rates for for-profit providers.

You will notice that there are 2 distinct tables with the first table showing funding rates for services located in low socio-economic areas, SEIFA deciles one to 5, and the second table for services located in SEIFA deciles 6 to 10.

If you are a for-profit provider of a service with a SEIFA decile between one and five, you may be eligible to receive up to $1,092 per enrolment, depending on the age of the child and the number of hours enrolled.

You may also be eligible to receive up to $546 per equity enrolment for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children, or if your service is located in SEIFA decile one or two.

These funding rates are also dependent on child age and number of hours enrolled.

If you are a for-profit provider of a service with a SEIFA decile between 6 and 10, you may be eligible to receive up to $546 per enrolment, depending on the age of the child and the number of hours enrolled.

You may also be eligible to receive up to $273 per equity enrolment for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children also dependent on the age.

In 2026, as mentioned, funding is being directed to not-for-profit providers and children attending services located in low socio-economic areas. All not-for-profit providers regardless of their service's

SEIFA decile, may be eligible to receive up to $1,092 per enrolment, depending on the age of the child and the number of hours enrolled.

Not-for-profit providers may also be eligible to receive up to $546 per equity enrolment for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children, or if the service is located in SEIFA decile one or two.

These funding rates are also dependent on the age of the child and number of hours enrolled.

If you would like more information regarding program payment funding rates and calculations, please visit Section 7.3 and 7.4 in the 2026 Guidelines.

We understand these changes can be overwhelming and you might be wondering what type of provider entity type you are or what SEIFA decile your service has.

To assist you with this information, the department emailed providers a Provider Profile and Service Profile letter, which we will explore in the next slide.

The department sent long day care providers a Provider Profile and Service Profile letter via email on the 5th and 6th of November.

The email was sent to support providers in understanding their provider and service profile and potential funding rates that you may be eligible for in 2026.

The letter included provider level information including provider name, provider approval ID, not-for-profit or for-profit entity type, and whether the provider is an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation.

The letter also included service level information such as service name, service approval ID, SEIFA decile and ARIA classification.

It is important to note that the department does not determine SEIFA deciles or ARIA classification.

This information is provided by the Australian Government and cannot be disputed.

Additionally, your provider type, for-profit and not-for-profit status has been confirmed against data from NQAITS, ECCMS and the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission.

If you have any concerns about the information in the Provider Profile and Service Profile letter, please contact the department via email at ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au.

Now that we have discussed program payment funding rates, let's take a look at program payment spending rules in 2026.

4YO+ Program Payment and 3YO Program Trial Payment funds can be used to pay salary and wages for early childhood teachers and educators to deliver a quality early childhood education program and purchase functional or educational resources or equipment.

For the full list of spending rules and examples, see Section 9.1 of the guidelines.

Now that we have discussed program payment funding, let's move into fee relief funding in 2026.

Jess: Thanks Em.

Kaya, hello everyone, my name is Jess and I'm a proud Minang Koreng woman and Senior Programs officer in the Long Day Care Funding team.

Today I will take you through fee relief funding in 2026.

In Section 3, we will focus on key changes to fee relief funding, including the 2 fee relief categories, how the fee relief amounts are calculated, and what happens with any remaining fee relief funds or unspent funds.

We will also share some case study examples to help explain and understand these changes clearly.

Let's take a look at how you implement fee relief payments.

First, the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payments can only be given to families with eligible children who will be 4-years-old on or before the 31th of July 2026.

The 3YO Fee Relief trial payment is for eligible children who will be 3-years-old and not yet 4-years-old on or before the 31th thof July in 2026.

So this means the child's birth date must be on or between the 1st of August 2022 to 31st of July 2023.

Both the 4YO+ and 3YO Fee Relief Trial must be used each week to reduce the family session or gap fees across the weeks the service operates and after the Child Care Subsidy has been applied.

Also, don't forget that you need families, carers or guardians to sign a 2026 Fee relief declaration and consent form for each eligible child before you can apply fee relief.

We will explore specific fee relief examples using 2 case studies later in this session.

In 2026, you may need to apply different funding rates for different children.

This means that you will need to ensure your software has the ability to apply the different funding rates in 2026.

So what exactly do we mean when we say this?

Well, your service may receive funding for both children eligible for maximum funding and for all other children.

For example, your service details may meet the fee relief criteria for all other children.

However, you also have an Aboriginal child enrolled at your service and they are entitled to the children eligible for maximum funding rate.

To ensure that the correct fee relief rates are applied for each child, you will need to ensure your software can apply both fee relief categories.

So what exactly has changed in 2026?

Let's take a look at the next slide to find out.

Some of the key changes to fee relief under the 2026 Program include changes to the fee relief payment rates.

As you may be aware, we are making early childhood education and care more accessible and affordable by prioritising funding for low socio-economic, regional and remote areas and increasing fee relief for families with the greatest need.

This means there will be two fee relief categories available and these are children eligible for maximum funding and all other children.

We will explore fee relief rates later during the case study examples.

However, be sure to visit Section 7.5 in the 2026 guidelines for more information about fee relief rates and calculations.

Also, in recognition of sector feedback concerning the administrational requirements of reserved, surplus and unexpended funds concepts, the department has simplified the overall fee relief process by removing reserved, surplus and unexpended fee relief funds terminology and from 2026, all unallocated or unspent fee relief funds will be considered remaining fee relief funds.

Furthermore, the fee relief spending rules have changed to strengthen accountability and oversight of remaining fee relief expenditure, with services no longer able to use surplus funds to reduce other children's fees at the service's discretion.

Finally, a new age checker tool is available to help services understand how a child's date of birth determines what fee relief rate is applied for the whole calendar year under the 2026 Start Strong for Long Day Care Program.

Building on what we just discussed, let's explore the 2 categories of fee relief funding rates.

In 2026, there will be 2 categories of fee relief payment.

Children eligible for the maximum fee relief rate can receive up to $2,563 per year for children aged 4 and above and $769 per year for children aged 3-years-old.

All other children can receive up to $1,783 per year for children aged 4 and above, and $423 per year for children aged 3-years-old.

Now let's explore what children may be eligible for the maximum funding rate.

It is important to note here that a child is eligible for the maximum rate of fee relief funding if you answer yes to one of the criteria outlined.

Children eligible for the maximum rate of fee relief are.

All Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children.

In addition, children are eligible for the maximum fee relief funding rate if a service is located in an inner regional, outer regional, remote and very remote region in NSW or located in a geographic area with a SEIFA decile of one or two.

Also, if the service is operated by an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation.

And remember, for more information regarding fee relief rates and calculations, you can visit Section 7.5 of the 2026 guidelines.

In addition to the guidelines, we have created a new Calculating Fee Relief Payments web page to provide services with case study examples of how to calculate and apply fee relief.

You can access this web page through the 2026 Start Strong for Long Day Care web page.

Fee Relief Payment spending rules.

These next points are crucial to understanding the bigger picture of fee relief.

How do you spend fee relief in 2026?

First, fee relief must be offered by the provider to the families of all children that meet the eligibility criteria as per the 2026 guidelines, with the fee relief spending rules applying to both the 4YO + Fee Relief Payment and the 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment.

Providers must consider the 2 categories of fee relief and apply the appropriate funding rates for each eligible child.

For example, fee relief must be provided to children eligible for maximum funding at the rates outline in table 4, with fee relief provided to other children at the rates outline in table 5 as per Section 7.5 of the 2026 guidelines. Both the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment must be applied as a weekly reduction to a family session fee or GAP fee, which is after the childcare subsidy has been applied and divided equally across the total service operating weeks for the calendar year.

We will explore examples of this rule in the next section.

Finally, the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment cannot be used to provide fee relief for children aged 3-years-old, and the 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment cannot be used to provide fee relief for children aged 4 and above, with all fee relief payments to be correctly expended by the end of 2026.

Now let's move from theory to practise and explore a case study example.

How to calculate fee relief: Case Study One. Case Study One is an example of a 3-year-old child who is eligible to receive $769, which is the 3-year-old fee relief rate for children eligible for maximum funding.

Let's explore this example further. In 2026, a family sends their child to a long day care preschool program with a daily session fee of $115.

The child's birth date is the 1st of April 2023.

The service has a SEIFA decile of 8.

The family does not receive child care subsidy, leaving the family to pay a daily fee of $115.

This child is Aboriginal and from the Dharug Nation.

They attend the long day care service 2 days per week and the service operates for 50 weeks per year.

Now let's go through the steps in how you would calculate their fee relief.

Step one, check the child's birth date.

The child's birth date is the 1st of April 2023 and as per the Age Checker Tool, the child is turning 3-years-old in 2026.

Additionally, another way to check if a child is eligible for 3-year-old funding is to ensure that their birth date is between the 1st of August 2022 and the 31st of July 2023.

Step two.

We now need to confirm that consent has been given from the family for the child to receive fee relief at your service.

Consent is obtained when the family correctly completes and signs the 2026 Fee relief declaration and consent form.

You can find this in Section 12.1 of the 2026 guidelines.

Step three.

Check the fee relief rate that the child is eligible to receive as per the funding rates in Section 7.5 of the 2026 guidelines.

So when looking at this example, first we acknowledge that the child is Aboriginal and aged 3-years-old and that the service has a SEIFA decile of 8.

As per the criteria and funding rates table, this child is eligible to receive the 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment annual flat rate for children eligible for maximum funding of $769.

Step four.

This is where you calculate the weekly 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment.

Here you take the annual flat rate and divide it by the services total operating weeks.

We take $769 and divide that by 50 weeks, which equals $15.38 of fee relief available to this family, per week.

Step five.

Now let's calculate the weekly session fee or weekly invoice statement that the family will be charged.

For this example, we know that the family is charged $115 per day as the child attends the long day care service 2 days per week.

We calculate this by taking 115 and multiplying that by 2, giving you the total amount of $230 that will be charged to the family, per week.

Step six.

After you calculate the weekly session fee, you now apply the weekly fee relief amount to reduce the family's fees.

For this example, you take the weekly session fees of $230 and take away the weekly fee relief eligible to that child, which we have already calculated as $15.38.

So $230 - $15.38 = $214.62

This means that the family is left to pay $214.62 per week.

Now that we have discussed the funding rates, spending rules and a case study, let's explore another key change for fee relief in 2026.

The terminology and process of remaining fee relief funds.

The terminology, 'remaining fee relief funds', replace the terms 'reserved', 'surplus' and 'unexpended funds'.

In 2026, providers are required to manage their fee relief funds based on the changing number of enrolments and families who claim fee relief from their service.

So what are remaining fee relief funds?

Funds are remaining funds when a service's enrolments are lower than the number of funded places.

This can happen in situations such as: a child leaves the service creating a vacancy, a family chooses not to receive fee relief from the service, and an enrolment place is vacant.

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

The provider must retain these fee relief funds and may be required to return funds to the department as unspent funds.

Additionally, remaining funds can occur when a family's gap fees have been reduced to zero in a regular billing period.

The provider may spend remaining fee relief funds to cover any additional charges imposed on the eligible child, such as levies and only up to the maximum eligible fee relief rate applicable to each other child.

It is important to note that from 2026, services can no longer use remaining fee relief funds to reduce other children's fees at the services discretion.

So what can you do with remaining fee relief funds?

Remaining fee relief funds from the 4YO + Fee Relief Payment for the eligible child may be used to cover any shortfall in 4YO + Fee Relief Payment funding that the service is experiencing for other eligible children aged 4 and above.

And any remaining funds from the 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment for the eligible child may be used to cover any shortfall in 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment funding that the service is experiencing for other eligible 3-year-old children.

It is also important to note that each eligible child can only receive the maximum fee relief amount applicable to them as per their eligible fee relief rate.

For example, if a child is 4-years-old and they are eligible to receive the funding rate of $1,783, you can only apply $1,783 for that child during 2026.

If there are 4YO+ Fee Relief and/or 3YO Fee Relief Trial funds remaining after covering additional charges imposed on the child and after covering any shortfall in fee relief experienced by the service, these are unspent funds and may need to be returned to the department.

Building on what we just discussed, let's explore a remaining fee relief example.

Remaining Fee Relief Funds Example: Case Study two. Case study two is an example of a 4-year-old child who is eligible to receive $1,783, which is the 4YO+ Fee Relief rate for all other children.

Let's explore this example further.

In 2026, a family sends their child to a long day care preschool program with a daily session fee of $137.

The child's birth date is the 5th of March 2022.

The service has a SEIFA decile of 9.

The family receives the childcare subsidy and after applying the childcare subsidy, this leaves the family to pay a daily fee of $26.45

The child attends the service one day a week and has a total weekly fee of $26.45

The service operates for 52 weeks per year.

Now let's go through the steps in how to calculate their fee relief.

Step one, check the child's birth date.

The child's birth date is the 5th of March 2022 and as per the Age Checker Tool, the child is turning 4-years-old in 2026.

An additional way to check if a child is eligible for the 4YO+ funding is to ensure that the child's birth date is on or before the 31st of July 2022.

Step two.

We now need to confirm that consent has been given from the family for the child to receive fee relief at your service.

Consent is obtained when the family correctly completes and signs the 2026 Fee Relief Declaration and Consent Form found in Section 12.1 of the 2026 guidelines.

Step three: Check the fee relief rate that the child is eligible to receive as per the funding rates in Section 7.5 of the 2026 guidelines.

When looking at this example, we know the service has a SEIFA decile of 9 and that the child is turning 4-years-old before the 31st of July 2026.

As per the criteria and funding rates, this child is eligible to receive the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment, annual flat rate for all other children of $1,783

Step four.

This is where you calculate the weekly 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment.

Here you take the annual flat rate and divide it by the services total operating weeks.

So we take $1,783 and divide that by 52 weeks, which equals $34.29 of fee relief available to this family, per week.

Step five.

Now let's calculate the weekly session fee or weekly invoice statement that the family will be charged.

For this example, we know that the family is charged $26.45 per day. As the child attends the long day care service one day a week, we calculate this by taking $26.45 and multiplying that by one, giving you the total amount of $26.45 that the will be charged to the family, per week.

Step six.

After you calculate the weekly session fee, you now apply the weekly fee relief amount to reduce the family's fees.

For this example, you take the weekly session fee of $26.45 and take away the weekly fee relief eligible to that child, which we have already calculated as $34.29

So when you take the $26.45 and minus the $34.29 in fee relief, this gives you a remaining fee relief amount of $7.84

This means that the family has nothing to pay at the end of each week and that there is $7.84 each week in remaining fee relief funds. After covering a shortfall in 4YO+, Fee Relief for other eligible children and only up to the maximum eligible fee relief rate applicable to each other child, if there are any remaining funds from the $7.84, these are unspent funds, and they may need to be returned to the department.

If you would like further information about remaining fee relief funds, please visit Section 9.7 of the 2026 guidelines.

Now that we have discussed fee relief, let's look at how to prepare for 2026.

Georgia: Thanks Jess.

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

As we get ready for 2026, there are some key things to keep in mind.

Over the next few slides, we will discuss some key dates and go through a handy checklist to assist you in preparing for a great year ahead.

Let's take a moment to walk through some important dates to keep in mind as we prepare for the 2026 Start Strong for Long Day Care program.

First up, on the 30th of October 2025, the 2026 Start Strong for Long Day Care guidelines were released.

This will give you all the essential information and updates you need for the upcoming year.

On the same day, the 2026 Declaration and Consent Form also became available, so you can now access and complete these forms.

On the 24th of November 2025, the 2026 Terms and Conditions were released in ECCMS.

Acceptance is due by the 7th of December to receive quarter one payments in December 2025.

On the 8th of December 2025, the initial funding allocation letters will be sent to the approved provider primary contact email address.

This letter will outline the funding amounts for 2026 based on the 2025 June CCS data provided by the Australian Government.

Finally, from the 10th of December 2025, the process for quarter one payments will begin.

This means all preparation should be in place to ensure smooth payments for the first quarter of 2026.

Make sure to mark these dates in your calendar and reach out if you have any questions.

Together, we'll have a successful start to the new program year.

Now that we've gone through the key dates, let's talk about another important part of the Start Strong program, the Fee relief declaration and consent form.

This form is essential for accurate reporting and data collection and helps us determine whether a child is enrolled at another service and where the family will be claiming fee relief.

It is important for services to arrange for families and staff to complete these forms each year.

Families must return completed forms to be eligible for fee relief.

Please remember, fee relief cannot be provided if consent has hasn't been given.

The form and resources you'll need are available on the department's websites.

The 2026 Start Strong for Long Day Care program guidelines, the Start Strong for Long Day Care landing page, Start Strong Family page, and the Calculating Fee Relief Payment page.

And don't forget, our Start Strong Family web page includes flyers and templates to help you communicate with families about the fee relief process, explaining what's required and why these forms matter.

If you have any questions or need support, those resources are a great place to start.

We have listened to your feedback and have updated the declaration and consent form to make it clearer and easier for all families to understand.

Our new family friendly design includes artworks created by a Minang and Koreng artist, reflecting our commitment to supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and creating a welcoming and approachable form for everybody.

Next, let's go over a quick but very important checklist to make sure you have all your details in ECCMS up to date.

First, check that your ECCMS login is working correctly.

This is your gateway to all the important information and forms required.

Then review and update your SP Admin and SP user details in ECCMS to make sure the right people have access.

Don't forget to check and update your phone number and email address on the ECCMS main page so we can easily reach you if needed.

It is also important to double check your contact details to ensure we have the most current information.

Make sure your bank details are accurate and up to date to avoid any delays in payments.

Finally, confirm the email address where the remittance and payment advice is to be sent.

This helps ensure you receive all payment notifications properly.

In 2026, there will be two different fee relief rates to be aware of, one for four years old and up and another for 3-years-old fee relief trial payments.

Each of these have 2 rates, one for children eligible for maximum funding and another for all other children.

Because of this, it is really important that your service gets in touch with your software vendor to make sure your systems can handle these different rates smoothly.

This will help make sure everything runs without a hitch, and when it comes to processing fee relief payments. As previously mentioned, all 4 funding streams, 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment, 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment, 4YO+ Program Payment and 3YO Program Trial Payment will be paid in 4 quarterly instalments.

Quarter 1 payments, which capture January to March 2026, are expected by the 19th of December 2025.

Quarter 2 payments, which capture April to June 2026, are expected by the 30th of April 2026.

Quarter 3 payments, which capture July to September 2026, are expected by the 31st of July 2026 and Quarter 4 payments, which capture October to December 2026, are expected by the 31st of October 2026.

Here is a simple checklist to help you get ready for 2026 funding.

Step one.

Read and sign the 2026 Start Strong for Long Day Care guidelines.

Step two.

Make sure families and staff have read and completed the 2026 declaration and consent form.

Step three.

Contact your software vendor to check that your system can handle different fee relief funding rates and Step four, review and update your ECCMS login details, contact information and bank account details.

Following these steps will help you be prepared and ready for the changes ahead.

Natalie: Thanks Georgia.

Great short checklist there at the end with some good tips to get ready for 2026.

So that brings us to the question and answer session of the webinar.

If you have questions, please use the Q&A chat function to submit them.

But first we'll answer some of the questions that were pre-registered with us.

I'll answer the first 2 questions and then Jess and Emma will take you through the other questions or as much time we have with as much time we have today.

So our first set of questions were about the initial funding allocation letters.

The question we received was: when will the 2026 initial funding allocation letters be sent?

And the answer is we're trying to get to the these letters to you as soon as possible.

At the moment we are planning to have letters out between the 8th and the 12th of December.

The letter will confirm your annual allocation for each service and will explain the basis upon which that funding has been has been allocated.

Which includes the ARIA rating of the service indicating level of remoteness of the area in which the service is located, the SEIFA for decile which indicates the level of relative socio-economic advantage of the area in which the service was located, and the profit or not-for-profit status of the provider.

Another question we received was whether services can change the region or area of relative socio-economic advantage, that is the ARIA ratings and SEIFA deciles of their service.

No, we can't change these.

The SEIFA and ARIA ratings are not determined by the Department of Education and cannot be varied.

They're based on the location of your service.

Jess: Thanks, Nat.

I hope everyone's found this webinar informative so far and Emma and I will now go through some more questions.

So these questions in particular are informative for families.

Our first question is: will you have a letter and a family flyer for families?

Emma: Thanks, Jess.

And yes, the template letter to give to families about relief at your service and the family flyer are now available on the department's website.

For further information you can go to the Start Strong for Families webpage.

Jess: Thanks Em.

Another great question for families are, are school aged children under 6 years enrolled in January 2026 prior to commencing primary school, eligible for 4-year-old fee relief?

Emma: Yes, an enrolled child who is not yet in school is eligible for funding in 2026.

They need to complete a 2026 declaration and consent form and then once this child leaves the service to attend school, the fee relief allocated to them is considered remaining funds.

Jess: Thanks Em.

We have some more great questions and some common questions that we get asked are: can I use fee relief from one service and apply it to children enrolled in another service?

Emma: The answer to that one is no.

If you are a provider with more than one service, you cannot transfer funding from one service to another.

Jess: Another question, I have too much fee relief.

Can I use this on educational resources and staff salaries?

Emma: No, fee relief cannot be used on program payment spending rules.

Remaining fee relief payments and unspent funds may need to be returned to the department.

Let's take a look at some other questions we frequently encounter on the next slide.

Jess: What happens if a child starts later in the year?

Emma: That's a great question, and the answer is fee relief begins from the time of enrolment.

When a child starts later in the year, the fee relief is applied only for the weeks they are enrolled.

The weekly fee reduction amount remains consistent but it's only applied from the week the child enrolment starts.

Jess: Thanks Em.

Another question that we commonly get asked is: if I have too much 4-year-old fee relief funding, can I use this as 3-year-old fee relief trial instead?

Emma: And the answer to that question is No. 4YO+ Fee Relief payments cannot be used to provide 3YO fee relief and vice versa.

Any leftover fee relief payments are considered remaining fee relief funds and these may need to be returned to the department.

Jess: This leads us to some more common questions about applying fee relief in 2026.

I have some children who are eligible for maximum fee relief funding and some who are not.

How do I apply 2 different fee relief rates in my software system?

Emma: Services will need to contact their software vendor to ensure that their software can support the different fee relief rates.

What exactly do we mean when we say this?

Your service may have children enrolled that are eligible for maximum funding amount of $2,583.

In addition, you may also have children who are eligible for the funding rate of $1,783.

You will need to ensure that your software can support the different fee relief rates for both 3YO children and children aged 4 and above.

Jess: Thanks Em.

Another question, how do we apply fee relief for children attending less than 600 hours including occasional attendance?

Emma: Great question.

Well, the number of hours or days enrolled does not change the calculation of an eligible child's weekly fee relief reduction.

A child receives the same weekly fee relief amount if they are enrolled for 2 days a week or for one day a week.

Jess: Thanks Em.

We've received some really great questions here and these next questions we hear quite often.

Does the fee relief rate change from 3-year-old to 4-year-old during the year at the child's birthday?

Emma: Is a great question. The answer to that one is no.

3YO Fee Relief Trial funding is applied as one annual flat rate starting from the date of enrolment up until the 31st of December 2026, for the whole calendar year.

If eligible, the child will then receive 4YO+ Fee Relief from the 1st of January 2027.

So you don't change the funding rates when a child has their birthday, you keep applying the fee relief rate that the child is eligible for at the start of the year.

Remember to use the Age Checker Tool to support you in calculating the child's age in 2026.

Jess: Thanks Em.

I think that's a great tip is using the Age Checker Tool which you can find on our Start Strong web page.

Also, another question: can a family change the service they want to get fee relief from?

Emma: Yes, they can.

A family may change their nominated service at any time.

At each service where their child is enrolled, the parent, carer or guardian must complete a new 2026 declaration and consent form to change to confirm their change in their nominated service.

Hopefully, that's cleared up a couple of key questions that we receive.

Let's move on now to our final 2 questions.

Jess: Thanks Em. And this one's about Declaration and Consent Forms.

So can I pass on fee relief if I don't have a signed 2026 Fee relief declaration and consent form?

Emma: No, you cannot.

You cannot give a child fee relief unless the family has completed a new 2026 Fee relief declaration and consent form.

For an example, a parent cannot sign a 2025 Fee relief declaration and consent form and receive 2026 fee relief funding.

To receive fee relief funding in 2026, the family, carer or guardian must sign a 2026 Fee relief declaration consent form.

Jess: Thanks Em.

And for our final question, which is a really good one because we do get asked this quite often, is what is the process if I don't think I have enough 4-year-old fee relief payment allocated to my service for 2026?

Emma: A great question. If your service is experiencing a shortfall in 4YO+ Fee Relief, you can use the 4YO+ Program Payment funds as an interim measure to provide fee relief to families of eligible children.

The 2026 Fee Relief payment adjustment process will open from the 29th of January 2027, where services will be able to able to submit data of their correctly expended 2026 Fee Relief payments and apply for a fee relief adjustment.

Jess: Thanks for that Em. That brings us to the end of our Q&A session.

As previously mentioned, these questions and the questions you've asked today throughout the webinar will be used to inform our Frequently Asked Questions for 2026.

And I'm now going to hand over to Nat to bring our webinar to a close.

Natalie: Thanks Jess, and thanks Emma.

Those are some of our common questions and frequently asked questions.

I can't help myself.

I'm going to squeeze in one more.

We've got a really good question. I'm just going to answer quickly.

The question was, is a child identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander eligible for maximum fee relief if my service is located in a major city?

The answer is yes.

The location of the service does not impact eligibility for an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child.

The child is eligible for maximum fee relief where the family identifies as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and that applies irrespective of the location of the service.

Thanks. That brings us to the close of the question and answer and to the close of our webinar.

Thank you everyone for taking the time out of your day to join our webinar.

We hope you found it valuable as you plan for 2026.

If you have a mobile phone to hand, we'd appreciate your feedback by a very short optional survey using the QR code on the screen.

If I just go to the final slide, this is important contact information.

So we realised there was a lot of information presented today.

It's not your only opportunity to engage with us, of course.

Please contact the team and have a look at our web page.

We're always adding more information to the web page. At the moment you'll find, importantly, the program guidelines and other resources on there.

We've also recently added a PDF flyer for families and a template letter for families to the website and further resources,questions frequently asked questions and the video of this webinar will be posted to the website shortly.

Also, of course, you can always contact the team for questions that you have about Start Strong and in particular, funding for your service.

That brings us to a close now.

Thank you very much for attending and I hope you have a wonderful day.