There is strong evidence that a lack of flexible early childhood education and care (ECEC) service offerings is a significant barrier to work and study for NSW families, particularly for parents and carers who are in part-time, casual or shift work.

We also know that ECEC services face a range of a barriers to meeting this need.

The 2-year Flexible Initiatives Trial has been especially designed to target these barriers by providing grants for early childhood education and care services to test and trial new or adapted operating models, including:

• extending hours of operation beyond traditional working hours
  

• providing flexible pick-up and drop-off times

• giving families the ability to make irregular care arrangements

• establishing new family day care services in rural and remote areas

• partnerships between 2 different service types to provide extended or wrap around care arrangements.

Applications

Applications for grants under the program are open to all eligible ECEC service providers offering education and care for children aged 0-6 in New South Wales.

If you are a prospective applicant for a Flexible Initiatives Trial grant, we encourage you to:

• register to attend an online information session at 12pm on Friday 10 May or 10:30 am Thursday 23 May 2024
• read the detailed program guidelines to understand everything you need to know before applying
  • Please note the program guidelines have changed since round 1
• have a look at the example scenarios to get some ideas about what your service might do with a Flexible Initiatives Trial grant
• familiarise yourself with how to apply and look at the application questions
• contact our team with any questions or if you need help.

Key dates

Round 2 of the Flexible Initiatives Trial is now open.

Contact

Early Childhood Education Information and Enquiries team
1800 619 113
ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au