2025 Start Strong for Long Day Care

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 eligible long day care services in New South Wales.

On this page

Key information

Status: Open
Grant amount: Funding will be calculated based on enrolment information.
Application opened: 1 January 2025
Application closes: 31 December 2025

Program objective

The 2025 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 eligible long day care services in NSW. The program value is approximately $340 million to $370 million.

The 2025 Start Strong for Long Day Care program operates on a calendar year from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Initial funding allocations for eligible services are generally calculated based on NSW enrolment data provided by the Australian Government from the representative week of 24 June to 30 June 2024 (June 2024 Data).

Funding is provided for children in the 2 years before school and incentivises enrolments of 600 hours per year. Evidence shows that this level of participation in a quality early childhood education program in the 2 years before school is associated with better outcomes for children.

Start Strong for Long Day Care provides funding through 4 streams:

program funding for children aged 4 and above (4YO+ Program Payment), scaled for enrolments above and below 600 hours, with loadings for:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
- services located in areas of relative socio-economic disadvantage.
fee relief for families of children aged 4 and above (4YO+ Fee Relief Payment)
program funding for children aged 3 (3YO Program Trial Payment) with loadings for:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
- services located in areas of relative socio-economic disadvantage.
fee relief for families of children aged 3 (3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment).

Start Strong for Long Day Care supports eligible services to:

improve the service they provide through supporting capability uplift of early childhood teachers (ECTs) and educators, the attraction and retention of ECTs and educators, 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.

This program is administered by Department of Education.

Eligibility

Who can apply

To be considered eligible for funding under any of the Start Strong for Long Day Care funding streams, a provider must:

have service approval for its service/s to operate under either:
- the Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010 (National Law) and operate as a centre-based service and have checked the long day care Nature of Care field under Service Details on the National Quality Agenda IT System (NQAITS), or
- the Children (Education and Care Services) National Law Application Act 2010 (NSW), the Children (Education and Care Services) Supplementary Provisions Act 2011 (NSW) or Children (Education and Care Services) Supplementary Provisions Regulation 2024 (NSW), and be a Multifunctional Aboriginal Children’s Service (MACS); an Occasional education and care service, or a Mobile education and care service
be approved to operate a service and administer the Child Care Subsidy under the Family Assistance Law and be operating and reporting as a Centre Based Day Care (CBDC) approval through the Child Care Subsidy System (CCSS)
deliver a quality early childhood education program to children aged 3 and above, that is:
- delivered by a qualified early childhood teacher (ECT) in accordance with the requirements under the National Quality Framework and
- using the Early Years Framework.

Note: the early childhood education program for 3-year-old children need only be developed by a qualified ECT in accordance with the requirements under the National Quality Framework

accept and comply with the Early Childhood Outcomes Programs and Local Operations – Funding Agreement – Terms and Conditions – 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 (Terms and Conditions).

Services must take reasonable steps to deliver 600 hours of quality preschool to children in the two years before school at their service.

The Start Strong for Long Day Care program is an open non-competitive program as this best supports the delivery of affordable quality preschool education for 3- to 5-year-old children enrolled in eligible long day care services in NSW.

The department determines eligibility of funded services annually (or more often where required) which is generally based on NSW enrolment data provided by the Australian Government from the representative week of 24 June to 30 June 2024 (June 2024 Data). The department may consider any other details provided by the provider or other parts of the department to assist in the determination of funding eligibility.

The eligibility of a service remains at the absolute discretion of the department consistent with the Start Strong for Long Day Care program guidelines.

Funding is generally approved as per financial delegations within the Department’s Early Childhood Outcomes division. This means, depending on the grant value, funding is approved by either the Manager, Start Strong for Long Day Care, the Director, Programs and Local Operations, the Executive Director, Early Childhood Outcomes or the Deputy Secretary, Early Childhood Outcomes.

Occasional education and care services regulated under the Children (Education and Care Services National Law Application) Act 2010 (NSW), or the Children (Education and Care Services) Supplementary Provisions Act 2011 (NSW) can receive funding under the Start Strong for Long Day Care program, subject to the above Start Strong eligibility being met.

Mobile education and care services regulated under the Children (Education and Care Services National Law Application) Act 2010 (NSW), Children (Education and Care Services) Supplementary Provisions Act 2011 (NSW), or Children (Education and Care Services) Supplementary Provisions Regulation 2024 (NSW) can receive funding under the Start Strong for Long Day Care program, subject to the above Start Strong eligibility being met.

Mobile education and care services funded through the Mobile Preschool Funding Program or Start Strong for Community Preschools program are not eligible for Start Strong for Long Day Care funding.

Applications for Start Strong for Long Day Care are not being accepted via the NSW Grants Finder webpage application.

Please email ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au if you have an enquiry about Start Strong for Long Day Care.