This scheme provides capital assistance towards Independent and Catholic schools with the greatest need to help them cater for growing enrolments by building new or upgrading facilities.
Key information
- Status: Closed
- Grant amount: Funding is determined by the state budget process
- Application opened: 30 June 2022
- Application closed: 31 March 2023, 5:00 pm
Program objective
The Building Grant Assistance Scheme is a capital assistance grant for non-government schools in NSW to build, extend or upgrade their school facilities and accommodate more students in growing communities.
It is administered on behalf of the NSW Government by the NSW Catholic Block Grant Authority and the Association of Independent Schools of NSW Block Grant Authority.
Objectives of the Scheme
- Capital projects must be for the purpose of providing education and learning spaces at primary and/or secondary levels in non-government schools registered by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) under the Act.
- Funding under the Scheme is to be directed towards areas of greatest need (including financial need, demographic student projections, socio-economic characteristics and/or classification as a special school).
- Funding under the Scheme should be prioritised towards new schools and new capital developments undertaken to provide educational facilities for increased student enrolments.
- The scheme encourages joint planning for growth and opportunities for shared procurement and community use of facilities.
- Grants can only be provided for the provision of proper and adequate teaching facilities which are comparable in area and standard to those provided in an NSW government school.
This program is funded and administered by Department of Education.
Eligibility
Who can apply
To be eligible for assistance under the scheme, a non-government school must:
- be registered with the NSW Education Standards Authority
- operate on a ‘not-for-profit’ basis within the meaning of section 83C of the Education Act 1990
- be affiliated with one of the Block Grant Authorities
- demonstrate to their Block Grant Authority they are financially viable
- own the land or have a lease for the land and/or buildings that has a period to run commensurate with the period in which the grant may be required to be repaid if the school no longer provides school education.
What type of projects can be funded
Under the Building Grants Assistance Scheme, eligible non-government schools may apply for financial assistance for:
- new capital developments
- refurbishment of existing facilities.
Funding can only be used to:
- provide payments to non-government schools for approved capital projects
- to administer the scheme including the selection, assessment and monitoring the progress of the approved projects
- for a BGA Project as approved by the Minister (refer Administration of the Scheme (5))
- in special circumstances, purchase land, with or without buildings (or parts of buildings).
Assistance is also available for the following types of work:
- the preparation of sites associated with the building project
- the purchase of essential furnishings and equipment associated with the project
- architectural, engineering and other professional fees (except general legal and bank fees)
- essential ground improvements associated with the project
- costs associated with meeting Council development application conditions
- costs incurred to comply with government (local, state and Commonwealth) legislation.
What can't be funded?
Financial assistance will not be provided to meet expenditure related to any of the following:
- facilities which have religious worship as a principal purpose
- general maintenance (e.g. replacement of carpets, guttering, repainting of rooms)
- Government support for these costs is provided through the payment of recurrent financial assistance
- projects for which a contract for the project has been entered into or construction, including site works included in the scope of the project to be funded, has commenced prior to Ministerial approval.
What your application needs to include
Get more information:
1
Address the eligibility criteria
- To be eligible for assistance under the Scheme, a non-government school must be registered for funding assistance under the Act and must operate on a ‘not-for-profit’ basis within the meaning of section 83C of the Act.
- New schools may be recommended for assistance under the Scheme however funding must not be released to the school until its registration has been approved by NESA.
- Each non-government school must be affiliated with one of the BGAs referred to in Section 3. Contact information of the guidelines.
- Schools must demonstrate to the BGA that they are financially viable to be eligible for funding under the Scheme.
- To be eligible to apply for assistance under the Scheme, a non-government school should own the land or have a lease for the land and/or buildings that has a period to run commensurate with the period in which the grant may be required to be repaid if the school no longer provides school education (refer to Recovery Guidelines).
2
Address the assessment criteria
Each BGA must consider and demonstrate how the project meets each of the Objectives of the Scheme as follows:
- the socio-economic characteristics and/or classification as a special school. The BGA should explicitly consider the school’s SES, Capacity to Contribute, and parent fees and contributions based on recent MySchool data; and
- the project supports enrolment growth and/or enrolment maintenance in priority growth areas in line with the demographic student projections in the Department’s School Infrastructure NSW Student Projections report which is attached at Appendix A of the guidelines; and
- the school and its supporting community do not have the capacity to meet the total cost of the project. That includes consideration of the following:
- the condition and extent of the school’s existing facilities
- the facilities that are, or are likely to be, needed to provide the school’s curriculum or proposed curriculum
- the school community’s capacity to generate financial resources for capital projects including, for example, through donations, borrowings, fundraising and payment of fees.
After the application is submitted
Successful applications will be decided by: Minister for Education and Early Learning.
- There will be two submission rounds to the Minister each financial year:
- 30 September (main application round)
- 31 March (supplementary application round)
- by exception, out of round applications may be submitted to the Minister if there is an urgent need for application approvals outside of the above two rounds, provided sufficient funds still exist in that BGA’s allocation to fully fund the project.
- Each BGA will submit to the Department a project listing on the form provided showing the reasons for the recommended level of assistance for each grant including:
- school name and details
- estimated start and completion dates
- a brief description of each project identifying the major facilities to be provided and how it meets the Objectives of the Scheme
- the number of new classrooms and additional student places for each project (if applicable)
- an assessment of how each project met the Selection Criteria including the school’s SES, Capacity to Contribute, and parent fees and contributions based on recent MySchool data
- the project type (new construction or upgrade)
- the total costs for each project
- a summary of projected increase in student places by Local Government Area (LGA) and by each year subsequent to completion of the project.
- The Minister will review and approve the BGA proposals and reserves the right to initially advise the successful applicants.
- BGAs will be advised of the Minister’s approval.
Support and contact
Please contact your relevant Block Grant Authority.
For further information on the application process and requirements of the Scheme, please refer to the relevant BGA:
- NSW Catholic Block Grant Authority
- The Association of Independent Schools of NSW Block Grant Authority
For more general queries, please email the NSW Department of Education: ngsfu@det.nsw.edu.au.
Program evaluation
Projects approved under the Building Grants Assistance Scheme are published on the NSW Department of Education’s website.