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The program operates on a calendar year, from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026.

All four funding streams 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment, 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment, 4YO+ Program Payment and 3YO Program Trial Payment will be paid in four equal quarterly instalments:

1. Quarter 1 payments (January to March 2026) expected by 19 December 2025

2. Quarter 2 payments (April to June 2026) expected by 30 April 2026

3. Quarter 3 payments (July to September 2026) expected by 31 July 2026

4. Quarter 4 payments (October to December 2026) expected by 31 October 2026

Funding will not be paid unless the provider has accepted the Early Childhood Outcomes Commissioned Programs 鈥� Funding Agreement 鈥� Terms and Conditions 鈥� 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026 (2026 Terms and Conditions) in ECCMS. See Section 7 Calculation and Payment of funding of the guidelines for more information.

You are not required to apply for the 2026 Start Strong for LDC program. The department determines eligibility of funded services based on June 2025 Child Care Subsidy (CCS) Data and their ability to meet the eligibility criteria. We will conduct checks to identify eligible new services and their providers based on the February 2026 CCS Data and June 2026 CCS Data or other available CCS data. See Section 6.4 Identifying eligible services and assessment of eligibility process and Section 13.1 New services of the guidelines for more information.

If you have a new service, you can contact us at ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au and tell us the provider name, provider ID, service name, service ID, service address and the date that you opened or plan to open in 2026.

Funding is calculated on enrolment data, not attendance. 2026 Start Strong for Long Day Care program funding is calculated from the NSW enrolment Child Care Subsidy (CCS) enrolment data provided by the Australian Government from the representative week of 23 June to 29 June 2025 (June 2025 Data).

SEIFA is a product that enables the assessment of the welfare of Australian communities. The indexes are produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Decile 1 contains the most disadvantaged areas and Decile 10 contains the most advantaged areas. The department emailed providers with the SEIFA deciles for each service in their 2026 annual funding allocation letter in December 2025. See Section 21: Glossary of Terms of the guidelines for more information.

ARIA+ is a measure of remoteness divided into 5 classifications

• Major Cities
• Inner Regional
• Outer Regional
• Remote
• Very Remote.

See Section 21: Glossary of Terms of the guidelines for more information.

No, SEIFA deciles and ARIA+ classifications cannot be changed.

SEIFA is developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. ARIA+ is the primary indicator of remoteness produced by the University of Adelaide and used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Funding amounts in your funding allocation letter and in ECCMs do not include GST and are listed as 鈥榚xclusive of GST鈥�. The department will calculate the GST payable by the provider and add this to any amounts on the Payment Advice and send a Recipient Created Tax Invoice (RCTI) if the provider is registered for GST.

It is then the responsibility of the provider to send GST received to the Australian Taxation Office.

You can reconcile and check each payment to the provider using the Payment Advice, the funding allocation letter and the payment amount under the service鈥檚 funding specification in ECCMS.

The department will send the provider a Payment Advice for each payment made.

The department emailed the 2026 funding allocation letter to providers from 5 December 2025 for each service.

You can reconcile and check payment amounts for each service in ECCMS against the Payment Advice and funding allocation letter.

Follow these instructions to log in to ECCMS to view payments for each service:

To log into ECCMS, access the portal link and log in using your myID.

• On the ECCMS menu, click Funding Specification.
• Click the funding specification Start Strong for LDC (SSL) with the End Date of 31/12/2026 for the service.
• Click the Payments tab.
• View the payments made for each service. The payment type can be identified in the Schedule Name column.
• The Document number will match the Payment Advice.

More information is included in ECCMS Frequently Asked Questions and ECCMS User Guide.

The amount that will appear in your bank account is the Total Remittance amount on the Payment Advice. This is the sum of each amount listed in the Payment Advice.

Your Payment Advices and RCTIs are sent to the provider鈥檚 SAP Vendor email address. The SAP Vendor email address is the email address the provider first listed when setting up the provider ABN and bank account details on the EFT form. This email address may be different from the provider鈥檚 current contact details in ECCMS.

If you have not received your Payment Advice or RCTI please first check your spam and junk email folders in the Vendor email address.

Please email the department at ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au if you wish to change the SAP Vendor email address for your Payment Advices and RCTIs. You cannot change this email address in ECCMS as the change must be done for your Vendor record in SAP.

No, the department does not adjust 2026 funding allocations if your 2026 enrolments have changed. You may get a program payment 鈥榯op-up鈥� payment if you have an increase in Equity enrolments between June 2025 CCS Data and February 2026 CCS Data.

Equity enrolments are defined as:

1. Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children in any service

2. all services located in SEIFA deciles 1 and 2.

The department calculates the Equity enrolment 鈥榯op up鈥� amount by comparing February 2026 CCS Data to June 2025 CCS data. The 鈥榯op up鈥� amount is paid by 1 December 2026. See Section 7.6. Adjustments of the guidelines for more information.

Services use the 4YO+ Program Payment and 3YO Program Trial Payment in several ways to improve the quality of the preschool program they provide and support the capability uplift of early childhood teachers and educators. All program payment spending should directly support the delivery of high-quality early childhood education and care to align with the 7 Quality Areas of National Quality Standards (NQS). This ensures that every expenditure contributes to ongoing service improvement and positive outcomes for children.

Examples include:

• paying the salary and wages for Early Childhood Teachers and educators to deliver a quality early childhood education program; or
• purchase functional or educational resources or equipment.

Funding must be spent by 31 December 2026.

You cannot spend more than the program payment funding amounts paid to your service. You will not be entitled to an adjustment if you spend more program funding than was paid to your service.

Please check the purpose of your spending under Section 9.1 4YO+ Program Payment and 3YO Program Trial Payment spending rules in the guidelines.

Program payment funding can be used in any combination of the spending rules listed.

You can spend program funding for a particular purpose if you are confident it is consistent with the spending rules. If you are not confident it is consistent with the spending rules, please choose another purpose.

The department is not able to provide specific advice on whether a provider鈥檚 operational decision about spending for a particular purpose is consistent with the spending rules. The department鈥檚 role is to give general guidance about the spending rules under the program guidelines to support a provider make its own operational decisions.

Please retain records or documents as evidence of expenditure and provide it to the department if requested for the purposes of reporting or funding compliance reviews.

You can only spend 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment funding for fee relief. You can only spend fee relief up to the maximum amount of fee relief for any eligible child at one service at any given time.

You cannot use fee relief funding for program expenses such as salaries or wages or educational resources. This is the same spending rule introduced with the 2024 guidelines and in the 2025 guidelines.

You cannot use 4YO+ Fee Relief Payments for 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payments or vice versa.

You use the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment to reduce the cost of early childhood education for families with eligible children. The 4YO+ Fee Relief and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payments must be applied as a weekly reduction to a family鈥檚 session fee or gap fee after the Child Care Subsidy has been applied, divided equally across the total service operating weeks for the calendar year.

Fee relief must be spent by 31 December 2026.

No, 2026 Fee relief payments cannot be used to backpay families for 2025 fee relief. 2026 fee relief payments must be spent on fee relief between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2026.

No, 2026 fee relief payments cannot be carried over for 2027 fee relief. 2026 fee relief payments can only be spent between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2026.

No, if you are a provider with more than one service, you cannot transfer any fee relief or program funding from one service to another.

In 2026, there will be two 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
  • $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
  • $423 per year for children aged 3 years old

The 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment are calculated:

• as an annual flat rate allocation per enrolment for eligible children as per Table 1
• irrespective of the number of hours the child is enrolled per week.
• at the same rate for not-for-profit and for-profit services.

A child is eligible for maximum funding if one of the following criteria is met:

1. All Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children, or

2. Children that attend a service:

• located in an Inner Regional, Outer Regional, Remote and Very Remote region, or
• located in a socio-economic disadvantaged area (SEIFA Decile 1 or 2) or
• operated by an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation

Table 1: Fee relief rates (irrespective of the number of hours the child is enrolled per week)

Fee relief must be applied as a weekly reduction to a family鈥檚 session fee after CCS has been applied, divided equally across the total service operating weeks for the calendar year.

You can only spend fee relief up to the maximum amount of fee relief for any eligible child at one service at any given time.

No, the amount of fee relief or program funding paid to the service does not change because a family chooses to access fee relief at another service. The total amount of funding is not dependant on the number of children nominating to receive fee relief at your service.

Fee relief begins from the date the child is enrolled. When a child enrols 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鈥檚 only applied from the week the child鈥檚 enrolment begins.

This also means that unspent fee relief funds for the child before the date of enrolment become Remaining Fee Relief funds.

Example: 4YO+ Fee Relief for a child enrolled from May 2026 for 30 operating weeks

The Ahmad family enrol their 4-year-old child to a long day care preschool program for 2 days per week located in a Major Cities location in inner Sydney with a daily session fee of $110. The family is not yet receiving the Child Care Subsidy (CCS), leaving the family to pay a weekly fee of $220.

The service has a SEIFA Decile of 6. The enrolment commences in May 2026, with their child enrolled for 30 weeks out of the total 50 operating weeks.

Using the funding rate of $1,783 for all other children, the service would calculate the weekly fee relief as $35.66 ($1,783 梅 50 = $35.66).

The weekly fee is $220 ($110 x 2 = $220). Apply weekly fee relief of $35.66 which means the session or gap fee is $184.34 per week.

The Ahmad family will be eligible to receive up to $1,069.80 in 4-year-old fee relief for 2026 over the 30 weeks of enrolment ($35.66 x 30 = $1,069.80). This is applied as a weekly reduction to the session fee or gap fee after CCS has been applied.

Remaining fee relief funds are $713.20 ($1,783 鈥� $1,069.80 = $713.20). Unspent Remaining fee relief funds may need to be returned to the department.

Yes. The location of the service does not impact fee relief eligibility for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children.

A child is eligible for maximum fee relief funding where a family identifies as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. This applies to all services in NSW irrespective of location.

See Section 7.1 Definition of children eligible for maximum funding of the guidelines for more information.

The number of hours or days enrolled does not change the calculation of an eligible child鈥檚 fee relief weekly reduction. A child receives the same weekly fee relief amount irrespective of the number of hours the child is enrolled per week. This means they receive the same weekly fee relief if they are enrolled 2 days a week, 1 day a week, or as a casual enrolment. Fee relief is provided as a weekly reduction across your service鈥檚 total operating weeks for the calendar year after CCS has been applied.

Approved providers may give priority to enrolments for 600 hours or more and consider the hours children are enrolled at other funded services when making enrolment decisions. However, particular community and family needs will also be relevant. See Section 11.1 Priority of access for more information.

Fee relief is calculated on enrolment not attendance. The amount of fee relief does not change if a child is sick and does not attend one of their enrolled days. You still apply the same weekly fee relief amount for the child.

Yes, Start Strong for Long Day Care fee relief will have no impact on the amount of CCS families receive. Fee relief is applied as a weekly reduction to a family鈥檚 session fee or gap fee after CCS has been applied. Visit the Calculating fee relief payments webpage for case study examples of how to calculate and apply fee relief.

Yes, citizenship, permanent resident status or visa status are not taken into consideration for eligibility of children for funding under Start Strong for Long Day Care.

See Section 6.5 Child eligibility criteria of the guidelines for more information.

Yes, families do not have to be eligible or receiving CCS to be eligible for Start Strong funding. The child must be a confirmed enrolment in the service data you report in the CCS System.

See Section 6.5 Child eligibility criteria of the guidelines for more information.

Where a family鈥檚 session fees or 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 amount of fee relief for that child. Levies are additional charges that a service may apply to families on top of regular daily fees.

Remaining fee relief funds from the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment for the eligible child may then be used to cover any shortfall in total 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment funding to the service for other eligible 4YO+ children.

Remaining fee relief funds from the 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment for the eligible child may then be used to cover any shortfall in total 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment funding to the service for other eligible 3YO children.

If there are unspent Remaining fee relief funds after covering the shortfall, these funds may need to be returned to the department.

See Section 9.7 Remaining fee relief funds of the guidelines for more information.

Providers are required to manage their fee relief funds based on the changing number of enrolments and families/carers who claim fee relief from their service.

Remaining fee relief funds are when:

1. A service鈥檚 enrolments are lower than the number of funded places. This can happen in situations such as:

o A child leaves the service, creating a vacancy

o A family chooses not to receive fee relief from the service

o 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.

2. A family鈥檚 session or 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 amount of fee relief for that child.

Remaining fee relief funds from the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment for the eligible child may then be used to cover any shortfall in total 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment funding to the service for other eligible 4YO+ children, and only up to the maximum eligible fee relief rate applicable to each other child.

Any remaining funds from the 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment for the eligible child may then be used to cover any shortfall in total 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment funding to the service for other eligible 3YO children, and only up to the maximum eligible fee relief rate applicable to each other child.

If there are unspent 4YO+ Fee Relief and/or 3YO Fee Relief Trial funds after covering the shortfall, these may need to be returned to the department.

Services can no longer use remaining fee relief funds to reduce other children鈥檚 fees at the service鈥檚 discretion.

The term 鈥楻emaining fee relief funds鈥� replaces the terms 鈥楻eserved鈥�, 鈥楽urplus鈥� and 鈥楿nexpended鈥� funds.

Step 1: You can use program payments as an interim measure for fee relief

4YO+ Program Payment funds can be used as an interim measure to provide fee relief to families of eligible children where the initial 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment allocation does not cover the number of eligible children accessing fee relief.

3YO Program Trial Payment funds can be used as an interim measure to provide fee relief to families of eligible children where the initial 3YO Fee Relief Payment allocation does not cover the number of eligible children accessing fee relief.

Step 2: The 2026 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment adjustment or 鈥榯op up鈥� process will open from late January 2027.

The voluntary fee relief adjustment or 鈥榯op up鈥� process for fee relief payments under 2026 Start Strong for Long Day Care will open from late January 2027 and close by mid-March 2027. If you need a 2026 fee relief funding top up for a particular service, you need to submit fee relief data once for the reporting period 1 January to 31 December 2026 in ECCMS. The department will send more information about this process in December 2026.

See Section 7.6.2 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Top Up Payment of the guidelines for more information.

Note: A deficit in fee relief funds identified by the provider in the 2026 financial accountability statement is not used to calculate a fee relief adjustment or 鈥榯op up鈥� payment.

Only the voluntary fee relief adjustment or 鈥榯op up鈥� process is used for the calculation of 鈥榯op-up鈥� fee relief.

The department is aware some service鈥檚 enrolment policy requires children to transition to compulsory schooling at age 4 or 4.5 and part way through the 2026 calendar year funding.

4YO+ Fee Relief funding only applies if the child is 鈥榓ttending an eligible early childhood education program鈥� and 鈥榠s not yet in compulsory schooling.鈥�

This means that 4YO+ Fee Relief payments cease at the date that a child commences compulsory schooling. The remaining portion of fee relief would be considered as remaining fee relief funds. This will need to be reported in the 2026 financial accountability statements and may need to be returned to the department.

No, if ACCS covers the entire fee relief, there is no need to provide fee relief to these children. These fee relief funds become remaining fee relief funds and may need to be returned to the department.

Yes, currently enrolled children who are not yet in compulsory schooling are eligible for fee relief in 2026 provided they meet child eligibility criteria and have completed a 2026 Fee relief declaration and consent form. Once this child leaves the service to attend school, the fee relief allocated to them is considered remaining fee relief funds until the next eligible child takes up that enrolment.

3YO Fee Relief starts from the date of enrolment. You provide 3YO Fee Relief from their first day of enrolment at the service in 2026 for the whole calendar year. You do not have to wait until the child turns 3. The child will get 4YO+ fee relief from 1 January 2027.

A new Age Checker tool (XLS 53 KB) is available to help services understand how a child鈥檚 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.

No. If a child is 4 years old on, or before, 31 July 2026 they will receive the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment from their first day of enrolment at the service in 2026 for the whole calendar year.

An example is a child starting their enrolment at a Long Day Care service on 9 February 2026. The child is turning 4 years old on 5 June 2026 and is eligible to receive the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment from 9 February 2026 for the whole calendar year.

A new Age Checker tool (XLS 53 KB) is available to help services understand how a child鈥檚 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.

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

Unspent remaining fee relief payments may need to be returned to the department.

No, fee relief funds cannot be used on program payments such as staff salaries and educational resources.

Unspent remaining fee relief funds may need to be returned to the department.

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, and
• have an Australian Government Complying Written Agreement (CWA) in place.

The service should work with the child鈥檚 parents to split the one allocation of fee relief and ensure that this is reflected in each parent invoice.

No, families can only access fee relief at one eligible service at any given time. At each service their child is enrolled, families must complete a Fee relief 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 Long Day Care and Start Strong for Community Preschools, families can only access fee relief from one funding program. Families must complete a Start Strong for Long Day Care Fee relief 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 10. Children enrolled at multiple services of the guidelines for more information.

Services are not responsible for repaying to the department any fee relief funding that has been incorrectly requested or paid to families.

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

At each service where their child is enrolled, families must complete a new Fee relief declaration and consent form to confirm changes 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 Fee relief declaration and consent form and return it to the current service indicating that the family has chosen another service to receive fee relief
• complete another Fee relief declaration and consent 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 Fee relief declaration and consent forms for compliance purposes.

Yes, a family can still access fee relief in a long day care service by completing the Fee relief declaration and consent form.

Department Preschools are not providing fee relief directly to families, and this is a different process.

Providers are not permitted to increase their service鈥檚 fees to offset the benefit of the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment or 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment.

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.

The Fee relief declaration and consent form is for families to apply for NSW Government fee relief for eligible 3-year-old and 4-year-old children enrolled in NSW long day care services. It also gives your consent to your service to share personal information with the department.

Fee relief declaration and consent forms should be completed prior to children attending your service in 2026 or upon enrolment in 2026.

This will ensure fee relief is provided to families from their first week of enrolment.

You cannot provide fee relief to an eligible child unless the family has completed the Fee relief declaration and consent form.

Yes, families of eligible children must complete a new Fee relief declaration and consent form every year. Families will need to complete a separate form for each eligible child enrolled at your service.

The Fee relief declaration and consent form obtained from families for 2025 Start Strong for Long Day Care does not apply to 2026 Start Strong for Long Day Care.

You cannot give a child fee relief unless the family has completed 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.

Yes, you can choose to back pay fee relief. It is at the discretion of the service whether to back date fee relief by applying a credit to the family鈥檚 account.

If a service has sufficient fee relief funding, you can back date funding to the beginning of the child鈥檚 enrolment in 2026.

You should record why a family was delayed in completing a Fee relief declaration and consent form.

Yes, a family must 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.

Providers must keep completed Fee relief declaration and consent forms for each year of funding under the funding agreement (Terms and Conditions). The provider must retain all records (electronic or hardcopy versions) for 7 years if the provider ceases to operate or after the end of the funding agreement. See Section 8.4 Retention of Records under the 2026 funding agreement (Terms and Conditions) in ECCMs.

You do not need to send the Fee relief declaration and consent forms to the department unless requested.

If you have a new service, please contact us at ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au and tell us the provider name, provider ID, service name, service ID, service address and the date that you opened or plan to open in 2026.

We will then email you with the information for the cohort of services who opened during the relevant quarter or time period.

Funding to new services is not immediate or guaranteed. The department relies on NSW CCS enrolment data from the Australian Government to determine eligibility of funding and funding calculations.

The department will conduct checks to identify eligible new services, and their providers based on the February 2026 CCS Data and June 2026 CCS Data or other available CCS data. The department may conduct an application process in 2026 if applicable. Providers with services that opened and are providing education to enrolled and attending children may be eligible for funding and may receive email communication from the department.

Providers should note that the service鈥檚 opening date may be later than the service approval date.

The department must confirm provider and service eligibility and must conduct due processes before payments are made to new services.

1. The provider must accept the 2026 Funding Agreement (Terms and Conditions) in ECCMS. The department will send this email to the provider when the provider has been set up in ECCMs.
2. Visit our home page 2026 Start Strong for Long Day Care for an overview of the program and watch the 2026 Long Day Care Information Video.
3. Review the 2026 Start Strong for Long Day Care program guidelines.
4. Review the 4YO+ Program Payment and 3YO Program Trial Payment spending rules. Program payments are paid to the service to support quality uplift and spending includes salaries for Early Childhood Teachers and educational resources.
5. Review the 4YO+ Fee Relief Payment and 3YO Fee Relief Trial Payment spending rules. Fee relief is passed onto families and cannot be used by the service for program payment spending.
6. Review the 2026 Start Strong for Long Day Care annual funding allocation letter sent to the provider. This letter contains the Provider and Service profile, and the fee relief rates that apply to your service.
7. Use the Age Checker tool (XLS 53 KB) to find out the age of a child and which fee relief rate applies for the whole 2026 calendar year.
8. Collect a signed and completed Fee relief declaration and consent form (PDF 386 KB) for each eligible 4YO+ and 3YO child.
9. Calculate and apply fee relief to each child鈥檚 statement as a weekly reduction across your service鈥檚 total operating weeks for the calendar year after CCS has been applied. Refer to our Calculating fee relief payment web page for Case Studies on how to calculate fee relief.
10. Contact your CCS software vendor to ensure that the software can support different fee relief rates.
11. Manage your program payment expenditure. You cannot spend more program payments than you have been funded. Unspent program payment funds may need to be returned to the department through the annual financial accountability statement process.
12. Manage your fee relief expenditure. Refer to our 鈥楩ee Relief鈥� section on this page. Unspent remaining fee relief funds may need to be returned to the department.

No, funding is not transferable across services.

A transferring approved provider must return any unspent funds to the department within the timeframe advised by the department. The transferring approved provider must not under any circumstances transfer any unspent 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 means.

You may choose to provide fee relief from the transfer effective date. However, you are not required to provide fee relief to the families of eligible children at the service before:

• service eligibility has been confirmed, or
• the receiving approved provider has accepted the 2026 Funding Agreement in ECCMS, or
• the service receives Fee Relief Payment funding into the nominated bank account.

The receiving approved provider is responsible for any business consequences of an operational decision to provide fee relief to families 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 from the transfer effective date.

You cannot provide fee relief to families before the transfer effective date.
There is no guarantee the receiving approved provider will receive any funding in 2026.

The Transition to School Digital Statement is a mandatory requirement of the 2026 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.

Yes, you still need to collect the Transition to School Digital Statement. These are 2 different processes with different forms.

No, fee relief does not have to be returned by the family.

If a parent or carer does not provide consent, you cannot create a Transition to School Digital Statement for their child. Services should record when Transition to School Digital Statement consent is not provided for eligible children accessing fee relief funding and retain for funding compliance.

No, a Transition to School Digital Statement is not required if a family has stated in their Fee relief declaration and consent form that they are not claiming fee relief from your service.

A key objective of Start Strong is to support quality uplift and ensure children have access to high quality early childhood education programs that drive improved outcomes. A rating of 鈥榤eeting鈥� the National Quality Standard is the minimum standard expected for quality service delivery.

Services that receive Start Strong funding and do not meet the National Quality Standard may be directed to participate in quality improvement programs to lift their rating. The department may withhold funding to services that consistently do not achieve a 鈥渕eeting鈥� rating.

Services may be directed to participate in quality improvement activities facilitated by the NSW Early Learning Commission (formerly the NSW Early Childhood 糖心vlog官网 and Care Regulatory Authority).

This may involve support such as resources (ECEC Resource Library鈥痑苍诲鈥�Sector Strengthening Partnership), professional learning (鈥痑苍诲鈥�Early childhood careers hub), or mandatory participation by a service and/or provider in quality uplift activities or in the department鈥檚鈥�Quality Support Program鈥痮r any other program, to lift ratings to 鈥楳eeting鈥� or above, as directed.

There are many resources in the鈥�ECEC Resource Library鈥痺hich may be helpful including webpages on regulatory guidance to uplift quality practice across all Quality Areas (QAs), or read more information about QAs.

More Information on Quality Support Programs can be found on the NSW Early Learning Commission website. You can also contact the NSW Early Learning Commission by email at information@earlylearningcommission.nsw.gov.au or telephone 1800 619 113 (toll free).

Please retain these funds. These funds may need to be returned to the department.

The department began issuing Return of Funds letters for the 2023 funding year, from mid-2025. The remaining Return of Funds letters for the 2023 funding year will be issued in early 2026.

Return of Funds letters for the 2024 funding year will be issued later in 2026.

Please retain these funds. You record unspent 2025 funds in the 2025 annual financial accountability statement released in ECCMs in approximately May 2026. See further information below. These funds may need to be returned to the department. The department expects to issue Return of Funds letters for the 2025 funding year in 2027.

The department will email providers about the opening of the 2025 financial accountability statement in approximately May 2026. Providers must submit a financial accountability statement in ECCMS for each individual service which has received funding. Submitting financial accountability statements helps to provide assurance that public funds have been spent for their intended purpose.

The department will email providers about the opening of the 2026 financial accountability statement in approximately May 2027.

Note: A deficit in fee relief funds identified by the provider in the 2026 financial accountability statement is not used to calculate a fee relief adjustment or 鈥榯op up鈥� payment.

Only the voluntary fee relief adjustment or 鈥榯op up鈥� process is used for the calculation of 鈥榯op-up鈥� fee relief.

The voluntary fee relief adjustment or 鈥榯op-up鈥� process for 2025 Start Strong for Long Day Care will open from 29 January 2026 and close by mid- March 2026. If you need a 2025 fee relief funding top up for a particular service, you need to submit fee relief data once for the reporting period 1 January to 31 December 2025 in ECCMS. The department will email providers with more information about this process by 23 January 2026.

A deficit that you identify when you complete the 2025 financial accountability statement is not used to calculate the 2025 fee relief 鈥榯op up鈥� payment.

Only the 2025 voluntary fee relief adjustment or 鈥榯op up鈥� process is used for the calculation of 鈥榯op-up鈥� fee relief.

ECCMS provides a secure portal for service providers to access information about funding for each service.

Any amount between $0.50 and $2 in ECCMS is simply an administration placeholder so your funding specification can be set up in ECCMS. No action is required.

It does not represent your funding amount. The funding amount will be provided when your payments are uploaded into ECCMS.