The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) has released information and guidelines for Long Day Care services to apply for a one-off grant to assist in the transition to the National Quality Framework.
The $5 million Long Day Care National Quality Framework Transition Support One-off Grant is to support Long Day Care services in disadvantaged areas to meet the requirements of the National Quality Agenda for Early Childhood Education and Care.
One-off grants of $5,000 for around 1000 Long Day care centres in the most disadvantaged areas will be available during 2011–12 to fund services to undertake quality improvements in preparation for the implementation of the transition to the National Quality Framework. To be eligible, services will need to be identified as from a low-socio economic or highly-disadvantaged area as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Socio-Economic for Areas (SEIFA) Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage based upon the 2006 Census of Population and Housing.
Eligible services will be able to use the new funds to support a range of activities to assist them to prepare for the implementation of the National Quality Framework, including:
For more information view the Grant Fact Sheet or Application Guidelines
About the National Quality Framework
The National Quality Framework will be implemented on 1 January 2012 and will set a new National Standard for centre based services including Long Day Care. Some of the changes in educator to child ratios and qualifications are being implemented to allow services to adjust, however all services will need to meet the new regulatory requirements from 1 January 2012.
