Hundreds of new preschool places will be delivered across NSW thanks to a $6 million grant to improve preschool infrastructure.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Minister for Early Childhood Education Sarah Mitchell announced the funding on September 21.
Ms Berejiklian says the grants will enable preschool services to build, extend or renovate facilities to increase preschool places where there is evidence of high need and growing demand.
“The NSW liberals and nationals government has reduced preschool fees, is improving the quality of services, and is meeting the demand for future enrolment growth through ongoing investment in infrastructure.
“We know the long term benefits of early childhood education. That is why we are continuing to invest in improving access for families in areas that need it the most. We want to ensure all children have access to top-quality early childhood education.”
The Start Strong Capital Works Grants program aims to increase the number of 600 hour community preschool places.
Eligible services can apply for funding through this program to build a new centre based community preschool, extend an existing community preschool, renovate existing or new premises for a centre based community preschool, purchase a motor vehicles for a mobile preschool, and respond to a crisis situation with a capital works project.
The investment is part of $42.1 million in capital works funding to extend the capital works program for another four years, creating more than 4000 additional preschool places in Sydney’s fastest growing areas.
Since the program was introduced in 2013, the NSW government has invested $28 million to help almost 70 preschools either extend their existing preschool or build a brand new one, adding more than 1500 places.
Earlier this year, the liberals and nationals announced nearly $200 million to extend community preschool subsidies to all three-year-olds in NSW – the first jurisdiction in Australia to do so.
Applications close November 2.
