Building Early Education Fund – Small Scale Market Sounding – In Venue FDC

This is a selective market sounding exercise to determine the interest of not-for-profit providers and local governments in modifying existing buildings to meet the requirements to be able to operate (or partner with a Family Day Care (FDC) provider to operate) in-venue FDC services.

Building Early Education Fund

The Australian Government is investing $1 billion through the Building Early Education Fund (the Building Fund) to build and expand early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres in areas of need.    

The Building Fund includes:   

• $500 million in targeted capital funding, delivered through multiple rounds, to establish new services and increase the capacity of existing ECEC services.
• $500 million (additional) provisioned for future Commonwealth investment in owning and leasing a portfolio of ECEC centres to increase the supply of services, with $2.3 million over two years from 2025–26 to undertake a business case to inform final design.  

Funding will be focused on state and territory governments, local governments and not-for-profit providers with a history of high-quality ECEC provision. It will be targeted to priority and under-served markets, including regional areas. Where possible, services will be located on or near existing school sites.   

The Building Fund will invest in additional ECEC sites and places – it is not intended to cost-shift planned market investment.

More information about the Building Fund can be found here.

Future grant opportunity

One of the future sector grants rounds will be available to not-for-profit organisations and local governments to modify existing buildings to be able to operate (or partner with an FDC provider to operate) in-venue FDC services in areas of need. In-venue care is a type of FDC. Children are cared for by an educator at a venue other than the educator's home. Targeted capital funding will be available to deliver additional new ECEC places or services for Australian families in areas of need, over an extended period of time.

Information about future funding rounds will be made available in due course and on the department’s website.

This is not a grant application. The responses may inform the eligibility criteria for a future grant opportunity.

You may submit a response to the market sounding if your organisation is a not-for-profit (NFP) Child Care Subsidy (CCS) approved provider, First Nations led provider or local government.

Where the proposed provider and property owner are not one and the same, you may wish to consider providing a consolidated response.

What will funding be available for?

Targeted capital funding will be available to modify existing buildings to meet the requirements to deliver in-venue FDC in areas of need. For example, this may include funding for projects in areas where there is demonstrated need for ECEC, but the population base would not support a Centre Based Day Care service.

What are areas of need?

The Government is working with stakeholders to inform Building Fund design and identify priority locations. Priority areas will also be informed by analysis of relevant data on supply, need and disadvantage, as well as community advice.

What happens next?

You will receive a confirmation email upon completion of the form. The department will provide further information about the Building Fund, including future grant opportunities, in due course.

The department will use the responses submitted through the market sounding to inform the nature of a future small scale and in-venue FDC grant opportunity, including the eligibility criteria, the permitted use of grant funds (including the proposed locations), and timeframes.

A grant opportunity is then intended to commence. Achieving value for money in the context of each site, including delivering on the Building Fund’s objectives, will be a key factor in final funding decisions.

If your organisation is a CCS approved provider, this form must be completed by a registered person with management or control (PMC) of your provider OR a nominated individual.  Your application information must align with your CCS details. You can find information on updating your details here.  

To authorise a nominated individual to complete this market sounding form, your provider PMC must provide signed permission prior to completing this market sounding form (for example a declaration via email). Please upload this signed permission when prompted by the form below.

Documentary evidence is not required for the purposes of market sounding.

If you are a local government or other organisation who is interested in possibly supplying a premises for in-venue FDC you may still complete this market sounding form.

You have until 5pm AEDT on 11 December 2025 to submit a response to this market sounding exercise. Please start your response early – no extensions can be accommodated. However, the department may request further information from you after the deadline, at its sole discretion.