Building Early Education Fund – Market Sounding

This is a selective market sounding exercise to determine the capacity of large not-for-profit (NFP) providers, with a track record of delivering high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) services and demonstrated experience building ECEC centres at scale, to build or expand and operate multiple new 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 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 will not cost-shift planned market investment.

More information about the fund can be found here.

Future grant opportunity

One of the future sector grants rounds will be available for large not-for-profit providers capable of building or expanding and operating multiple new services, in areas of need. 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 meets the following criteria:

• your organisation is a not-for-profit (NFP) organisation 
• your organisation is a Child Care Subsidy (CCS) approved provider 
• your organisation currently operates 10 or more CCS-approved Centre-Based Day Care (CBDC) services, as of market sounding response.

We are looking to hear from organisations:

• with a strong track record of meeting requirements under the National Quality Framework (NQF) for the delivery of early childhood education and care (ECEC) 
• that consistently demonstrate compliance with the Family Assistance Law
• with interest and capacity to build or expand multiple (two or more) new CBDC services in areas of need
• with access to land, or capacity to acquire land
• with demonstrated experience building new ECEC services which comply with National Law requirements.

What will funding be available for?

Targeted capital funding will be available to build or expand additional new ECEC services in areas of need. For example, this may include funding for projects:

• in areas where new ECEC services would be viable, but there are currently barriers for organisations to access finance for new infrastructure.
• under consideration which could be expanded with capital co-contribution from the Building Fund to deliver additional places, for which there is sufficient demand.
• which expand existing services to deliver additional places, for which there is sufficient demand.
• where sites may have lower viability but meet an important demand and could be supported across a portfolio of new or existing ECEC services.

What are areas of need?

To determine priority areas, we will:

• analyse a range of sources including data on supply, need and disadvantage 
• work with state, territory and local governments and peak bodies 
• consult communities. 

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 the large scale grant opportunity with large NFP providers, including the eligibility criteria, the permitted use of grant funds (including the proposed locations), and timeframes.  

A grant opportunity will then be commenced. 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.

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.

Nominated Individuals

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 documentation when prompted by the form below.

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

You have until 5pm AEDT on 05 November 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.