CCCF funding will increase to support flood-impacted services in NSW and QLD

The Community Child Care Fund (CCCF) will receive a significant boost in acknowledgement of the  recent catastrophic floods and the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic Acting Minister for Education and Youth Stuart Robert has announced.

Funding available through the CCCF Special Circumstances grant program will be increased from $4 million per year to up to $22.4 million this financial year and $7.7 million in 2022-23.

Mr Robert said he hopes the funding boost will support a strong recovery for early childhood education and care (ECEC) services affected by the recent floods and the ongoing effects of COVID-19.

“Special Circumstances grants are available to help services recover from unexpected events such as the flooding that impacted communities all the way from south-east Queensland, Lismore and the New South Wales north coast down to Sydney and into parts of the New South Wales south coast,” Minister Robert said.

The grants can be used to help with the cost of repairing flood damage, temporary service relocation or staff salaries during periods of service closure and local emergency, with the Minister noting the importance of access to ECEC for families and communities as they work to repair the extensive damage caused by the floods.

“The Government’s recent commitment of a business continuity payment of $10,000 per child care service closed more than seven days will ease the financial pain for child care services suddenly hit by flood-recovery costs – and, importantly, ensure they can continue to provide child care for their local communities,” Minister for Regionalisation, Regional Communications and Regional Education, Senator Bridget McKenzie added.

To date, 130 services have applied for the $10,000 business continuity payment, which are due to be delivered to child care services over the next week. Special Circumstances funding is available to those services which sustained significant damage that puts their viability at risk.

“Special Circumstances funding is particularly important to support the re-opening of child care in flood-affected small outer-metropolitan and regional communities where there are already fewer child care options for families,” Minister McKenzie noted.

Applications can be made for CCCF Special Circumstances funding where a service is at risk of closing due to viability concerns, with funding determined on a case-by-case basis. Further information is available here.