Victoria announces $4.1m in funding to boost OSHC options for families

53 Victorian schools will share in more than $4.1 million in grants to establish a new outside school hours care (OSHC) service from Term 3 this year, Minister for Education James Merlino announced on Wednesday.

The grants will boost the availability of OSHC places for families, with schools set to receive up to $75,000 per year over the next four years for their OSHC service. The funding will help establish new services, and provide support for costs including resources or equipment, setup and administration, facility upgrades, small service viability and transport.

The number of schools providing access to OSHC services through these grants will increase by 2.3 per cent in Melbourne and 21.95 per cent in regional Victoria, with an overall increase of 7.52 per cent across the state.

This is the first round of grants to be awarded under the $81.6 million initiative announced in the Victorian Budget 2020/21 to establish up to 400 new OSHC services at government schools.

There will be another three application rounds between this year and 2023.

“By creating more outside school hours care services, we are helping parents and carers to get back to work, study, training or re-enter the workforce as part of Victoria’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic,” Mr Merlino said in closing. 

Further information about the grants is available here.