Accessing a 2024 Start Strong top up payment
Learn how to submit a voluntary data report to receive a 2024 Start Strong top up payment.
30 January 2025
The voluntary fee relief data submission process under 2024 Start Strong for Long Day Care is open from 30 January to 28 February 2025. Services only need to submit fee relief data if they need a 2024 fee relief funding top up payment because the funding received in 2024 was not enough to cover fee relief expenditure for all eligible children.
Next steps by 28 February 2025
If your service needs a 2024 fee relief funding top up, you need to submit fee relief data for the reporting period 1 January to 31 December 2024 in the Early Childhood Contract Management System (ECCMS) by 28 February 2025.
No action is required of you if you received enough fee relief funding in 2024, and do not need a fee relief top up payment.
Key dates
These dates are indicative only to assist providers with their planning and may be subject to change. Any changes will be communicated to providers that complete the submission.
| Activity | Dates |
|---|---|
| Reporting period | 1 January - 31 December 2024 |
| Submission period open | 30 January - 28 February 2025 |
| Department analysis of submissions | 3 - 28 March 2025 |
| Communication of outcomes and payment of eligible fee relief top up payments | From 31 March 2025 |
What’s new in 2024
The process for submitting 2024 fee relief data has been simplified to make it easier for all services to report their fee relief spending and receive a 2024 fee relief top up if needed. This is called a 2024 Fee Relief Adjustment Payment.
Please read through important updates to the process in 2024:
The process is voluntary. You only need to submit 2024 fee relief data if your service’s fee relief funding in 2024 was not enough to cover all eligible children. If you received sufficient fee relief funding, no action is required of you.
The fee relief reporting period covers 12 months, from 1 January to 31 December 2024. You only need to complete a single submission that covers your fee relief expenditure for the full 2024 calendar year.
A 2024 fee relief data submission template (XSL 188 KB) is available. You may opt to submit using the 2024 fee relief data submission template instead of the downloaded file from your software. The template enables services to manually submit all the data needed and in the correct format to determine if a fee relief top up is needed in 2024. Refer to the How to fill in the fee relief data submission template guide (PDF 1.1 MB) for instructions and an example on how to complete the fee relief submission template.
How to submit 2024 fee relief data
Your service’s fee relief data for the reporting period 1 January to 31 December 2024 must be submitted in ECCMS. Your Sp-Admin can submit fee relief data on the ‘2024 01Jan-31Dec’ data submission row on the service’s Start Strong for Long Day Care ( - SSL) funding specification.
Step by step instructions on how to submit the fee relief data in ECCMS are included below. Only submissions in ECCMS will be considered. Do not email your submission to the department.
- If you are the Sp-Admin user for the Approved Provider, log in to ECCMS using your myGovID. Note: the SP-Admin user is the only user able to submit fee relief data.
- On the ECCMS menu, click Funding Specification.
- Filter for Start Strong for Long Day Care funding specifications and click on the funding specification ending in “-SSL” that you need to submit fee relief data for.
- Click on the Data Submission tab and then on the 2024 01Jan-31Decc row. This will display a pop-up window with further instructions.
- Enter your service’s operating weeks in the designated text field labelled Operating weeks.
- Answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to indicate if your service needs a 4YO+ fee relief funding top up or 3YO fee relief funding top up.
- Click on Add Document. A pop-up window will appear, giving you the option to choose the file you wish to upload.
- Upload the fee relief data submission file.
- Read the declarations and complete the declaration checklist.
- Click on the Submit button to finalise the fee relief data submission process.
Before submitting, check that your submission is complete and accurate. Check that your submission:
- is for the period 1 January to 31 December 2024
- If you opened or sold this service in 2024, you only need to report on the period in 2024 that you operated the service
- contains all of the required data as per the 2024 technical specification for fee relief data reporting
- has headings that match the data names as per the 2024 technical specification for fee relief data reporting
- only contains consented personal information
- Your submission should only include eligible children, as per Section 3.2 Child eligibility criteria of the program guidelines, where consent has been given through a 2024 declaration and consent form (PDF 93.1 KB)
- You must remove enrolments where consent has not been provided. If your data contains any unconsented child or parent data, the department cannot use it to determine if your service/s require fee relief funding adjustment
- has no typos or blanks
- reports the fee relief total paid across the full 2024 calendar period and not the weekly reduction rate.
If your submission contains unusable data, the department at its discretion may either:
- require you to resubmit your service’s fee relief data, or
- progress only the usable portion of your submission and exclude rows that contain errors from your service’s fee relief top up calculations.
Why do services need to submit fee relief data?
The department will use the submitted fee relief data to assess the number of eligible children receiving fee relief at the service and calculate fee relief funding adjustments.
Services that do not submit fee relief data or accurate fee relief data cannot be considered for a 2024 fee relief funding top up.
Resources
Access the fee relief data submission guide (PDF 450 KB) to learn more about the process. This guide contains important information on how you can download fee relief data from your software, check its accuracy and completeness, and submit the verified data in ECCMS.
Access the 2024 fee relief data submission template (XSL 188 KB) and How to fill in the fee relief data submission template guide (PDF 1.1 MB) for a manual option to complete the submission.
Contact
If you require any further information, please contact the department by email at ecec.funding@det.nsw.edu.au.
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