Worker retention payments for early child education and care providers
Provides worker retention payments to early childhood education and care (ECEC) service providers to help increase workers' wages.
The payment program runs for two years from 2024-12-02 to 2026-11-30 and funds wage increases and additional funding for on‑costs.
To be eligible providers must:
- be approved for Child Care Subsidy (CCS)
- operate Centre Based Day Care (CBDC) or Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) services (must operate at least one CBDC or OSHC service)
- engage workers through a workplace instrument that meets the grant conditions
- limit fee growth by a set percentage from August 2024
- and agree to pass funding on to all eligible workers through increased wages
Family Day Care (FDC) and In Home Care (IHC) providers are not currently eligible.
Preschools and kindergartens are not eligible.
The payment covers workers who are covered by either the Children’s Services Award 2010 or the Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020, or who primarily undertake the duties covered in either award but are covered by a different award or instrument (for example a state industrial instrument).
This may include early childhood teachers, educators, cooks, coordinators, room leaders, support workers, trainees and apprentices.
The workplace instrument must be compliant with grant conditions and must:
- include an obligation to pay workers at least 10% above current award rates
- provide for an additional 5% above applicable award rates from 1 December 2025
- and be in place until at least the end of the grant period
Fee growth caps (explicit):
- for most services the fee growth cap was 4.4% between 8 August 2024 and 7 August 2025
- is 4.2% between 8 August 2025 and 7 August 2026
- and will be based on the Childcare Services Cost Index from 8 August 2026 to 30 November 2026
For services that exceeded the initial 4.4% cap but wish to join the program from 1 December 2025, the fee growth cap is 8.6% between 8 August 2024 and 7 August 2026 (and no higher than 4.2% between 8 August 2025 and 7 August 2026) and will be based on the Childcare Services Cost Index between 8 August 2026 and 30 November 2026.
Applicants must be a person with management or control (PMC) and provide specified provider, PMC and staffing details in the SmartyGrants application.
Applicants must inform workers about workplace instruments (provide the factsheet for workers on GrantConnect) and will need to sign a declaration if approved.
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Last updated: 12 February 2026