The Victorian Government has significantly increased the funding available under the Capacity Building stream of its Building Blocks Grants program, for projects to be completed by June 2026.
For new facilities, the change represents a more than doubling of funding for the sector, as part of the grants stream’s funding increase for projects that create additional kindergarten places for 3- and 4-year-olds by building new, or expanding existing, infrastructure.
Through these changes, funding has been increased for:
- expansion projects, to $1 million
- new early learning facilities, to $4 million
- integrated children’s centres, to $4.5 million.
As part of the initiative, new grants of up to $150,000 are also available for project planning, scoping and design. This will further support the early childhood sector to plan and deliver vital infrastructure ahead of the roll-out of Pre-Prep.
Applications for Capacity building grants are open year-round and assessed in batches throughout the year. For more information, including details on how to apply, refer to Capacity building grants.
Kindergarten Infrastructure and Services Support Grants
In addition to the Building Blocks grants program expansion, the Victorian Government is also providing grant funding to local governments to support the update of Kindergarten Infrastructure and Services Plans (KISPs).
The grants will provide $5.2 million to support local government areas (LGAs) across the state to update KISPs, helping to identify when and where investment in early childhood infrastructure is required to support Three-Year-Old Kindergarten and Pre-Prep.
These new grants will help local governments to ensure KISPs remain a current and key planning document for the whole early childhood sector, ensuring more facilities are delivered to communities where and when they need them.
The grants will be provided in 3 tiers, to align with broadly projected demand for Pre-Prep:
- growth local government authorities ($105,000)
- metropolitan, interface and regional city local government authorities ($82,000)
- rural local government authorities ($42,000).
Find out more
For more information, refer to:
Updated