{"id":22859,"date":"2023-09-14T01:22:53","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T01:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=22859"},"modified":"2023-09-14T01:22:53","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T01:22:53","slug":"families-to-benefit-from-500-of-preschool-fee-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2023\/09\/14\/families-to-benefit-from-500-of-preschool-fee-relief\/","title":{"rendered":"Families to benefit from $500 of preschool fee relief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Families of up to 64,000 NSW children will benefit from $500 in fee relief under the Minns Labor government\u2019s push to boost preschool education and provide cost of living relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is part of a more than $100 million package of initiatives to invest in early learning and enhance the sector\u2019s workforce, after opportunities in this important sector were missed by the Liberals and the Nationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Investment in quality early childhood education and care has lifelong benefits for NSW\u2019s youngest learners and is a key to enabling parental workforce participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The initiatives include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Fee relief:<\/strong>&nbsp;$64 million over 2 years to provide $500 in fee relief per child, per year for parents of 3-year-olds in long day care preschool programs.<\/li><li><strong>Flexibility for families:<\/strong>&nbsp;$20 million for the Flexible Initiatives trial to expand access to early childhood education and care, extended hours and assist parents re-entering the workforce.<\/li><li><strong>New services:<\/strong>&nbsp;$20 million in capital funds to support new not-for-profit services in high-growth and regional communities.<\/li><li><strong>Workforce:<\/strong>&nbsp;$22 million over 5 years to recruit and retain essential early childhood workers including providing professional development and scholarships for tertiary education of early childhood workers.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Premier of NSW Chris Minns said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe were elected with a mandate to reinvest in essential services \u2013 and that includes giving children the best possible start in life, and a great education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s announcement is an important step towards ensuring all children in NSW have access to early education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe know how important early education is to a child\u2019s development. These are big reforms that will impact the way we deliver early education in NSW.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Deputy Premier and Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis government is committed to making sure all children in NSW get the best start in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAchieving that goal includes making the investments necessary to make preschool more affordable and accessible for all families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe also need to usher in a strong and reliable pipeline of early childhood workers, so our system is supported now and into the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAttending preschool is so important for young children\u2019s development, and the investments we make today will make a world of difference for these children\u2019s futures.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Families of up to 64,000 NSW children will benefit from $500 in fee relief under the Minns Labor government\u2019s push to boost preschool education and provide cost of living relief. This is part of a more than $100 million package of initiatives to invest in early learning and enhance the sector\u2019s workforce, after opportunities in &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2023\/09\/14\/families-to-benefit-from-500-of-preschool-fee-relief\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Families to benefit from $500 of preschool fee relief&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22860,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22859\/revisions\/22860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}