School readiness funding

​​Extra support for kindergartens to help children to get the most out of their early learning.

Kindergartens to receive school readiness funding

All services with a funded kindergarten program, including long day care, are eligible to receive the funding.

School readiness funding will be rolled out to all Victorian kindergartens over the next three years. The areas in the first stage of the rollout will receive their funding in 2019. These represent around one-third of Victorian kindergartens.

Funding for my kindergarten

Kindergarten services in the first roll-out areas have now received advice on the amount of funding they will receive in 2019. The amount of additional funding kindergarten programs will receive is based on the educational disadvantage levels of the services. This is measured by parental education and occupation, as this is an accurate predictor of educational disadvantage and is the same approach used in schools to allocate ‘needs-based’ funding.

Funding for each service will range from:

• $1,000 for kindergartens with low levels of need and/or have small numbers of children
  
• to more than $200,000 for kindergartens with very high levels of need large numbers of children.

The funding is ongoing and will become a permanent part of how kindergartens are funded.

Kindergartens services across the state must continue to collect parents’ occupation and education information. This will allow us to better understand the educational needs of children and services across Victoria. This will help determine how funding will be allocated in future years.

How kindergartens can spend their funding

Services will spend most of their school readiness funding on items from the menu of evidence-informed programs and supports.

These are a range of resources that have been externally validated for how well they support children’s learning and development in the three priority areas .The menu includes:

• programs and services that target speech, language and literacy
• allied health (speech therapists, psychologists, occupational therapists)
• programs and services that support trauma informed practice, secure attachment and mental health
• resources and programs to support the social and emotional wellbeing of children
• support for cultural and linguistically diverse children and families
• support for parents to support their child’s development.

The menu includes information for kindergarten services to consider when planning for how to spend the funding, including ways to assess whether the item is the right fit for a particular service.

The menu is available to all services, regardless of when they will be receiving school readiness funding, and contains a number of free or low-cost resources with half of all items costing less than $1,000.

Access a preliminary version of the menu.

Extra support for kindergartens

New dedicated branches of early childhood support staff have been established in the six regions where school readiness funding is set to roll out in 2019.

These staff will be able to work with kindergarten services to plan for how best to use school readiness funding, and to support them throughout the roll-out phase.

For more information, contact the Early Childhood Improvement Branch of your regional office:

Brimbank Melton office
P: 4334 0593
E: swvr@edumail.vic.gov.au

Inner Gippsland office
P: 5127 0400
E: sevr@edumail.vic.gov.au

Mallee office
P: 1300 338 691
E: nwvr@edumail.vic.gov.au

Outer Gippsland office
P: 4113 7424
E: sevr@edumail.vic.gov.au

Southern Melbourne office
P: 8765 5600
E: sevr@edumail.vic.gov.au

Wimmera South West office
P: 5215 5103
E: swvr@edumail.vic.gov.au

For further support with data collection, see kindergarten information management (KIM) system

Planning for school readiness funding

The following documents will assist kindergarten services to start planning how to spend school readiness funding and use the menu of evidence-informed programs and supports.

Outreach line

We have pre-purchased allied health support from local providers in Victoria.

An outreach service is also available for kindergartens who are not able to access the existing allied health support.

The service offers phone and email appointments to kindergarten services that receive school readiness funding. 

Areas and outreach providers​

The two outreach providers are IPC Health and Monsah Health. Contact details are below.

IPC Health can offer outreach assistance to funded kindergarten services in these local government areas:

• Buloke Shire
  
• Gannawarra Shire
  
• Mildura Rural City
  
• Swan Hill Rural City
  
• Horsham Rural City
  
• Hindmarsh Shire
  
• Yarriambiack Shire
  
• West Wimmera Shire
  
• Northern Grampians Shire
  
• Warrnambool City
  
• Moyne Shire
  
• Southern Grampians Shire
  
• Glenelg Shire
  
• Corrangamite Shire
  
• City of Brimbank, and
  
• City of Melton
  

Monash Health can offer outreach assistance to funded kindergarten services in these local government areas:

• East Gippsland Shire
  
• Wellington Shire
  
• Bass Coast Shire
  
• Baw Baw Shire
  
• Latrobe City
  
• South Gippsland Shire
  
• Cardinia City
  
• Casey City 
  
• Greater Dandenong City​
  

Contact details​

IPC​​ Health

Telephone: 9216 7818
Email: school.readiness@ipchealth.com.au
Hours of operation: 9:00am – 5:00pm
IPC Health website​

Monash He​alth

Mobile: 0438027563
Telephone: 5990 6202
Email: schoolreadinessprogram@monashhealth.org
Hours of operation: 9:00am – 5:00pm
Monash Health website