Building Blocks Grants – Inclusion Grants Stream (Australia)

Deadline: 4-Sep-24

The Building Blocks Grants – Inclusion Grants Stream provides funding to kindergartens to upgrade early childhood buildings and facilities (including playgrounds), and purchase equipment to provide safe and more inclusive environments for children of all abilities.

Building Blocks Objectives

• The Building Blocks grants support the Victorian Government’s unprecedented reform and funding of early childhood education.
• The grants are funding a massive program of building, modernising and expanding kindergartens across the state.
• This work, backed by new partnerships and record investment, means all Victorian children can now get 2 years of free kinder.
• The reforms, and the benefits they bring, will continue to expand over the next few years.
• Victorian 3-year-olds can now get at least 5 hours of kindergarten a week. That increases to 15 hours by 2029. Also, from 2025 to 2036, Four-Year-Old Kindergarten will transition to ‘Pre-Prep’ – doubling play-based learning for every 4-year-old child in Victoria to 30 hours a week.
• The government has invested $2.7 billion to work in partnership with local councils and early learning providers to build the kinders they need for these important reforms.
• Building Blocks grants are key to evaluating the best projects to realise the government’s vision and achieve best value for this significant public investment.
• In particular, the inclusion grants stream outlined below is making the kindergarten buildings and playgrounds more accessible, safer and better equipped for children of all abilities.

Inclusion Grant Stream

• Funding is for projects designed to:
  • increase engagement, improve learning outcomes and strengthen inclusive early childhood learning environments for children of all abilities
  • promote inclusion in early childhood teaching approaches that are tailored to the needs of all learners
  • create innovative early childhood learning environments based on inclusive and universal design best practice.
• Projects must be for a funded kindergarten in Victoria that is, or will be, licensed to provide a funded Three and Four-Year-Old Kindergarten program for four years from project completion. The kindergarten must offer, or intend to offer, both programs. This can be sessional or integrated with long day care.

Categories

• There are two categories of grants under the Building Blocks Inclusion stream:
  • Buildings and Playgrounds 
    • Grants are offered to improve early childhood buildings and facilities to provide safe and more inclusive environments for children of all abilities. Funding is for fixed fittings and equipment.
    • Funding available            
      • Up to $200,000 per grant (GST exclusive) (please note that a minimum 10-15% cost contingency must be added to quotes and QS reports)
      • Projects less than $200,000 (ex GST) require 2 quotes from a qualified professional.
      • Projects $200,000 and over (ex GST) require a Quantity Surveyor (QS) report.
    • Project completion/acquittal: Within 12 months of executing a Victorian Common Funding Agreement (VCFA) with the Department.
  • Equipment
    • Equipment grants are offered to fund the purchase of inclusive educational equipment for kindergarten programs. Funding is for non-fixed equipment (i.e., non-fixed to buildings).
    • Funding available: Up to $10,000 per grant (ex GST).
    • Project completion/acquittal: Within 3 months of executing a VCFA with the Department.

What Can Be Funded?

• Buildings and Playgrounds
  • project management costs
  • planning and design costs that result in a completed playground or building upgrade
  • site preparation, including clearing or demolition (if the proposed project is on land owned by the Department, you must contact the VSBA Early Childhood Grants team before applying to confirm how these costs can be funded)
  • construction and commissioning
  • landscaping and accessible car parking
  • fixed fittings and fixed equipment
  • a soil contamination assessment, completed before the application is submitted
  • a Division 6 Asbestos Audit Assessment completed before the application is submitted
  • removal of contaminates on project sites such as asbestos/arsenic/ heavy metals
• Equipment
  • moveable and accessible equipment, such as:
    • ramps to support transition between play areas and entry/exit to services
    • safety surfacing (e.g., soft fall mats) and indoor/outdoor gross motor skill equipment such as climbing frames and balancing boards
    • indoor/outdoor sensory equipment and resources
    • adjustable furniture, such as inclusion tables, change tables, mobility stools, toilet frames/steps, walking frames
    • wadding/protective padding for building structures, e.g., around veranda posts
    • installation costs (only costs for installing equipment funded through the Inclusion stream)

Eligibility Criteria

• Your organisation can apply if it is:
  • a Victorian local government (Council)
  • a not-for-profit community organisation that is a legal entity (for example an incorporated association, incorporated cooperative or Indigenous corporation)
  • a Victorian government school
  • a Victorian non-government school registered with the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority or Victorian Catholic Education Authority.
• Victorian kindergarten providers with a funded kindergarten service(s) at the time of application are eligible to receive funding. For-profit organisations cannot apply for any grant streams within Building Blocks.

Ineligible

• The Building Blocks Inclusion stream will not fund projects that:
  • are not located at a funded kindergarten service(s) at time of application
  • are not at facilities which offer (or are intending to offer) both Three and Four-Year-Old Funded Kindergarten programs
  • are located outside Victoria
  • do not align with the program objectives
  • do not meet the requirements outlined in these guidelines
  • do not meet the assessment criteria or include all the required costings and documentation (such as soil, asbestos or Quantity Surveyor reports) at time of application
  • have already started, or been completed (i.e., retrospective funding).

For more information, visit Victorian Government.