Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) is important for child development, family wellbeing and long-term social equity.  There is strong desire for ECEC places but curently supply is outstripped by demand resulting in the regions of NSW being underserved in child care.

Co-location of ECEC with other land uses offers a transformative solution that leads to increased flexibility for families but also the other site occupants (such as residents or employees of a wider development through increased activation and social connections.

Purpose of the toolkit

The newly launched ECEC co-location toolkit aims to guide stakeholders interested in partnering with other sectors to provided ECEC in mixed use development whether in greenfield or infill sites.

Co-location means ECEC (particularly long day care) is provided on-site at businesses, residential developments or other facilities (including schools, health or community centres) to improve access and integration.

This toolkit focuses primarily on the planning, delivery and co-location of long day care services which are most closely aligned with workforce participation goals.  It will also be instructive for other service types including occasional care, out of school hours care (OOSH) and preschool programs.

Benefits of co-location

• Developers proceeding with co-location of ECEC will benefit from shared infrastructure costs, enhanced marketability of their developments and increased amenities for their communities
• For ECEC providers, co-location benefits include easier access to viable sites as well as shared infrastructure costs
• For councils, benefits include better support for the local workforce with ECEC that is located to address community needs.