Victorian Early Years Awards Terms and Conditions

Key dates

1. Nominations open 9:00 am Monday 4 May 2026.
2. Nominations close 5:00 pm Friday 29 May 2026.
3. The online judging process will take place in June.
4. Finalists will be contacted in the week commencing Monday 24August 2026. Unsuccessful nominees will also be contacted at this time.
5. The VEYA presentation ceremony will be held on Thursday 5 November 2026 in Melbourne CBD. Finalists must be available to attend.

Eligibility

6. Awards are open to all organisations, early years professionals or early childhood education and care services operating or working in Victoria who meet the eligibility criteria detailed in the VEYA Nomination Guide, or as confirmed by the Department of Education (the department).
7. Nominees for the Early Childhood Teacher of the Year Award must:
   1. be a provisionally or fully registered early childhood teacher with the Victorian Institute of Teaching. The registration must be current.
   2. currently employed in a Victorian licensed children’s or approved education and care service that receives state government funding to provide a kindergarten program.
8. Nominees for the Educator of the Year Award:
   1. must have an ACECQA recognised certificate III or diploma qualified early childhood qualification.
   2. be currently employed in a Victorian licensed children’s or approved education and care service that receives state government funding to provide a kindergarten program.
   3. do not have to be working in the kindergarten program to be eligible for this category.
   4. who are upskilling and are already leading a kindergarten program under alternative funding arrangements are eligible to apply within this category.
9. Nominees for the Emeritus Professor Collette Tayler Excellence in Educational Leadership Award must either be:
   1. an approved early childhood education and care service or approved provider that receives state government funding to deliver a kindergarten program
      OR
   2. an early childhood educational leader working in an approved early childhood education and care service that delivers a Victorian funded kindergarten program.
10. Nominees may not enter the same initiative in more than one category.
11. Previous individual award recipients are not eligible for nomination in any individual category for two years following their win. They may be nominated again in the third year after receiving the award.
    Recipients who won in 2023 are now eligible to be nominated.
    
    Early childhood service and organisation award recipients are not eligible to be nominated for any organisational award category until the third year following their win. Recipients who won in 2023 are now eligible to be nominated.
    
12. Early childhood service and organisation award recipients are not eligible to be nominated for any organisational award category until the third year following their win. For example, an organisation that received an award in 2024 are not eligible to be nominated in any category until 2027.
13. Award recipients of other state, national or international professional awards are eligible to be nominated for VEYA if they meet the eligibility criteria of the award category.

The nomination process

14. Nominations must be submitted online via the VEYA online nomination system, Award Force https://earlyyears.awardsplatform.com/(opens in a new window)
15. By submitting or accepting a nomination, award nominees agree to be bound by the terms and conditions outlined in this document.
16. All nominees (including each nominee for an early childhood service/organisation award) must be employed with the organisation listed in their application at the time of nomination.
17. Nominations must be accompanied by at least 2 referees as outlined in the VEYA Nomination Guide.
18. Nominations can be made on behalf of others. However, those nominated must consent to the nomination. Consent is obtained via the online nomination system.
19. Nominators cannot endorse their own nomination.
20. Nominations are assessed against the key selection criteria outlined in the VEYA Nomination Guide and replicated on the online nomination system.
21. The judges’ decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.
22. Nominations will not be accepted after 5:00 pm Friday 29 May 2026.
23. Incomplete nominations, nominations that do not comply with the nomination conditions, or nominations in respect of ineligible nominees, will be automatically rejected at the absolute discretion of the department.

Shortlisting

24. Before progressing to a judging panel, all nominations will be shortlisted by the program area experts. This is a preliminary screening only and is used to determine that the nominations:
    1. are fully complete and meet the eligibility criteria for their category
    2. present no probity concerns, such as perceived conflicts of interest or ethical concerns
    3. are not promoting activities that do not align with the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) and educational practice quality standards.
25. Judges will review each of the nominations within their allocated award category via the online award system.
26. Judges score nominations against each criterion outlined in the VEYA Nomination Guide. The nominations that score the highest in each award category will be deemed finalists (usually three).
27. A reference check will be undertaken by the department for all shortlisted finalists. The department may elect to remove a finalist from the shortlist should these checks raise concerns.
28. For all shortlisted finalists, a legal check and a compliance, conduct and ethics check will be undertaken by the department for individuals and organisations funded by the department, the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) for organisations funded by DFFH or any other relevant Victorian Government agency as applicable. An early childhood service’s quality rating, including the timing of their rating will be considered as part of the assessment process under this clause. The department may elect to remove a finalist should any of these checks raise concerns.

Finalist selection

29. The judging panels will confirm the winners of the 9 categories, which will be kept confidential until the VEYA ceremony.
30. The department reserves the right not to allocate an award in any category.
31. Finalists will be notified over the phone, as well as via email.
32. Upon acceptance as a finalist, finalists agree to:
    1. participate in any audio, photographic and video requirements for the VEYA ceremony and award promotion, noting they may also be subsequently used in other departmental publications and promotions; and
    2. provide permission to the department for on-going use of these images/recordings for promotional purposes.
33. The department reserves the right to use all, or part of any material, including nominations, for any publicity campaign related to government education in Victoria. Copyright of any materials produced during, or as a result of, the award is owned by the department.
34. Nominations become the property of the department and may be used to promote the awards. VEYA nominations, including finalists, may be used as case studies or examples of good practice and published subsequent to the completion of the VEYA.
35. Finalists and winners of the VEYA are encouraged to share their good practice with other early childhood services and organisations in Victoria. Finalists and winners may be invited to present at the following year’s VEYA ceremony.
36. Finalists and winners may be contacted by the department to provide input on departmental initiatives and media opportunities should their expertise be relevant.

Grants

37. All recipients must prepare a Grant Proposal and provide this to the Department within 10 weeks of receiving their award, unless otherwise agreed with the Department. The Grant Proposal must be approved by the department prior to a recipient undertaking any activities against their award grant. The Grant Proposal will be included in a Grant Pack sent to award recipients following the VEYA presentation ceremony.
38. All recipients must prepare a Final Report and provide this to the Department by 14 February 2028, unless otherwise agreed with the Department. The Final Report must be approved Department. The Final Report is to evaluate your professional growth or your initiative, which the grant funds have supported. This includes reflecting on what you learned, how the work progressed and the impact on your organisation. The Final Report template will be included in a Grant Pack.
39. Recipients will be required to provide a full acquittal of their grant funding and are responsible for recording and documenting their grant expenditure. This includes, but is not limited to, credit card receipts and statements, and provider invoices. This is submitted with the Final Report.
40. For award recipients who applied as a partnership, the partnership will self-determine how funding will be allocated across organisations. Disagreement around funding allocations across organisations will be resolved at the local level between organisations.
41. Recipients must spend their grant amount by 31 December 2027. Recipients who do not spend their grant amount, or spend only part of their grant, by these dates forfeit the remaining grant funds, unless otherwise agreed in writing with the department.
42. A request for an extension of time to use the grant must be made in writing by no later than 1 December 2027. Extensions will be considered on merit and granted at the sole discretion of the department.
43. School recipient funds are administered via the department's Schools Targeted Funding Portal.
44. All other recipients will be required to enter into a written common funding agreement in standard form with the department prior to receiving any funding.

Organisation grants

45. Winners of the following award categories will receive a $15,000 grant to further their initiative:
    1. Improving Access and Participation in Early Learning
    2. Supporting Parents to Build Their Capacity and Confidence
    3. Creating Collaborative Community Partnerships
    4. Promoting Children’s Health and Wellbeing
    5. Continuity of Early Learning
    6. Aunty Rose Bamblett Koorie Early Years Legacy
    7. The Emeritus Professor Collette Tayler Excellence in Education Leadership (if the category is won by an early childhood service or approved provider).
46. The grant can support resources to further develop the initiative, professional development and back fill costs while staff develop the initiative. This may include:
    1. providing paid time release, backfill, travel, or accommodation expenses to attend professional learning related to the research or development of the initiative. Travel/accommodation costs should be calculated using the ATO reasonable travel and meal expenses rates as a guide. The total amount provided by the department will not exceed the dollar value specified above.
    2. formal professional learning, such as attendance at conferences, workshops, seminars, online courses, subscriptions to journals/research articles, textbook resources on topics specific to the initiative.
47. The grant may not be spent on the following: salaries for staff while they are not working on the initiative, usual business overheads such as utilities, rent, insurance, that are not directly related to the initiative.

Professional learning grants

48. Winners of the following award categories will receive a professional learning grant of $15,000 to further their professional learning:
    1. The Early Childhood Teacher of the Year
    2. The Emeritus Professor Collette Tayler Excellence in Education Leadership (if the category is won by an educational leader)
    3. The Educator of the Year
    4. The Minister's Award (if the category is won by a nominee from one of the above categories).
49. This grant may be spent on professional learning and may include staff replacement costs and reasonable travel/accommodation costs to participate in the nominated activity using the ATO reasonable travel and meal expenses rates as a guide. The total amount provided by the department will not exceed the dollar value specified above.
50. Recipients can propose to undertake professional learning that exceeds the amount of their award grant, provided they are able to fund the additional costs above the amount of their award grant from other sources.

Privacy Statement

51. The Department of Education handles personal information in accordance with the Privacy Data and Protection Act 2014 (Vic), the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) and the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic). As part of this nomination process, the department will request personal information (contact details) about the nominator, nominee and potential referees. All personal information will be collected, used and disclosed by the department’s administration team and judging panel to assess award nominations.
52. For nominees, the department will collect nominees’ Victorian Institute of Teaching registration number (where applicable) and qualitative information about their program or teaching practice supporting Victorian children. This information will be used to identify and assess nominees for the award category they are nominated for. When submitting your nomination, we kindly ask that you do not provide any identifying information about students or children.
53. We use contact details of Referees and Endorsers to contact them about your submission, and to collect further information to assess your nomination. Where you are providing the personal information of referees to support this submission, please let them know that you will be providing their personal information to the department for the nomination process, and that they may be contacted.
54. Personal information will otherwise be handled in accordance with the department’s Privacy Policy or authorised or required by law. If you do not provide all the relevant information, we may be unable to process or consider this nomination.
55. The Department is using Award Force to process nominations. Award Force stores data in European Economic Area. When submit your nomination through Award Force, you agree for your personal information to be transferred to the European Economic Area. For more information about Award Force and how it handles and where it stores information, please read their Privacy policy and terms of service.
56. For more information about how the department handles your personal information and how you may gain access or correction of it, please refer to the department’s Privacy Policy.

Queries

57. All queries relating to the VEYA, or to access and update your personal information, can be sent to: early.years.awards@education.vic.gov.au.