12 SDN Beranga becomes a preschool SDN has been operating SDN Beranga, our highly successful autism-specific long day care centre at Rooty Hill, since January 2013. With the final transition to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the NSW Government’s funding for SDN Beranga came to an end. SDN Beranga operates with a higher educator to child ratio than is required under the National Quality Framework. This provides the intensive support needed for the children. The inter-disciplinary teams at SDN Beranga include allied health staff and a family resource worker. Faced with a significant funding shortfall, SDN has converted the centre to a preschool for children 3 and 4 years old. This means we now provide shorter days that allows us to remain affordable for families but also offers access to allied health workers on site for those children who have an NDIS package. It also means that we can offer places to more children, which will increase the impact of SDN Beranga. Farewell to SDN Gumnut In March we were sad to lose SDN Gumnut in Lithgow after five years as part of the SDN community, following a tender process by Lithgow City Council. SDN Gumnut was originally opened on 5 September 1983, and moved to its current home in Proto Avenue in the mid-1990s. SDN took over the centre’s management and began leasing the site from Lithgow City Council on 2 October 2012. In 2017, we were not successful in a tender run by Lithgow City Council, and management of the centre passed to a new provider from 5 March 2018.