Benefits of Family Day Care

In a 2025 survey* undertaken by Family Day Care Australia of over 1,200 families using family day care, respondents cited that they chose family day care for its unique natural home environment, small group settings and the strong, consistent bond formed between the family and educator.

In the same survey, families said that they love having their children in family day care due to the close bonds children form with educators and the one-to-one attention their children receive from educators.

Other benefits of family day care include:

• Family day care provides early education and care in a nurturing, natural and flexible home learning environment
• Family day care offers the opportunity for children to form genuine long lasting bonds with their qualified and passionate early childhood educator
• Family day care can offer care during standard hours, evenings, before/after school, during school holidays and in some cases overnight and weekends
• Family day care educators offer individualised learning programs for the children they care for
• Family day care can provide education and care for babies and children up to 13 years of age; offering the possibility for siblings to be cared for together, all in one location
• Family day care provides experiences which reflect the diversity of your community

Inclusion and Neurodiversity in Family Day Care

In the story below, Nadine, a family day care educator, shares her experience of working with a young child with additional needs and how this changed her practice.

When the child began at her service, Nadine noticed he was not meeting all the milestones and she describes her journey of working with him and his family. She recounts the strategies that she used to raise her concerns with the child’s carers and how she needed to critically reflect on her own programming to ensure she was meeting the needs of all the children. This included designing the learning environment to support children’s self-regulation of emotions and behaviour.

‍

*Family Day Care Perception Survey, Family Day Care Australia, 2025