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As Australia’s only awards program focused solely on family day care, the Excellence in Family Day Care Awards shine a light on outstanding achievement across family day care services, coordinators and educators.
We invite families, services and educators to tell us in their own words, what makes their educator, coordinator or approved service such an integral and special contributor to their lives and to the lives of the children in their care.
Click on the links below to view more information on each of the Excellence in Family Day Care Awards categories.
Nominations and submissions
During the nomination period (25 May - 2 July 2026) families, services and educators are invited to nominate their family day care educator, coordinator or approved service via a simple online nomination form.
When an educator, coordinator or approved service is nominated they are advised of their nomination via email. During the nomination period, regular emails are sent to all nominees informing them that they have been nominated. A nomination list is also published on this website. These emails and list will be updated on a bi-weekly basis.
Inside their email, nominees are invited to make a supporting submission against specific questions outlined in the online submission form. The submission questions have been carefully developed by industry experts to reflect key areas of professional practice, sector values, and service quality.
Nominees have until 19 July 2026 to complete their supporting submission.
Why do we ask for a submission from nominees?
A supporting submission allows the Awards selection committee to gain a great insight into those who have been nominated for the Excellence in Family Day Care Awards. Without a supporting submission, it can be difficult to separate nominees for the purpose of selecting award winners.
While nominations on their own provide some wonderful information about nominees, a submission from the nominee provides the selection committee with a deeper understanding of the nominee's practice and their connections with families, educators and communities.
Awards Judging
Once the submission deadline has passed, a number of judging phases take place in the lead up to the announcement of the Excellence in Family Day Care Awards National Winners.
To ensure impartiality and fairness, the judging process is conducted through a blind review process. This means that judges are not provided with any identifying information about the nominations and submissions that they review. To further support objectivity, the allocation of states and territories is rotated each year among Board Directors. Directors are also not allocated jurisdictions that are in conflict with their own jurisdiction.
Regional winners (educators only), Star Award winners and national finalists in each category are selected by an official FDCA selection committee. The FDCA selection committee* is made up of representatives from the FDCA Board of Directors, who each have extensive experience in the family day care sector.
The members of the selection committee are:
During and following the selection of finalists and winners, FDCA conducts a thorough due diligence process to ensure that all individuals and services recognised exemplify the values and standards of the family day care sector. This includes discussions with Approved Providers and cross-checks with relevant authorities.
Following the selection of the national finalists by the FDCA selection committee, each finalist is reviewed by a sector representative who is independent of FDCA, and National Winner recommendations are made for the Educator of the Year, Coordinator of the Year and Service of the Year categories. In 2027 the independent representative is Perry Campbell, Senior Manager Priority Support, National Register & Innovation Group from ACECQA.
*Services that are directly connected to FDCA Board Directors or FDCA staff are not eligible for awards.
Did you know that during its history the Excellence in Family Day Care Awards has...
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