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The FDCA office will close at 5.00pm AEDT on Wednesday 24 December 2025 and reopen at 9.00am AEDT on Friday 2 January 2026.
Should your family day care insurance require renewal during this period or if you need to purchase a new family day care insurance policy, please visit our website. If you need to make an emergency claim details of how to do this are located here.
Otherwise please call our office on Friday 2 January 2026. We wish all our members a safe and relaxing holiday season!
At the recent Early Childhood Australia Conference on 2 October 2025, the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Senator the Hon Dr Jess Walsh announced the establishment of a Workforce Reference Group (WRG) that’s purpose would be to collaborate and engage with Government on the development of policies impacting the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce. On the announcement, Minister Walsh said, “Importantly, the Workforce Reference Group will include educators – because their experiences are so important if we want to get this right”.
Meeting quarterly (or as required), the WRG will provide specific insights and recommendations from educators and early childhood teachers on current and emerging issues in the sector.
As part of this group, Family Day Care Australia (FDCA) was invited to put forward a representative to ensure the unique perspectives of family day care educators are reflected in these discussions. FDCA approached Pamela Timire, a family day care educator registered with Kentish Family Day Care in the Northern Territory, to share lived experience from a family day care perspective on the group.
Pamela brings a diverse and multi-layered background to the role. With six years of experience working across the ECEC sector in a variety of roles, including long day care educator, team leader, educational leader and acting centre manager, she transitioned into family day care two years ago, inspired by the opportunity to provide more individualised support within a natural, home-based environment.
Motivated by her passion for meeting the diverse needs of children and families, Pamela established her own family day care service where she can develop meaningful relationships and create strong community connections, while supporting children through their vital early years.
Growing up in Zimbabwe has shaped Pamela’s values and philosophy, especially her belief that every child deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential and that caring for children is truly a community effort – it takes a village. Arriving in Australia without an established family network gave Pamela firsthand understanding of the connection, trust and support that families often seek from their early childhood service. She now weaves these principles into her everyday practice. Pamela also loves the balance and flexibility that family day care provides, enabling her to be present for her own children while nurturing those in her care.
Reflection on her family day care journey, Pamela says, “Being a family day care educator allows me to create a safe and welcoming environment for all children to feel valued, heard and appropriately supported. l value the close connections and relationships l form with the children and families and the opportunity to be able to support the children and make a real difference in their lives”.
Pamela’s interest in being a part of the Workforce Reference Group comes from her desire to express not only her own concerns and issues, but to stand for the thousands of other educators who reflect the diverse contexts in which educators work. Her experience working in the outback, in Aboriginal communities, schools, long day care and now family day care, ensures that a range of perspectives are considered when workforce policies is shaped and gives her clear understanding of the challenges the sector is facing.
Through her work and studies, Pamela has seen firsthand the importance of increasing recognition of the family day care model and ensuring educators are supported in a sustainable and rewardable care. She is particularly passionate about:
For Pamela, these values are at the heart of what the family day care model offers. She reflects, “Family day care is about trust, transparency, relationships and connections”.
Having attended her first meeting with the Workforce Reference Group in November, Pamela shared that educators responded positively to having a platform to contribute directly to national discussions. She noted that:
When asked how Pamela plans to move forward in her practice, she had this to say, “I will continue to create a safe, inclusive, and engaging learning environment for children, focusing on natural, play-based learning and sustainability practices, while incorporating my love of creative arts to inspire imagination and self-expression. I am also hoping to finish my degree in ECEC next year and be a registered teacher. I will continue doing family day care as that is where my heart is”.
The Department of Education has declared a Child Care Subsidy (CCS) period of emergency, or added additional local government areas (LGAs), in response to the NSW Central Coast and Lake Macquarie bushfires, the Southern Tasmania bushfires and in the Northern Territory due to the impact of Tropical Cyclone Fina.
For the NSW Central Coast and Lake Macquarie bushfires, the CCS period of emergency applies from 6 to 12 December 2025 in the following local government areas:
For the Southern Tasmanian bushfires, the CCS period of emergency applies from 4 to 11 December 2025 in the following local government areas:
For the Northern Territory, due to the impact of Tropical Cyclone Fina, the CCS period of emergency applies from 19 November to 1 December 2025 in the following local government areas (LGAs):
If you closed your service, the approved provider should contact the Australian Government Department of Education through the Provider Entry Point (PEP) or third-party software and also contact your state or territory regulatory authority.
The following support is available in affected regions during the CCS period of emergency:
Note: a gap fee waiver is a type of provider discount. Approved providers must report the type and amount of prescribed discounts in session reports if they have been applied for the session.
Click here for more information about support during a CCS period of emergency.
As previously communicated, updates to the Education and Care Services National Regulations took effect on 1 September 2025, with further changes to the National Quality Standard (NQS) commencing 1 January 2026.
These refinements strengthen the focus on child safety across the NQF, with updated wording that embeds child safety expectations within Quality Area 2: Children's Health and Safety and Quality Area 7: Governance and Leadership.
Services are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the changes. An amended version of the Guide to the NQF resource will be released from 1 January 2026, providing additional examples of how services can demonstrate their child safe practices during quality assessment and rating.
For more information on the changes to the NQF, visit the ACECQA website or refer to the information sheet on child safety.
FDCA is currently researching the awareness and adoption rates of artificial intelligence (AI) in the family day care sector. To assist with this, we are asking members to complete a short survey that will take 1-2 minutes.
To complete the survey, please click here.
FDCA will use these results to identify any areas of opportunity for future member support.
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to share their thoughts.
The 2025 Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Staff Survey closes soon on Monday 15th December 2025.
The national survey is conducted by ORIMA Research on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Education and is open to all family day care educators, directors, managers and coordinators.
The survey takes approximately 5-10 minutes to complete, is anonymous and seeks your feedback on:
Your participation will help inform future policies and decision making to support ongoing improvements across the ECEC sector.
Completing the survey will also give you the chance to win one of 50 x $200 gift vouchers.
Click here to complete the survey.
In the fifth instalment of our Stories from the Sector series, we highlight the experience from a culturally and linguistically diverse metropolitan service. This service carefully considered their planning at the start of their transition and spent time thinking about the impact on their community.
Recognising the importance of clear information, the service translated key policies and documents into the commonly spoken community languages, so that educators could understand the transition and extend that understanding to families. The service also notes that flexibility and considering a family’s circumstances is important, with families facing challenges in different ways and having that awareness builds bonds and trust.
You can read this story, along with others in this series, on the FDCA website.
Services who are yet to transition, and those looking to strengthen systems and documentation, can find DGFC best practice guides, practical templates and other debt management resources on the dedicated DGFC page on the FDCA website.
Support is still available
If you have questions or need additional support, please contact FDCA’s Sector Support Team on 1800 658 699 or enquiries@fdca.com.au. Please note that the FDCA office will be closed from 5pm Wednesday 24 December 2025 and reopen 9am Friday 2 January 2026.
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