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FDCA is holding an election to fill two (2) member-elected Director positions on our Board, the voting period ends tomorrow.
The FDCA Board of Directors is focused on the effective governance of the organisation, including strategic direction, finance, compliance and risk management. Some of the responsibilities of the Board include:
The collaborative and performance-driven culture of the Board of Directors reflects FDCA’s commitment to best practice and continuous improvement as your peak national body.
To view profiles of the candidates who have successfully nominated for this position, please click here.
In accordance with FDCA’s constitution and the Board Director Nomination and Election Standing Order of the Board, the election campaign will be conducted by an online voting ballot, where current financial members of FDCA are eligible to place a single vote for the vacant position.
Voting commenced Thursday 3 September 2026 and concludes at 5.00pm (AEST) on Thursday 17 September 2026. FDCA members are advised to check their inbox for an email bulletin sent on Thursday 3 September that contains instructions on how to vote.
The National Early Childhood Worker Register provides the regulatory authorities with greater visibility of who is working in education and care services and where they work. This supports their ability to monitor, identify and respond to risks and keep children safe.
As a reminder, approved providers are responsible for ensuring information in the Worker Register is accurate and kept up to date, including adding and maintaining details for workers engaged in education and care roles at the service.
The Register must be updated within 14 days when a worker:
For family day care, the Worker Register does not replace the approved provider’s obligation to maintain a separate Family Day Care Register and other required staffing records.
Educators and other workers should promptly provide their service with any updated information or documents so the approved provider can meet the 14-day timeframe.
Please note: the Worker Register is not yet mandatory in Western Australia.
For guidance and more information, visit the ACECQA Worker Register page.
CCS may be payable when family day care educators provide care for extended family members, but the less than 50% rule applies.
Extended family members include the educator’s or their partner’s:
Across each CCS fortnight, an educator must not provide care to more relatives than non-relatives. The less than 50% rule means that related children must make up less than 50% of the children enrolled in sessions of care. Exactly 50% does not meet the requirement.
When completing the calculation, services must count all children enrolled in a session of care with that educator during the fortnight, even if a child did not attend.
If this rule is not followed, CCS eligibility may be affected. Educators should tell their service about any family relationships before care begins.
For detailed information, visit the Department of Education website and videos about providing care to relatives.
Check your understanding:
During one CCS fortnight, Emma has six children enrolled in sessions of care with her. Three are her grandchildren, and three are unrelated to her.
Does Emma meet the less than 50% rule?
Answer: No. Three of the six children are related to Emma:
3 ÷ 6 × 100 = 50%
The related children make up exactly 50% of the children in the calculation. As the rule requires the proportion to be less than 50%, CCS cannot be claimed for the care Emma provides to her grandchildren during the fortnight.
As part of FDCA’s Rethinking Family Day Care series, we are sharing innovative models identified through the Australian Government-funded FDC Capability Trial.
Family day care offers a unique opportunity to provide individualised education and care that responds to the strengths, interests and diverse needs of each child.
Smaller groups, consistent relationships and personalised environments can make family day care particularly valuable for children who benefit from a quieter and more flexible setting.
This week’s story showcases how Blue Gum Family Day Care has created a neurodiversity-affirming environment where inclusion, cultural identity and belonging are embedded in everyday practice.
Click here to read the full story and reflect – what could inclusion look like in your family day care?
Did you know that in the last twelve months the FDCA Family Day Care Locator has generated over 11,500 enquiries for FDCA members.
If you want your family day care business to be receiving some of these enquiries, ensuring your Family Day Care Locator listing is up to date is crucial, and with every FDCA member having access to a FREE listing there’s no excuse not to get moving.
To help you add some sparkle and polish to your listing, we’ve got some easy to understand, short video guides to set you on your way.
Managing your listing
To get your Locator listing standing out from the crowd, you’ll need to add a little shimmer and shine! This means adding your business name, updating your profile picture and telling your story.
To view a short video on how to manage your listing, click here.
Checking your enquiries
Once your listing is glistening, you’ll need to be ready to respond to care enquiries when they start coming in.
Click here, to see how you can access your Locator enquiries inbox to check, manage and respond to enquiries.
Latest Locator Update
Recently we have been aware of an issue where locator enquiries were automatically being removed from educator's Locator inboxes when services removed educator enquiries from their own inbox. This has now been fixed to ensure that when a service removes an educator enquiry from their inbox, it will still remain in the educator's inbox.
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