Close
The new 2022 Family Day Care Australia (FDCA) Wall Planner is available for free for FDCA to members via your FDCA Member Zone.
The Wall Planner notes several important dates highlighted including school terms, public holidays, and key events for the sector such as National Family Day Care Week, National Engagement Program Forum dates and the FDCA 2022 National Conference.
Two sizes of the Wall Planner are available:
To download your FREE Wall Planner, simply log in to your FDCA Member Zone and access the Factsheets and Resources section.
If you haven't yet activated your FDCA Member Zone account, click here to enter your registered email address and commence the activation process.
FDCA's Family Day Care Locator is an important marketing and promotional tool for our members and a valuable benefit of your membership. Each year, the Family Day Care Locator generates over 10,000 enquiries from families seeking education and care in their area.
Given its importance and the role it plays in supporting the growth of members’ businesses and the sector more broadly, ensuring that the Family Day Care Locator remains in line with emerging practice and the needs of our members is crucial.
That’s why we’re pleased to announce a number of enhancements to the Family Day Care Locator that will empower our members to make the most of their Family Day Care Locator listing.
What’s new on the Family Day Care Locator?
1. Educators will now be able to access the contact details of all enquiries placed through the Locator – this means as soon as you receive an enquiry, you’ll have contact details on hand through the Member Zone to secure the enrolment.
2. Email notifications to educators every time an enquiry is received from families seeking care.
3. Enhanced functionality allowing members to better manage your Family Day Care Locator inbox.
Why have these updates been made?
In response to overwhelming feedback, following ongoing consultation with educator and service members, it was clear that the vast majority of members were supportive of these updates.
The enhancements are designed to improve the response time for families seeking care, remove the administrative burden for educators and services in managing enquiries, and help our members continue to grow their family day care business.
It is important however, that members continue to follow any existing policies and procedures that may be in place regarding care enquiries.
Access your Family Day Care Locator listing
To make sure your listing is up to date and ready to take advantage of these new enhancements, log into your FDCA Member Zone by clicking here and selecting the “My Locator Listing” option.
If you haven’t accessed your Family Day Care Locator listing, you can view one of the short instructional videos below:
Video for services
Video for educators
What if I haven’t activated my FDCA Member Zone?
To activate your online account:
1. Click here to activate your free account (for the best experience, use the latest Chrome browser).
2. Enter your registered email address.
3. An email will then be sent to your email address; click on the 'create password' button.
4. Create and confirm your password.
5. Click here to login and enter your FDCA Member Zone.
We look forward to these enhancements supporting services and educators and helping more Australian families access the unique, nurturing, natural home learning environment that is family day care.
As a member of the National Co-design Stakeholder Reference Group, the peak consultative body appointed by ACECQA for the development of the National Workforce Strategy, FDCA is proud to have contributed to the new National Children’s Education and Care Workforce Strategy (2022-2031) - ‘Shaping our Future’, which was launched recently by ACECQA.
The National Workforce Strategy is designed to support the recruitment, retention, sustainability and quality of the early childhood education and care workforce. It acknowledges and builds on existing workforce related initiatives, as well as a range of recent and ongoing initiatives launched by the sector. FDCA has been instrumental in leading the charge for recognition and consideration of the family day care sector within the National Workforce Strategy.
The National Strategy provides a living roadmap for ongoing collaboration and partnership between governments, service providers, education and training providers, peak associations, regulatory bodies, educators and teachers, and their representative bodies.
Page 21 of the National Workforce Strategy quotes FDCA Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Paterson: “Family day care is an essential element of Australia’s early childhood education and care landscape. Not only does the sector enable flexible workforce participation, playing a particularly important role in regional communities, but it also represents an opportunity for greater engagement of Australians in small business - family day care educators currently comprise one of Australia's largest networks of women in small business.”
Our participation in the National Co-design Stakeholder Reference Group will be an important point of leverage for our ongoing advocacy strategy, in particular feeding into our soon-to-be released Election Commitments Manifesto, and will ensure the family day care sector is well represented in all major workforce initiatives moving forward.
To read the National Workforce Strategy or find out more about the history of its development, visit ACECQA’s website here.
A quarterly document released from ACECQA, the National Quality Framework (NQF) Snapshot is ACECQA’s 35th national report on early childhood education and care (ECEC) services across Australia.
The report provides an analysis of, and information on, the profile of the sector and the quality ratings of services against the National Quality Standard (NQS).
Broad findings from the report include:
For more detailed information on the state of ECEC under the NQF, we encourage you to access the report here.
Knowing that your vehicle is a vital part of your business, FDCA has negotiated a range of motor vehicle insurance policies to meet the day-to-day needs of our members.
Our insurance covers the operation of the motor vehicle for your family day care business, allowing for:
What should I ask before purchasing insurance for my vehicle?
Some of our members are rightfully concerned about how their existing motor vehicle insurance may be affected by the use of their vehicle to transport children in care. It’s important to remember that some insurers may not cover you if you use your car for both personal and business purposes.
We’ve put together a quick Q&A to outline some important questions you should ask before purchasing any motor vehicle insurance, and how FDCA’s insurance stacks up.
“I now operate a Family Day Care business and am paid to care for children. Some of the activities such as school runs and excursions will involve taking the children in the car. Will you still cover my car under a private use motor vehicle policy?”
FDCA Answer: Yes!
“I may have a number of child safety seats and booster seats to cater for the range of children I have in care. Will you cover all the child seats on the policy?”
FDCA Answer: Yes, but they must be listed on the policy.
“If I have an accident and I am unable to use the car, will you cover the cost to hire a car?”
FDCA Answer: Yes, if you have selected this option.
To protect your vehicle with insurance that understands the unique needs of your family day care business, give us a call on 1800 658 699 or visit our website.
.svg)
