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19 May 2021

First round of nominations for the 2021 Excellence in Family Day Care Awards to be announced tomorrow!

The first round of nominations for the 2021 Excellence in Family Day Care Awards are set to be released tomorrow. 

Family Day Care Australia (FDCA) members who have been nominated will receive a nomination confirmation email. You will also be able to view the first round of nominees on our website.

Stay tuned to the FDCA Facebook page and also your inbox for tomorrow’s announcement.

How do the Awards work?

One of the most common questions we receive about the Excellence in Family Day Care Awards is "How are the Awards winners selected?"

Each year, educators, coordinators, services, families and local communities are invited to place nominations over a four week period. Following the end of the nomination period, nominees are then given an additional two weeks to place their supporting submissions.

After the close of nominations, an eight week process of judging the nominations and submissions begins. 

Regional educator winners, Star Award winners and National Finalists in each category are then selected by an official FDCA selection committee. This committee is made up of representatives of who each have extensive experience in the family day care sector; you can view the selection committee here.

National Finalists are then reviewed by a chosen representative where a National Educator, Coordinator and Service of the Year are selected and announced at the Excellence in Family Day Care Awards Gala Dinner.

To place a nomination in the 2021 Excellence in Family Day Care Awards, simply click on one of the links below:

Click here to nominate an educator
Click here to nominate a coordinator
Click here to nominate a service

Nominations for the 2021 Awards close on 13 June 2021.

Share the Awards!

Spread the word about the 2021 Excellence in Family Day Care Awards by getting active on social media. 

Whether it’s sharing posts from the FDCA page or creating posts of your own, you’ll help us build interest in, and awareness of, the Awards and the importance of this event for our sector.

Click here to access the FDCA Facebook page

Display Awards materials at your office or home

You can also download your own Awards materials to advertise at your service office or at your home.

To download your poster, nomination slips, email banner or social media images for Facebook and Instagram, follow the links below.

The Awards are the only event of its kind for the family day care sector in Australia, showcasing the incredible achievements of educators, coordinators and services each year.

To find out more information, including how you could take home a part of $30,000 worth of prizes, visit our website at www.familydaycare.com.au/awards

National Workforce Strategy - have your say!

Have you had your say in the National Children’s Education and Care Workforce Strategy consultation yet? The Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) is currently seeking your views on actions and initiatives that you believe will assist in improving the supply, retention and quality of the sector workforce.

FDCA has represented the family day care sector through the preliminary consultation phases as a member of the Workforce Co-design Stakeholder Reference Group since September 2020. Now is your chance to ensure that the voices of family day care educators and services are heard by providing feedback through the online survey which you can access here. The survey will remain open only until 31 May

ACECQA will analyse all feedback received and use it to inform the development of the ten year workforce strategy (2021–30), which is scheduled to be considered by national sector stakeholders, government representatives and Education Ministers in the second half of this year.

This work is the result of Education Ministers, in December 2019, endorsing the development of a new national workforce strategy as a joint partnership between all governments, the children’s education and care sector, and other key stakeholders.

ACECQA, on behalf of all governments, is coordinating the development of the new strategy, including stakeholder and public consultation.

ACECQA has undertaken extensive consultations with national sector stakeholders and government representatives, including FDCA. These two groups have informed the potential actions and initiatives included in the consultation paper, published at the start of May 2021.

For further information about the National Education and Care Workforce Strategy, go to www.acecqa.gov.au/national-workforce-strategy.


FDCA 2021 National Conference 4-month payment plan ends this month

Providing our members with more ways to access professional development and networking events is important to us. That’s why we’ve launched a final 4-month payment plan for the FDCA 2021 National Conference.

The 4-month payment plan allows you to purchase your conference ticket at our early bird pricing, with 4 monthly payments of $156.00.

This offer ends 31 May 2021 so make sure to secure your payment plan today. Click here to access!

Extended refund policy for your peace of mind

To provide our members with a risk-free ticket purchasing experience, FDCA will ensure that any members who are unable to attend the conference due to COVID-19 related circumstances will receive a FULL refund on their ticket purchase up until three weeks out from the conference.

This means you can take advantage of our 4-month payment plan knowing that we’ve got you covered!

Preliminary conference program available to view!

Start planning your unique conference experience with the release of our 2021 National Conference preliminary program.

Conference attendees will have 24 workshops to choose from on a range of different topics, in addition to keynote addresses from experts in the early childhood education and care sector.

On the final night of the Conference, you’ll have the chance to let your hair down and get your boogie on at the Gala Dinner!

Click here to view the program.

Online survey about COVID related health messaging and advice OPEN NOW

A multi-disciplinary team of internationally renowned researchers led by Macquarie University is  investigating how the early childhood sector finds out about, and passes on, important health and wellbeing information following the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

You can ensure that family day care is included in this important research by spending 15-20 minutes of your time to respond to a national  online survey, which is a core component  of this project.

Please follow the survey links below:

Survey for FDC Educators 

Survey for FDC Approved Providers/Coordinators 

In addition, the research team is interested to hear the perspectives of families who accessed family day care during 2020 and 2021. We encourage our service members to distribute the survey link below to the families in your care:

Survey for families

Please note that all responses to the survey are completely anonymous, and your choice to participate or not is respected and will remain completely confidential. Survey responses, including response rates, are only accessible by the Macquarie University team.

Are you interested in contributing further to this project?

The research team are also seeking family day care services who would be interested in participating in interviews, to discuss their experiences in communicating health related messages to families, staff and educators during 2020 and into 2021.

If you would like to find out more, or to get involved, please email Enquiries@fdca.com.au ASAP and we will forward your name to the research team who can provide more information.

Your participation in this important research project will ensure visibility of the family day care sector in this research and help the health and early childhood sectors to work together and ensure that health information is communicated effectively across Australia. Thank you to those services who have already expressed interest.

More than just great insurance!

Did you know that membership with FDCA is included as part of our Family Day Care Insurance Packages for educators and services?

When you purchase insurance with us, you become part of Australia’s largest community of family day care professionals.

To assist all of our members to deliver quality practice and thrive in every aspect of their business, FDCA offers a comprehensive range of member benefits:

  • Real-time, specialist business and regulatory advice
  • Tailored family day care resources to drive continuous improvement and a deeper understanding of the NQF
  • Regular communications on issues that matter
  • Ongoing consultation to assist in informing the priorities of FDCA
  • Strong advocacy and representation on local, state and federal levels
  • The FDCA Locator Tool, helping you market your business to families in need of care across Australia
  • FDCA’s Member Zone, a one-stop shop for exclusive resources, training courses, resources and tools
  • Free, customisable marketing and promotional tools
  • Access to FDCA's Professional Learning Portal
  • Exclusive entry to FDCA events that shape the future of the sector
  • A peak body that understands the needs of services and educators, and is invested in the ongoing viability and success of the sector

Give us a call on 1800 658 699 to find out more about how you can start taking advantage of your member benefits!