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With 2021 coming to an end, we’d like to take a moment to thank our members for their unwavering dedication to providing quality outcomes for their children, families and communities.
Your membership directly contributes to our mission of representing, promoting and supporting the family day care sector.
As we look to 2022, we are excited for the opportunity to sit down with our members at events like our National Engagement Program forums, National Family Day Care Week and the Family Day Care Australia National Conference.
From all of us here at Family Day Care Australia, we wish you and your loved ones a happy and healthy holiday season and a wonderful start to the new year.
Office hours over the holiday period
The FDCA national office will be closed from Friday 24 December 2021 and will reopen at 9am Tuesday 4 January 2022.
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 at www.fdca.com.au.
If you need to make an emergency claim, details of how to do this are located on our website - otherwise please call our office on Tuesday 4 January 2022.
Keep an eye out for FDCA’s three-part series of bulletins, sharing with you our Member Initiatives and Key Projects over the year that’s been.
These initiatives and projects have fallen in-line with FDCA's 2020-2021 Key Initiatives and Strategic Plan, with the core goals being to represent, support and promote the family day care sector.
They have been designed to result in impacts that will not only provide tangible benefits to our members, but assist in reaching FDCA's vision of making family day care the natural choice for more Australian families.
As your national peak body, we are uniquely positioned to develop and deliver broadly representative policy positions through consultative and evidence-based advocacy efforts.
You can read more about how we have Represented and Promoted You by visiting theLatest News section on our website.
The final part of the series, outlining our strategic priorities and goals over 2021 to Support You, will launch this Thursday 23 December 2021.
Inspired by our members and their families, FDCA has developed a brand-new electronic storybook (E-Book) narrating a child’s first day of family day care.
The E-Book is designed to support the transition of children into care and showcase the natural approach to play and discovery that family day care nurtures.
FDCA members are able to access, create and download as many versions of the E-Book as they would like, free of charge from any desktop device.
Members are also able to customise the names of the E-Book’s main characters, including the main child, the parent, the educator and the name of the family day care, to make the story personal to your children.
This level of customisation means that you can create a new E-Book for each child in your care, or create an E-Book for new children arriving in your care to share with their family!
Alongside the ability to choose the character names, the use of well-known Australian native animals in the illustrations will allow a wide range of readers to “step into the shoes” of their character and follow along with the adventure!
How to use the E-Book
“My Family” Day Care is available to access through your FDCA Member Zone, under the subheading E-Book.
To customise and download your very own copy of “My Family” Day Care, refer to our “How to” video here.
We hope you enjoy reading “My Family” Day Care as much as we enjoyed producing it for you!
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.
With the new year upon us, we encourage you to update your listing to ensure it’s ready for families seeking care in 2022.
What’s new on the Family Day Care Locator?
A number of enhancements were made to the Family Day Care Locator to empower our members to get the most out of their listing:
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.
The Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) has made some important changes to the Starting Blocks website. From 7 February 2022, providers’ fees, vacancies, quality ratings and inclusions will be published on StartingBlocks.gov.au.
The aim of these updates is to help parents choose the best early childhood education and care for their family. Families will soon be able to:
For more information, visit DESE’s website at: https://www.dese.gov.au/starting-blocks
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