Close
Identified as one of the most common breach items in family day care, Regulation 116 of the Education and Care Services National Regulations states that all family day care services must ensure that every residence or approved venue is assessed, including a risk assessment, before education and care is provided, with ongoing assessments to be completed at least once a year.
This regulation plays a critical role in safeguarding the health, safety and wellbeing of children in family day care environments.
Service providers are required to conduct a thorough assessment of each residence and venue, document the suitability and safety of the environment, including indoor and outdoor spaces. Service providers must ensure ongoing monitoring and regular reviews, maintaining records to demonstrate compliance and inform continuous improvement.
Key Considerations
The assessment of family day care residences and venues under Regulation 116 isn’t just a compliance requirement – it’s a critical step in ensuring every child has access to a safe, engaging and high-quality early learning environment.
Additional resources
All children attending approved early childhood education and care services must be enrolled, whether or not they are receiving Child Care Subsidy (CCS). This is a legal requirement under the Family Assistance Law.
To ensure CCS payments can be made correctly, it is essential that the correct care arrangement type is in place for each child. There are four types of care arrangements:
1. Complying Written Arrangement (CWA)
2. Relevant Arrangement (RA)
3. Provider Eligible Arrangement (PEA)
4. Arrangement with an Organisation (Third Party Arrangement)
Correctly identifying and setting up the appropriate care arrangement is vital for compliance and ensuring families receive the support they are entitled to.
For more detailed information, visit the Department of Education's guide on enrolling children and care arrangements
You can also explore the Department’s Understanding Enrolments Geccko training course to further support your knowledge in this area.
FDCA Members can now access edition 108 of JiGSAW Magazine in your FDCA Member Zone.
Among a jam packed edition, we have a raft of fantastic articles, including features from some of our very own members, informative pieces from within the sector and a list of all those nominated in this year's Excellence in Family Day Care Awards.
Click here to read edition 108 of JiGSAW
Kicking off this issue we have an introduction to some of the FDCA Team, a new segment designed to help our members get to know the FDCA Team a little better. We recap the 2025 Family Day Care Week Adventure at the Zoo, as well as provide an update on this year's Excellence in Family Day Care Awards.
Headlining this issue are some fantastic features from members including, a piece from Marie Armstrong of Early Years Care on Loose Parts Play and an insight into Multiculturalism in Family Day Care by Mugdha Sathe-Thapar from Elite Family Day Care.
We also celebrate 200 Years of Family Day Care Experience with City of Kingston Family Day Care and share Josefina Lim’s Journey Through Montessori and the Heart of Family Day Care, among plenty more.
Don’t forget you’ll also have the chance to win some great prizes inside in our Fun with FDCA competitions on page 37.
You’ll also hear from our regular contributors, with ACECQA providing an overview of resources available to educators, Ben Mueller from FDC Tax gets us ready for tax in 2025/2026 and Be You explores the notion of Working Together to promote thriving learning communities.
JiGSAW is Going Digital!
As part of our ongoing commitment to sustainability and ensuring that we maximise the allocation of our limited resources efficiently, FDCA has made the considered decision to transition JiGSAW to a digital-only publication moving forward.
JiGSAW will continue to deliver the same insights, sector updates and stories from across the family day care community that you know and love. The only change is that it will now be available exclusively via your FDCA Member Zone.
Contribute to an Upcoming Edition
Do you have a story you think we need to share? We are always on the hunt for incredible stories from within the sector to include in JiGSAW.
If you would like to contribute to an upcoming edition of JiGSAW, send us an email at marketing@fdca.com.au.
The Family Day Care Brains Trust is back this month!
The idea of the Family Day Care Brains Trust is to share knowledge and ideas and provide support amongst the family day care community.
The Family Day Care Brains Trust sees a scenario posted on the FDCA Facebook page, based on real-life queries we’ve received. You can then share what you would do or any tips you have in the comments. We’ll then collate all your comments and then share them with our community.
The latest scenario:
Yasmin would like to explore how she undertakes her critical reflection so that it’s both purposeful and compliant, and so that she can be confident in what she records.
How do you document your critical reflections in your practice?
You can share your expertise and thoughts here on the FDCA Facebook page.
Did you know that FDCA has an Incident Reporting protocol for when incidents occur in your family day care business? Did you also know that FDCA's Member Zone allows you to lodge an incident report online with the click of a button?
Below are some examples of the types of incidents and the time frames in which you are required to notify FDCA:
Category A
These are severe incidents where a claim is likely to occur. These types of incidents must be reported to FDCA within 48 hours of the incident. Some examples of a Category A incident are:
Category B
These incidents are less severe but a claim may still occur from the incident. These types of incidents must be reported to FDCA within 30 days of the incident. Some examples of a Category B incident are:
Category C
These incidents are not severe and can be managed and dealt with straight away. There is no need to report a Category C incident to FDCA. Some examples of a Category C incident are:
These timeframes must be followed to ensure protection under your insurance policy, in the event that the incident leads to a claim in the future.
How to report an incident?
You can either complete FDCA’s incident report form which is available here OR you can complete an online incident report form which is located in the Insurance section of your FDCA Member Zone. Hard copy incident report forms, once completed, can be emailed to memberservices@fdca.com.au.
For more information on incident reporting, please click here.
Please note: educators and approved providers also have a range of reporting obligations relating to incidents under the Education and Care Services National Law and National Regulations. Click here to see a summary of the notification obligations under the National Law.
.svg)
