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Following three separate submissions to the Australian Government Senate Committee on COVID-19, yesterday FDCA’s Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Paterson, appeared as a witness before the Committee; the only ECEC representative to appear at the hearing.
On behalf of our members, Andrew highlighted the many unique strengths of the sector and the vital role played by family day care throughout the pandemic and more broadly, as a vital part of Australia’s ECEC landscape.
"Through the emergence of COVID-19 it was widely acknowledged that family day care is the most agile early childhood education care type in supporting children, families, essential workers and the economy..." Mr Paterson said.
In detailing the challenges faced by the sector through the Australian Government’s funding responses, Andrew highlighted the inadequate consideration of the family day care model in the funding design and the inability of the funding structures to support the sector that ‘stood-up’ in support of families during COVID-19.
"...the family day care sector remained highly resilient in the face of considerable adversity. I am incredibly proud to be a part of our sector - the continuity of education and care remained largely unbroken and our members worked collaboratively and professionally to provide for the diverse and continued needs of Australian children and families throughout the pandemic."
While FDCA’s appearance at the hearing was an opportunity to reiterate the sector’s experience, it was also an opportunity to advocate for greater consideration of the uniqueness and strengths of family day care going forward.
Andrew called on the Australian Government to improve consultation efforts, create a dedicated Commonwealth family day care policy team, ensure that future funding responses are appropriately tailored for our sector, and make amendments to the CCS fee cap to ensure equitable remuneration across the sector and support the provision of non-standard hours care.
We encourage you to check out the highlights video on the FDCA Facebook page of Andrew’s appearance at the Senate Select Committee hearing, or watch his full speech here: http://parlview.aph.gov.au/mediaPlayer.php?videoID=517085&operation_mode=parlview#/4
With the end of the Transition Payment for early childhood education and care service providers on September 27 2020 (with the exception of Victoria), eligible educators that continue to be affected by a significant loss of revenue and meet the new turnover test may consider applying for JobKeeper 2.0 which commences from 28 September 2020.
The new eligibility criteria for sole trader applicants for JobKeeper includes:
The new eligibility criteria for sole trader applicants for JobKeeper also requires that you have already satisfied certain conditions on 12 March 2020, being that you had an ABN on 12 March 2020 and lodged one of the following:
From 28 September 2020 to 3 January 2021, the payment rate will be $1,200 per fortnight for eligible business participants who were actively engaged in the business for more than 20 hours per week, and $750 per fortnight for business participants who were actively engaged in the business less than 20 hours per week in the reference period. These rates will reduce to $1,000 and $650 respectively for the period of 4 January 2021 to 28 March 2021.
More information on JobKeeper eligibility for sole trader educators can be found here.
To enrol for JobKeeper, you will need to lodge your enrolment form through the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) online services site, which can be accessed via MyGov.
Please note that this guidance is general in nature and educators are encouraged to seek their own financial advice in relation to their specific circumstances. For the purpose of transparency, educators should advise their service if they intend to apply for JobKeeper. *
Should you have any questions about your JobKeeper eligibility as a sole trader educator, please contact the ATO by clicking here.
* Future grant programs may include conditions regarding educators accessing JobKeeper payments.
Did you know that each year FDCA's Family Day Care Locator generates over 60,000 searches by families looking for family day care?
This means that your free Family Day Care Locator listing is a key element of the marketing and promotions toolkit for your family day care business.
Our Family Day Care Locator has been designed to assist you to grow and promote your family day care business. You can also customise and manage your locator listing to help your family day care business stand out from the crowd.
Best of all, your locator listing is included as part of your FDCA membership.
To manage your Family Day Care Locator listing, all you need to do is log in to your FDCA Member Zone and select "My Locator Listing". Inside your Locator Listing you will be able to:
To access your Family Day Care Locator enquiries, log in to your FDCA Member Zone and select "Locator Enquiries".
This will allow you to view a summary of your recent enquiries. You can review the details of each individual enquiry by clicking on the 'View' link for that enquiry, which will allow you to view the full message that was sent.
It is important to note that contact details are sent to the family day care service.
To view a short video on how to manage your Family Day Care Locator listing and view your enquiries, click on one of the links below:
Click here to view our educator locator video; and
Click here to view our service locator video.
When you receive a new enquiry from the Family Day Care Locator an email will be sent to your registered email address. This will contain a link that will take you straight to your FDCA Member Zone so that you can view the enquiry.
To access your FDCA Member Zone, follow these five simple steps:
FDCA is calling for nominations to fill a vacancy arising upon the cessation of the tenure of a current Member Elected Director at this year’s Annual General Meeting.
The FDCA Board of Directors is focused on the effective governance of the company, including strategic direction, finance, compliance and risk management.
Please click here to view FDCA’s current Board of Directors.
If you are interested in considering a directorship with FDCA, please contact Company Secretary, Cherie Perceval, on cherie.perceval@fdca.com.au for a copy of the Board Candidate Nomination Pack and instructions on submitting your nomination.
Nominations must be received by close of business (AEST) Wednesday 30 September.
Following the wrap up of our 12-month payment plan, FDCA is excited to announce the launch of a new 10-month payment plan for the FDCA 2021 National Conference.
This new payment plan follows feedback from our members requesting a further long term payment option, and allows FDCA members to purchase conference tickets with 10 payments of $62.40.
The 10-month payment plan will be available for members to access up until 30 November 2020.
We are mindful that for many, committing to the purchase of a conference ticket is a big decision. To support our members to attend, we are committed to offering full refunds to all members up until 28 July 2021.
This means that you can purchase your ticket with the knowledge that you will be able to get a full refund before 28 July 2021.
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