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Registrations are currently open for National Family Day Care Week!
This year National Family Day Care Week will be celebrated from 4-10 May, and we’re inviting all FDCA members to join in the festivities by hosting their own celebratory picnic.
As a special bonus, the first 200 FDCA members who register their National Family Day Care Week Picnic before 29 March will receive a FREE National Family Day Care Week Picnic Pack.
Your FREE National Family Day Care Week Picnic Pack will include:
To register your National Family Day Care Week Picnic, click here, making sure to include your FDCA membership number in the registration form.
Now is an important time for the sector to unite and celebrate the unique strengths of family day care and we encourage all members to do this through events such as National Family Day Care Week.
To find out more about National Family Day Care Week, click here.
In October 2025, the Department for Education South Australia proudly presented at the FDCA 2025 National Conference in Melbourne for the first time, sharing their journey of embedding Aboriginal and Zenadth Kes (formerly Torres Strait Islander) perspectives into family day care through the Walking Alongside project.
What began with a coordinator’s curiosity about embedding these perspectives in daily practice has grown into a service-wide opportunity. This journey encourages all educators to reflect on how we can meaningfully incorporate Aboriginal perspectives and culture with confidence, and without the fear of making mistakes.
Family day care recently shared their story on the Teach Podcast, produced by the Department for Education, South Australia. In the latest episode, Kaurna Elder Uncle Kauwana Tamaru and Family Day Care Service Manager Liz Whitbread discuss key insights from the Walking Alongside project.
Hear how educators, children and families are learning together – building confidence, embracing Aboriginal language and culture and creating stronger connections with Country.
This episode provides practical insights and inspiring stories for making a difference in early childhood education.
Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
Whether it’s a school drop off, excursion or part of your regular routine, ensuring the safe transportation of children is a shared responsibility between the approved provider, nominated supervisor, coordinator, and educator.
Regularly reviewing and updating your transport risk assessment helps ensure safe practices are embedded in your day to day practice.
In family day care, regular transportation is often seen as the same trip happening regularly (for example – school drop offs and pick ups or a routine excursion that you may attend weekly) where the route, timing and arrangements are generally the same each time. Where transportation is ‘regular transportation’, a risk assessment does not need to be completed each time provided one has been conducted within the previous 12 months and the circumstances, risks or children’s needs have not changed.
Your transport risk assessments must identify and assess any risks that the transportation may pose to the child’s safety, health or wellbeing, and outline how those risks will be managed and minimised.
When reviewing your risk assessment consider:
If your service provides or arranges transportation, the approved provider must ensure the service has policies and procedures in place to support children’s safety during transportation, consistent with the National Law and Regulations.
For more guidance, including a risk assessment template, visit ACECQA’s Quality Area 2.14: Transportation, or read their information sheet on Safe Transportation of Children.
The FDCA office will be closed from 5pm AEDT Thursday 2nd April, and reopen 9am AEST Tuesday 7th April for Good Friday and Easter Monday.
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. If you need to make an emergency claim, details of how to do this are located on our website.
We wish everyone a happy and safe Easter.
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