Close
Family day care was placed firmly at the centre of the national workforce conversation this week, with FDCA General Manager of Advocacy and Engagement, Michael Farrell, invited to speak on a panel at the ACECQA Biennial Workforce Forum on the topic ‘Culture, Educator Wellbeing and Children’s Outcomes’.
Representing family day care on a panel exploring how cultural settings shape educator wellbeing and how wellbeing, in turn, shapes children’s outcomes, Mr. Farrell highlighted the essential role that family day care plays in achieving equitable access, flexibility and inclusion across the ECEC system. He reinforced the model’s strengths in providing small group environments, low ratios, individualised programming and sustained educator-child relationships over time.
During the session, Mr. Farrell spoke to several core themes, including:
Mr. Farrell’s full opening statement that was delivered at the Forum, can be found below.
From a family day care perspective, what stands out immediately as significant in the cultural context is there is a general perception of negativity, inferiority or simply indifference, which correlates with how it is regulated and how valued workers feel – this, in turn, impacts directly on educator wellbeing.
Yet despite this, the sector’s capacity to contribute to strong learning and developmental outcomes for children doesn’t waver, particularly for a number of specific cohorts - this needs to be recognised, valued and promoted.
Too often, family day care sits at the edge of the conversation. In a system where professional recognition, equitable pay and conditions, burnout and administrative burden are rightly discussed, the family day care context is rarely considered in the development of strategic policy solutions.
As Gabrielle Sinclair once said at a Parliamentary Friends of Early Childhood breakfast, and I quote - “We have failed family day care.”
Too frequently, family day care is viewed through a lens of distrust or treated as a “lesser” version of centre‑based care. That framing has consequences.
It seeps into policy design and enforcement settings; it adds compliance load for sole operators; it erodes professional identity and, ultimately, wellbeing.
When viable family day care places disappear under poorly‑calibrated regulations or deficit narratives, families lose access and choice - especially those needing flexibility or non‑standard hours, or culturally responsive options.
Meanwhile, on the things that drive quality, family day care excels.
If we are serious about equitable child outcomes across the ECEC system, we must also be serious about equitable wellbeing supports for every educator in that system. And that starts by recognising the unique realities of their work - and designing for them, not despite them.
If we are serious about equitable outcomes for children, we must be serious about equitable wellbeing supports for every educator. that starts by recognising the unique realities of family day care and designing for them, not despite them:
The test is simple: do our policies and our language make it easier for a sole educator, working from home, to be well, to be valued and to be present for children? If yes, children benefit. If no, access, equity and outcomes suffer. It’s time to see, support and trust family day care - and to build a system that fits the model we say we value.
This week is your last chance to have your say in the FDCA 2025 Membership Survey and go into the draw to win 1 of 5 $200 gift cards.
The survey will close on 1 December 2025.
The survey provides members the opportunity to help guide FDCA’s priorities and future direction.
As a member-driven organisation, your insights are vital to ensuring that our goals and initiatives continue to reflect the needs of our members and the broader family day care sector. By sharing your feedback, you’ll help shape how FDCA continues to represent, support and promote our members and the family day care sector across Australia.
Survey invitations and reminders have been sent by Survey Matters, an independent research firm, who is managing the survey on FDCA’s behalf.
If you have not received an email from Survey Matters about the survey, please check your spam/junk folders or contact marketing@fdca.com.au.
With the deadline for services to transition to Direct Gap Fee Collection (DGFC) now only five weeks away, many services are focusing on how to strengthen their systems and continue supporting educators and families through the change.
For one service operating across two states, establishing clear systems and processes from the outset has significantly eased the transition to DGFC. The service developed robust systems to maintain accuracy and confidence in records and focused on consistent processes, timeframes and transparency with educators and families.
The benefits from this approach are that the service has full transparency over fees paid and family accounts and families have a clear process for managing payments, with support or flexibility, if needed.
You can read this story, and access resources that can help you to refine your systems, on the FDCA website.
As part of our ongoing commitment to delivering high quality, contemporary professional development resources for members, we're excited to announce the addition of two new courses on the FDCA Learning Hub:
The Understanding and Guiding Behaviours: The 6Rs Framework course will help you learn why minimising environmental challenges can provide children with opportunities to develop resilience and to stay calm and in control; why support for children hinges on us being aware of children’s unique triggers; and why intentional play-based pedagogies, child choice and opportunities for planning and problem-solving are essential components of effective early learning environments.
Fundamental Movement Skills: Beyond the Basics will provide the foundation to understand what fundamental movement skills are and the important role they play in supporting children’s holistic development. The course explores ways that educators can engage children in developing their fundamental movement skills as part of each day within the curriculum.
To access these new courses, simply log into your FDCA Member Zone and select the Learning Hub tab.
The 2025 Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Staff Survey is now open.
Conducted by ORIMA Research on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Education, this important national survey will help:
We encourage all family day care educators, coordinators, directors and managers to participate so the unique perspectives of our sector are well represented.
The survey will take approximately 5-10 minutes to complete, is anonymous and seeks your feedback on:
All participants can enter the draw to win one of 50 x $200 gift vouchers!
For more information and to complete the survey, click here.
FDCA offers more than just great public liability insurance to protect your business. We have a range of options to protect your home, your vehicle and you!
We also offer Family Day Care Legal Services through our partners, Wotton Kearney, to provide you with top tier legal advice and peace of mind.
Wotton & Kearney are one of the undisputed leaders in the legal services industry, with specific expertise in the provision of family day care and over 340 specialised lawyers operating across Australian and New Zealand.
Trusted by educators and services for over 35 years, click here or call 1800 658 699 to find out more about how FDCA has got all of your business needs covered.
Need additional support?
If you have questions or need additional support, please contact FDCA’s Sector Support Team on 1800 658 699 or enquiries@fdca.com.au.
As we approach 2026, now is an ideal time to review your enrolment processes and documentation and ensure they are up to date and compliant.
Keeping accurate and current enrolment records is a requirement under Regulations 160, 161 and 162 of the National Regulations.
To support services with this, ACECQA provides a child enrolment record template designed to support services maintain accurate, compliant records and strengthen their enrolment practices.
While you’re encouraged to review the ACECQA template, there is no requirement to replace your existing enrolment forms if they already meet all legislative requirements.
ACECQA has made the enrolment template available in two easy to use formats :
For more guidance on meeting NQF requirements and best practice approaches to collecting enrolment information, refer to ACECQA’s Guidance for child enrolment records information sheet.
You can access these resources, along with more information about the NQF on the ACECQA website.
The latest ACECQA National Quality Framework (NQF) Snapshot has been released, revealing that there are now 18,029 approved services operating under the NQF across Australia. This is a 2% increase over the last 12 months.
The Q3 2025 NQF Snapshot shows that there are 409 approved family day care services operating across Australia. Of these, 77% of services are rated Meeting NQS or above, representing a 4% increase over the last 12 months.
You can view the latest NQF Snapshot here.
.svg)
