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FDCA has submitted its pre-budget submission to the Australian Government for 2026-27.
The submission outlines the urgent challenges facing family day care and sets out targeted policy and funding measures to stabilise the sector. It focuses on practical reforms to support educator sustainability, address structural viability pressures and create the conditions needed for family day care to remain a strong, accessible and valued part of Australia’s early childhood education and care system.
Regarding the submission, FDCA Chief Executive Officer Andrew Paterson said, “Given its unique model and capabilities, family day care should be central to all future reform considerations seeking to improve the affordability, accessibility and flexibility of ECEC options available to families.”
Key recommendations and investment measures outlined in FDCA’s Pre-Budget Submission include:
To view the submission, click here.
A new year brings new goals, new challenges and new opportunities and as an FDCA member, you don’t have to navigate them alone.
Did you know that your membership includes a growing suite of free, practical tools and professional resources designed to support your practice, strengthen your business and save you time and money throughout 2026?
Here’s what’s ready and waiting for you right now.
Professional Learning That Fits Around You - FDCA Learning Hub
Learn, Reflect and Engage with Sector Experts - Webinar: Marketing for Family Day Care
Get Discovered by Families Looking for Care - Family Day Care Locator
Marketing Materials Made Easy - FDCA Market My Business Hub
Practical Guidance at Your Fingertips - Resources and Factsheets
To find out more and how you can access these free resources and tools as part of your FDCA membership, click here.
FDCA is delighted to welcome Michael Buggy, who was recently appointed to the FDCA Board of Directors.
Michael has worked across media, law, and, most recently, entrepreneurship, having established two successful businesses. He holds qualifications in Political Science and Law and transitioned from a journalism career to legal practice upon his admission in 2012. His experience in insurance law motivated him to establish Yegal Paralegal in 2016, a business providing labour hire and recruitment solutions to law firms nationwide.
Managing payroll at scale through Yegal led Michael to build Fairtime in 2022 — a software platform that automates payroll compliance for Australian employers. He is driven by a passion for leveraging technology to streamline business processes and solve operational challenges.
Family day care continues to play an important role in ensuring children and families in regional communities can access flexible, relationship-based education and care. Early outcomes from the Family Day Care Capability Trial highlight how supporting educators to get established in areas of limited supply can lead to meaningful local impact.
The experiences of two new family day care educators in regional Victoria, Jess and Miriam, provide insight into what this looks like at a community level. Both entered family day care with strong motivation to create nurturing, home-based learning environments. However, like many prospective educators, they encountered challenges in preparing welcoming, safe and compliant spaces within their homes. Through support provided as part of the Trial, both have been able to confidently set up and open their services sooner, offering much needed education and care to local families.
Jess and Miriam’s experiences reinforce what services across the country already know, that family day care remains uniquely placed to respond to community need, particularly in regional and low-supply areas.
While the Capability Trial operates in selected locations for evaluation purposes, experiences like these are contributing to a growing evidence base about how family day care can remain a sustainable and responsive model in thin markets where other service types may be difficult to establish. The insights gained through the Trial are informing ongoing discussions with the Australian Government and state and territory governments, helping to build confidence in future approaches and potential longer-term measures that support sector growth, educator viability and improved access for families.
Read Jess and Miriam’s stories here.
With national reforms underway to strengthen child safety across education and care, ACECQA has published a range of guides, information sheets and tools to help services and educators understand what’s changing and how to embed safer practice.
These resources support stronger child-safe practices across policies, procedures, supervision, behaviour guidance and the safe use of technology. The resources are available on the ACECQA website now and can be accessed here.
New and updated resources include:
Information sheets
Policy and procedure guidelines
In addition, ACECQA have also developed two pages explaining the broader reforms:
The Guide to the NQF has also been updated to reflect the child safety reforms, including revised wording and new content.
Services and educators are encouraged to check the Child Safety Tools page regularly for more information and resources as they become available.
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