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FDCA members will be sent an invitation to take part in our FDCA 2025 Membership Survey over the next two days, which 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.
Your survey invitation will be sent by Survey Matters, an independent research firm, who will be managing the survey on FDCA’s behalf.
We encourage all members to take part in the survey and as thank-you for your time, all participants will go in the draw to win 1 of 5, $200 gift cards.
If you do not receive a survey invitation by midday Thursday 6 November, please contact support@surveymatters.com.au
Under Regulation 177 and Regulation 178 of the Education and Care Services National Regulations, both approved providers and family day care educators keep specific records and documents, and ensure they are up to date and accessible to regulatory authorities and families when requested.
What records must be kept?
Approved Providers must keep the following records and documents:
Family day care educators must keep the following records and documents:
Reminder: Under Regulation 179, family day care educators must provide all required records to the approved provider when they leave a service.
How long do records have to be kept?
Regulation 183 requires these records be stored in a safe and secure place. The records must be kept for the required timeframes:
Child-related records are to be kept for 3 years after a child’s last day of attendance. This includes:
Longer retention periods apply in certain cases, such as records relating to:
The Royal Commission recommended that organisations engaged in child-related work retain records relating to child sexual abuse that has, or is alleged to have occurred, for at least 45 years.
For further information ACECQA have available a Record keeping In family day care information sheet.
Visitor records are a simple but important requirement that help maintain child safety and service compliance. Under Regulation 165 – Record of visitors, a log must be kept of all visitors who enter the family day care residence or approved venue while education and care is taking place. That includes anyone who doesn’t live or work at the residence or venue, for example:
The record needs to be kept at the family day care residence or approved family day care venue and must include:
These records must be kept for three years and can be digital.
For more information and a complete list of all required information for a visitors record see the Education and Care Services National Regulations.
Protecting children from harm is one of the most important responsibilities in family day care.
Under Section 167 of the Education and Care Services National Law all approved providers, nominated supervisors and educators must take every reasonable precaution to protect children from harm and any hazard likely to cause injury.
One area frequently linked to this obligation – and is commonly breached – is Regulation 97: Emergency and Evacuation Procedures.
While many educators display an emergency and evacuation plan, compliance reviews have found that plans often don’t match the current layout of the home, or educators aren’t fully confident in understanding or following their plan during an emergency.
Understanding where exits are located and how to evacuate safely is just as important as having the plan itself.
Key Considerations:
Embedding these practices keeps children safe, educators prepared, and services able to respond confidently in any situation.
Regular risk assessments, policy reviews and team discussions with coordination units helps to maintain compliance and strengthen a culture of safety and awareness.
Additional Resources:
FDCA Learning Hub – Professional Learning Resources:
Starting out Safely are pleased to announce that four new free online training sessions have now been scheduled for the remainder of 2025!
Delivering the training online makes it easier for providers with educators spread across multiple suburbs to participate.
This Best Practice Road Safety Education session has been developed and supported by Early Learning Association Australia (ELAA), the TAC, and the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH), alongside the Starting out Safely experienced early childhood professionals.
FDCA members are invited to attend the sessions, simply register via the below links to secure your place. Certificates are issued to participants who join the meeting for the duration and participate through the chat function. Attendance certificates will be provided within 4 weeks of participation.
The Dates and Registration:
Numbers are limited for this year so we would recommend attendees register ASAP to avoid missing out.
For all things safe transportation of children, please visit www.carseatssavelives.com.au
Did you know that so far in 2025 our Family Day Care Locator has generated over 10,000 child care enquiries for FDCA members!
With numbers like this, ensuring your Family Day Care Locator listing is up to date is crucial if you want to attract new families to your family day care business, and with every FDCA member having access to a FREE listing there’s no excuse not to get moving.
To help you add some sparkle and polish to your listing, we’ve got some easy to understand, short video guides to set you on your way.
Managing your listing
To get your Family Day Care Locator listing standing out from the crowd, you’ll need to add a little shimmer and shine! This means adding your business name, updating your profile picture and telling your story.
To view a short video on how to manage your listing, click here.
Checking your enquiries
Once your listing is glistening, you’ll need to be ready to respond to care enquiries when they start coming in.
Click here to see how you can access your Family Day Care Locator enquiries inbox to check, manage and respond to enquiries.
Level up your listing
Once your listing is in tip top shape, we have a range of marketing packages that can help you get your listing to the top of the pops!
There’s too many exciting features to list here, so we’ve created a quick video below that will guide you through all the benefits available across each package that can help you level up your listing!
Click here to find out how you can level up your listing.
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