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About the Awards

As Australia’s only awards program focused solely on family day care, the Excellence in Family Day Care Awards shine a light on outstanding achievement across family day care services, coordinators and educators.

We invite families, services and educators to tell us in their own words, what makes their educator, coordinator or approved service such an integral and special contributor to their lives and to the lives of the children in their care.

Award Categories

Click on the links below to view more information on each of the Excellence in Family Day Care Awards categories.

How do the awards work?

Nominations and submissions

During the nomination period (4 June - 4 July 2024) families, services and educators are invited to nominate their family day care educator, coordinator or approved service via a simple online nomination form.

When an educator, coordinator or approved service is nominated they are advised of their nomination via email. During the nomination period, regular emails are sent to all nominees informing them that they have been nominated. A nomination list is also published on this website.

Inside their email, nominees are invited to make a supporting submission against specific questions outlined in the online submission form. Nominees have until 21 July 2024 to complete their supporting submission.

Awards Judging

Once the submission deadline has passed, a number of judging phases take place in the lead up to the announcement of the Excellence in Family Day Care Awards National Winners.

Regional winners (educators only), Star Award winners and national finalists in each category are selected by an official FDCA selection committee. The FDCA selection committee* is made up of representatives from the FDCA Board of Directors, who each have extensive experience in the family day care sector.

The members of the selection committee are:

  • Sarah Fowler, Executive Director, Kentish Lifelong Learning and Care Inc, NT
  • Cindy Fraser, Service Manager, Bambini Child Care Services, VIC
  • Olivia Moller, Let's Go Family Day Care, VIC
  • Stephanie Hoy, Family Day Care Educator, West Country Family Day Care, SA

Following the selection of the national finalists by the FDCA selection committee, each finalist is reviewed by a sector representative who is independent of FDCA, and National Winner recommendations are made for the Educator of the Year, Coordinator of the Year and Service of the Year categories. In 2024, Perry Campbell, Senior Manager, Priority Support, National Projects from ACECQA will assist in this independent advisor role.

*Services that are directly connected to FDCA Board Directors or FDCA staff are not eligible for awards.

Key Dates

  • Nominations open - 4 June 2024
  • Nominations close - 4 July 2024
  • Submissions close - 21 July 2024
  • Regional winners announced - 24 September 2024
  • Star award winners announced - 8 October 2024
  • National finalists announced - 15 October 2024
  • National winners announced - 23 November 2024

Did you know that during its history the Excellence in Family Day Care Awards has...

  • Received over to 43,000 nominations
  • Produced more than 1,150 positive media stories about family day care
  • Generated more than $1.5M worth of positive media for family day care
  • Handed over 1,200 awards to educators, coordinators and services