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Today the Australian Government released the Productivity Commission’s Inquiry into Early Childhood Education and Care’s “A path to universal early childhood education and care: Final report”.
The final report presents the Commission’s analysis and assessment of progress towards these policy goals under the current policy, regulatory, funding and governance settings, and presents recommendations to improve upon these settings as a pathway forward to achieve a universal Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) system.
Significantly, the Commission has recognised and responded to FDCA’s longstanding advocacy position around the inequitable Child Care Subsidy hourly fee cap for family day care and the need for a non-standard hours loading, alongside a number of other key positions.
FDCA engaged consistently with the Inquiry, providing submissions, appearing at the Commission’s Public Hearing and engaging with the Hon Dr Anne Aly, Minister for Early Childhood Education, and the Department of Education relating specifically to the Inquiry, its draft findings and recommendations.
FDCA’s submissions reiterated several long-held advocacy positions, while also introducing a number of new concepts, effectively pulling together a broad strategic vision which, through innovation, and program, regulatory and funding reform, the capabilities of family day care could be leveraged to better support many key policy and political objectives of government, and ultimately, better support children and families across Australia.
A considerable number of recommendations have the potential to impact positively on family day care, depending on how the Government responds, and it should be noted that a number of distinct positions put forward by FDCA in our submissions have been reflected in the Final Report. In summary (please see full report for complete detail), these include, but are not limited to:
What’s next?
FDCA will continue to advocate for appropriate consideration and implementation of recommendations that will better support family day care into the future. Thank you to all members who engaged in the various consultation processes across this period to inform the development of our submissions.
It should be noted that due to the scale and proposed phased implementation timeframes, there is clearly a long road ahead, particularly considering there is a Federal Election in 2025. However, it is clear that the important role of family day care has been carefully considered and recognised as a result of our ongoing shared advocacy efforts. We have a clear set of recommendations that are looking to our sector’s strengths, and the possibilities for better, more targeted support structures to promote our sector’s viability and growth into the future.
FDCA is pleased to announce that the call for abstracts for the FDCA 2025 National Conference are now open.
Renowned as the premier event for family day care professionals, the FDCA 2025 National Conference provides FDCA members with the unique opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with some of Australia’s leading minds in early childhood education and care, and share their knowledge, experience and insights.
Regardless of whether this is your first time attending the FDCA National Conference or you’re a conference regular, we invite you to submit an abstract to present. Join FDCA in representing, supporting and promoting family day care by adding your voice to the program.
As a presenter at the conference, you will become part of a stellar line-up that already includes internationally acclaimed New Zealand neuroscience educator Nathan Wallis, Dual Olympian and MD Dr Jana Pittman and National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds.
For more information and instructions on how to submit your abstracts, click here.
The Commonwealth Department of Education is progressively adding more short courses to its online learning platform for the early childhood education and care sector: Geccko. One of the available courses is the short course Fit and Proper Person Requirements.
The course supports early childhood education and care providers and persons with management or control (PMCs) in understanding their fit and proper person obligations under Family Assistance Law.
All courses on Geccko are self-paced and can be accessed using your tablet, computer/laptop or mobile phone. Certificates of completion can be downloaded upon completion.
You can find out more about and register for Geccko here.
The next installment of the FDCA Online Engagement Series will take place on Thursday 17 October 2024 with a focus on Critical Reflection for Family Day Care.
With Critical Reflection being an area that family day care performs less well in, this is a must watch episode for all family day care educators and service staff looking for ways to gain insights and knowledge in this area.
Our special guest panel will focus on the following topics:
In exploring these topics, the panel will address the differences between reflection and critical reflection and also examine why critical reflection is particularly important in the context of family day care. The panel will also unpack ways that educators can critically reflect on their practice whilst embedding it into their daily routines and how services can create a supportive environment that encourages a culture of critical reflection that is sustained over time.
This episode will see FDCA co-hosts, Advocacy and Engagement Manager Michael Farrell and Sector Liaison Coordinator Lyndall Cotterill joined by:
Episode Details
Title: Critical Reflection for Family Day Care
Date and Time: Thursday 17 October, 2024, 6.00pm - 7.30pm AEDT
Streaming Links: FDCA Website, Facebook and YouTube
Submit your questions
Do you have a question that you would like addressed during the episode? If yes, we invite FDCA members to submit questions for our panellists.
If you would like to submit a question, simply click here.
The Department of Education has a suite of videos to help family day care providers and educators understand their obligations under Family Assistance Law.
The videos cover topics such as:
Access these videos in 11 languages including Amharic, Arabic, Assyrian, Dari, Dinka, French, Hazaragi, Nuer, Somali, Sudanese and Swahili.
Visit the Department of Education website to learn more.
Be You is the national mental health in education initiative delivered by Beyond Blue, in collaboration with Early Childhood Australia and headspace. Be You equips educators to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people from birth to 18 years, providing an end-to-end approach for early learning services, primary schools, and secondary schools across Australia.
Offering an array of interactive online sessions, Be You is a useful tool for educators to chat with others within the sector, as well as professionals on how to deal with not only their own mental health, but that of the children they support.
Sessions offered by Be You:
Implementation Sessions
Be You Implementation Sessions give educators from Be You Learning Communities the opportunity to engage with and learn from others. These conversation-style sessions are designed to help you translate knowledge into action and apply Be You resources, tools and guides in your learning community. The sessions, facilitated by a Be You Consultant, aim to provide a space for deeper engagement, planning for action and changing practice.
Events
Be You Events give educators the opportunity to hear from Be You Consultants and subject matter experts. These informative sessions are designed to raise awareness and impart knowledge on topics ranging from adopting a whole-setting approach to Be You to expanding on Be You Professional Learning across various wellbeing and mental health topics.
For more information on all sessions and events hosted by Be You, please click here.
This Friday, we will be revealing your suggestions for our Family Day Care Brains Trust on the FDCA Facebook Page.
This month’s scenario: Melina has one family that consistently drops their child off for care thirty minutes before her opening time and she’s not sure how best to approach the family about it. How would you approach the family about this situation?
The Family Day Care Brains Trust will share common scenarios, that are based on enquiries that we receive, with our Facebook audience. The family day care community will be encouraged to share advice on how they might deal with the scenario in question.
We will collate your responses and share them with the community every other month.
The purpose of the Family Day Care Brains Trust is to tap into the wisdom of the family day care community to provide support from a place of knowledge and experience.
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