Close
Hip, hip, hooray! This week marks the 11th edition National Family Day Care Week.
The week celebrates the vital role family day care plays in the development and wellbeing of over 85,000 Australian children.
National Family Day Care Week is integral to raising the image and profile of family day care. It celebrates the unique benefits of the small group settings, personalised educational programming and flexible hours of care that make family day care the option of choice for so many Australian families.
Over its 11 years, National Family Day Care Week has inspired more than 360 positive media stories on the family day care sector, reaching 4 million Australians!
Make sure to share your celebrations this week on social media using the official hashtag, #FDCWeek23.
FDCA kicks off National Family Day Care Week in WA!
FDCA was excited to launch National Family Day Care Week on Monday 1 May with its annual National Family Day Care Week Picnic in the Park.
The event was held at Stirling Civic Gardens in Western Australia and was attended by educators, service staff, families and of course children. FDCA was honoured to have The Hon Dr Anne Aly MP, Federal Minister for Early Childhood Education, in attendance on the day.
FDCA would like to thank everyone who attended the picnic and helped make it a wonderful success!
Resources and more information!
A range of online National Family Day Care Week resources, including program guides, posters, postcards and social media images, are available to FDCA members here.
To find out more about National Family Day Care Week, click here.
Federal Early Childhood Education Minister, Dr Anne Aly, announced earlier this week that applications are now open for the Community Child Care Fund (CCCF).
These grants complement the Government’s expansion of the CCCF Restricted and Connected Beginnings programs, which aim to improve early childhood education and care access for First Nations children in remote and very remote communities and will help establish much-needed early childhood education and care services in disadvantaged communities.
Eligible providers will be able to apply for a share of $18 million in funding for grants of up to $900,000 to establish a new centre based day care or family day care service in an area experiencing limited supply.
Applications for the new round will open from Wednesday 3 May until 1 June 2023 through the Grant Connect website at www.grants.gov.au.
For more information about the CCCF, click here.
National Simultaneous Storytime is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family day cares, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country.
This year FDCA is getting involved in the fun! We’re giving away a copy of the selected book, The Speedy Sloth, to five lucky members. All you need to do is email marketing@fdca.com.au and in 10 words or less tell us how you encourage the children in your care to overcome difficult and tricky situations.
Be speedy though, entries close on Sunday 7 May 2023.
Drawing on data from the National Quality Agenda IT (NQAIT) system, ACECQA has developed a new information sheet on managing and responding to injury, trauma and illness incidents which will assist services and educators to address NQS Quality Area 2.
This information sheet identifies trends in serious incidents that have been notified by approved providers and highlights the common causes of injury, trauma or illness incidents, as well as the times and locations when they are more likely to happen. It also offers practical strategies to support educators in preventing and reducing such incidents.
FDCA encourages services and educators to review their risk management plans and the processes they have in place to manage incidents and emergencies in light of the information in this new resource.
The new information sheet can be accessed here.
Last Thursday, episode three of the FDCA Online Engagement Series was streamed, with FDCA Advocacy and Engagement Manager Michael Farrell joined by Be You Consultant, Maria Heenan, Bright Sun Family Day Care Coordinator/Educational Leader and 2021 Coordinator of the Year National Finalist, Mariam Shahid and Adventure Patch Family Day Care Educator and 2022 Educator of the Year National Finalist, Sue Higgs to discuss wellbeing in family day care.
The panel discussed topics such as improving work/life balance, children’s wellbeing, separating home and work life and when and where to seek help for your wellbeing.
If you were unable to make it to the livestream, or if you would simply like to watch again, you can access episode two at any time via your FDCA Member Zone in the Video Resources section.
To all of our members that joined us on the night, thankyou for your time and participation - we are excited to see you again for Episode 4 which is titled: Tips, Hints and Hacks for Educators.
We know that every educator and every service has different needs, which is why our brand new Family Day Care Locator Marketing Packages offer a range of unique benefits.
The introduction of our new Marketing Packages means that you will have the ability to give your Family Day Care Locator listing unprecedented exposure to families who are searching for early childhood education and care in your area.
Each package contains benefits that will enable you to customise your Family Day Care Locator listing and make it stand out from the crowd.
The Essential Package – Free for all members
The Essential Package provides all members with a free listing on the Family Day Care Locator and accompanying profile page. When subscribed to the Essential Package, you can personalise your business name, vacancy and opening hours along with the addition of one photo and text to your profile page.
By default, all members have received a subscription to the Essential Package at no additional cost to their FDCA membership.
The Professional Package – Take your listing to the next level
If you want to level up your locator listing and profile page, the Professional Package is for you.
With the Professional Package, your locator listing and profile page link will surge to the top of the search results in your area as one of FDCA’s Featured Listings.
You’ll also unlock full access to additional marketing and promotional features.
The Enterprise Package – Dominate your local area
The Enterprise Package has been created for those who want their digital footprint to dominate their local area.
The Enterprise Package will include everything from both the Essential and Professional Packages, as well as your own Google Ads campaign that will direct traffic from Google straight to your Family Day Care Locator profile page.
To find out more about the new packages we’ve put together some short video guides that will also help you to manage your Family Day Care Locator listing.
To view the videos click here.
Upgrade today!
To upgrade to the Professional or Enterprise Package, log into your FDCA Member Zone, click on My Locator Listing and select the Marketing Packages tab to make your selection.
If you would prefer to upgrade your Marketing Package over the phone, please contact us on 1800 658 699.
.svg)
