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The Productivity Commission has released its latest Report on Government Services (RoGS). The RoGS provides information on the equity, effectiveness and efficiency of government services in Australia, including early childhood education and care (ECEC) services.
The ECEC section of the Report contains important information on government objectives and funding, and detailed information relating to the provision of ECEC across Australia.Specific data was collected on areas such as ECEC participation, parent costs, demand and quality, and service delivery of non-standard hours care.
As of the March quarter 2022, a total of 1,329,656 children nationally attended approved child care services, with 85,622 (6.4%) attending family day care.Importantly, the Report shows once again that family day care is the key provider of ECEC during non-standard hours, with 53.3% of family day care services nationally offering this (compared to 41.5% of centre based services).
The Report further reveals that 21.7% of family day care services offer care after 6:30pm (compared to only 1.1% of centre based services) and 40.6% of family day care services offer care on weekends (either day) compared to only 0.8% of centre based services.
This reaffirms the data that has been collected by Family Day Care Australia (FDCA) in relation to the greater capacity of family day care to provide non-standard hours care to families.To read the full RoGS on early education and care, we encourage members to visit the Productivity Commission website here.
Episode 1 of the FDCA Online Engagement Series is happening tomorrow at 6.00pm (AEDT)!
Our guest stars Maggie Dent and Sylvia Arotin will explore and discuss strategies that can be used to support children’s behaviour in the family day care setting.
Topics such as separation anxiety, impulse control, life changes and balancing the needs of children of different ages will be covered in this session.
Episode 1 will be streamed live on the FDCA website, FDCA’s Facebook page and via FDCA’s YouTube channel. The streams will be accessible via the links below:
Please note, if you would like to submit live questions through the comments on Facebook or YouTube, you will need to be logged into a Facebook or YouTube account.
The Australian Government is developing an Early Years Strategy (the Strategy) to shape its vision for the future of Australia’s children and their families.
The Strategy is designed to help create a more integrated, holistic approach to the early years and better support the education, wellbeing and development of children. It will seek to support improving coordination between Commonwealth programs, funding and frameworks impacting early childhood development.
As part of the development process, the Government is calling on parents, families, early childhood professionals and providers to have their say and inform the priorities of the Strategy through means of submissions and survey feedback.
To participate, you can make a public submission or take the dedicated survey.
More information on the Strategy, including a link to the discussion paper, is available on the Department of Social Services website.
Help families understand CCS changes
The Department of Education has published new printable resources for educators and services to display that may assist families with the upcoming changes to the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) scheme.
From July 2023:
You can download the poster and factsheet here.
The FDCA Learning Hub provides members with access to over 30 online courses that speak the language of early childhood professionals and are directly linked to the National Quality Framework.
Like you, we strive for ongoing excellence and quality outcomes for more Australian children – and we know that the best way to make that happen is to support our members to learn, grow and share their expertise.
Here are just some of the exciting new modules you’ll be able to access on the Learning Hub:
· Playing with gratitude;
· Supporting children's self-regulation;
· Reconciliation in action;
· Using critical reflection;
· Maths is everywhere; and
· Documenting and assessing part I and II.
Best of all, each module can be completed from the comfort of your home, or in the company of your colleagues, at a pace that suits you.
Accessing the Learning Hub
Access is at your fingertips, through the FDCA Member Zone.
Watch our video tutorial here to help you navigate the Learning Hub.
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