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FDCA - Supporting You in 2021
Today we bring you the last of Family Day Care Australia's (FDCA) three-part series of bulletins sharing with you our Member Initiatives and Key Projects over the year that’s been.
These initiatives and projects have fallen in-line with FDCA's 2020-2021 Key Initiatives and Strategic Plan, with the core goals being to represent, support and promote the family day care sector.
They have been designed to result in impacts that will not only provide tangible benefits to our members, but assist in reaching FDCA's vision of making family day care the natural choice for more Australia families.
As your national peak body, we are uniquely positioned to develop and deliver broadly representative policy positions through consultative and evidence-based advocacy efforts.
A key strategic priority for FDCA remains supporting our members in the delivery of quality practice and driving continuous improvement in the family day care sector as a whole, through the provision of specialist advice, events and resources.
In recognition of this, we have had two specific goals for supporting the sector across 2021:
In this bulletin we highlight how FDCA has been Supporting You through our Key Initiatives and Projects across 2021.
FDCA 2022 National Conference
The FDCA Triannual National Conference is a vital professional development event for the sector, bringing our members together for world class networking opportunities and the chance to participate in discussions on topics that will shape the future of family day care.
Due to unavoidable restrictions arising from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s National Conference was postponed to 2022, in order to provide our members with the best chance to attend.
Despite delay, we are pleased to say that our Conference Keynote Line-Up remains unchanged along with our diverse range of workshops and of course, the final night Conference Dinner.
FDCA has heavily subsidised ticketing costs for our members through the delivery of several payment plan options, in recognition of the importance of the Conference in supporting the sector.
Critical Reflection Guide
FDCA also built upon our catalogue of member resources in 2021 through the development of the Critical Reflection Guide and Companion Resource, delivered to members for free within their 2021 Winter Edition of JiGSAW magazine.
Under the National Quality Standard (NQS), Quality Area 1 – Educational Programming and Practice – is the Quality Area in which family day care has historically is in need of most improvement. Within this Quality Area, critical reflection was identified as an area of concern and as such, improvement in this area would significantly assist in lifting rating levels of family day care services.
The Critical Reflection Guide and Companion Resource has proven extremely popular with members as an easy and accessible way to embed critical reflection into their practice and demonstrate evidence of meeting Standard 1.3.
You can access and download the Critical Reflection Guide and Companion Resource in the Factsheets and Resources section of your FDCA Member Zone.
Family Day Care Locator Enhancements
FDCA’s Family Day Care Locator is an important marketing and promotional tool for our members and a valuable benefit of your membership.
Each year, the Family Day Care Locator generates over 10,000 enquiries from families seeking education and care in their area.
In response to overwhelming feedback following ongoing consultation with educator and service members, FDCA implemented a series of major enhancements to the Locator to support educators to manage care enquiries, reduce the administrative burden for services and empower members to get the most out of their listing.
With these enhancements, the Locator will continue to support you in your business and help more Australian families access the unique, nurturing, natural home learning environment that is family day care.
“My Family” Day Care E-Book
Inspired by our members and their families, FDCA launched the “My Family” Day Care E-Book, narrating a child’s first day of family day care.
The E-Book was uniquely designed to support the transition of children into care and showcase the natural approach to play and discovery that family day care nurtures.
Since the E-Book’s launch, FDCA members have been able to access, create and download as many versions of the E-Book as they would like, completely free of charge.
To make the story personal to children in care, the E-Book features the ability to customise the names of the main characters and uses well-known Australian native animals in the illustrations.
We have already received wonderful feedback from our members on this project and look forward to its ongoing impact in supporting children and families.
To access the E-Book website and begin creating your own custom version, log into your FDCA Member Zone and click the E-Book subheading.
National Engagement Program
The National Engagement Program (NEP) will continue to support our members in 2022, delivering tailored family day care forums across Australia at a heavily subsidised price for FDCA members.
NEP attendees will be able to take advantage of joint educator and service sessions, giving teams the chance to come together and share in the benefits of joint professional development workshops unique to the family day care environment.
Joining representatives from FDCA will be Red Nose Australia and Australian Child Care Career Options (ACCCO), to deliver two powerful workshops on child protection and safe sleeping.
Attendees will also have the chance to network with representatives from FDCA and hear about our upcoming Key Initiatives.
Helping our members access premium professional development and learning, while providing opportunities to network with fellow family day care professionals and discuss the issues that matter to you, is an important part of the work that we do to support you.
We look forward to seeing you at one of our NEP forums in 2022.
The Role of the Family Day Care Coordinator: Leading quality
FDCA prides itself on high quality support for both educators and services through a range of means to improve pedagogical, operational and regulatory practices.
Another way that we will continue our investment into supporting you is through the delivery of a new professional learning resource “The role of the family day care coordinator : Leading quality” in 2022, to document examples of best practice and support continuous improvement.
The resource is set to provide a comprehensive overview of the role of coordinators from a regulatory perspective, ad explore the key features of the role which make it central to the family day care model, the delivery of quality education and care, and ultimately, the developmental outcomes for children.
As always, we thank you for your continued support of our organisation – your membership directly contributes to our goals of Representing, Promoting and Supporting You.
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