Over the years, I have been registered with services across Queensland, New South Wales and now South Australia, and in that time I have learnt a few things about picking and registering a service, and let me tell you, it's important to pick for YOU, not anyone else! So I hope you learn something from today write up, ask questions, share with your friends and be inspired!
Being a family day care educator provides the rare and unique opportunity to run your own business from the comfort of your own home with the flexibility of setting the hours that suit your lifestyle and moreso create a family focused lifestyle that many dream of while remaining or returning to the workforce. When it comes to becoming a family day care eductaor, there are some things you need to know about, first of all you need to do your reseach about if family day care is going to work for you and your family and then you need choose a family day care service or scheme to register with. And that sounds simple, but there are things to look for and know about so lets have a look at this!
First thing to know, is that you have choice and that choice is something that you 10000% entitled to have and be respected to make, the first service you talk to, may not be the best fit for you and that is ok, this is your career, your business, but more important, your family, and your future!
Family Day Care Australia can help with this, with Over 90% of all family day care services across Australia being members of FDCA, they are definitely worth connecting you with local services from the vast network of services all across the country.
There are some very very important things to look at, so lets start with the obvious things:
Accreditation and Licensing: Ensure that the services you are looking at is licensed and accredited by the appropriate regulatory bodies. You can check by searching the ACECQA website and adding the services name into the search bar to check. According to ACECQA there is 430 Family Day Care Services across Australia. The ACECQA website will also tell you about the services conditions of their approval, their service approval number and their provider approval number as well as their contact detials and how long the service has been registered for. If you scroll down the page a little bit further, you will find information about the services Assessment and Rating (this I will elaborate on in a post in the next few weeks), which in someways reflects on the quality of care which is provided by the service.
Quality of Care: Service that can provide personalised education and training to educators, allows for better equipped educators to understand child development stages, implement age-appropriate learning activities, and handle situations with care and expertise. Services who provide suggestions in a positive and influtenial way can assist eductaors in developing a well-designed and child-friendly space, ffilled with age-appropriate resources, and encourge the provisions of a setup that encourages exploration and creativity while learning through play in a sustainable manner.
Curriculum and Learning Approaches: Having an understanding of the scheme's curriculum and their expectations of the educator when it comes to the curriculum planning and how it aligns with early childhood educational principles. This is extremely important as you don't want to joining an scheme/service which is going to dictate to you how to do your planning and programing (unless of course this is the way you work). Have a read of what the regualtions say in regards to planning and programming (Reg Part 4.1 73-76) it says what you are required to do not HOW!
Other things which are not quite so obvious but are worth looking into:
how the service interacts with the children or the families. I have had services who knew every single child in my care by name, when the co-ordinator would come to visit they would sit on the floor with the children and interact with them, this was a beautiful time for the children and the co-ordinator and the interactions were wonderful! Having a service that treats families with respect and treats them as valuable members of the community rather than an inconvience is very important and you will find that this helps with keeping familes as part of your community and your service.
The visits the service offers is another super important aspect and will either be a help or a hinderance and this is a peronal thing. Some services only offer in person visits every 6 months, while others maybe fortnightly or monthly and this is totally up to you as what works for you. When I came back to work after having Addy,she was 3 months old and I had visits every 6-8 weeks, I was a new mum in 2020 with COVID restictions running rampant still, it was scary, for me those visits being so far apart was not in my best interest but all the time the service could offer. I moved services, and they were amazing they came to visit every 2-3 weeks not for the sake of my business so much as to make sure I was good as a new mum, this was amazing. Having a service which support you and your family rather than you just supporting the service is very very important.
Other Questions to ask:
Is the service consistnent?
Does the services actions align with its philosophy?
Does the services Philosphy align with your philosphy?
Is the service flexible with the hours you work?
Is the service wanting to support you with enrolments and advertising, how are they going to assist you with this?
Does the service offer an open and honest communication platform?
Is the service prepared to help you get better and be there when you need them to be?
What is the overall expectation the service has for you as an educator?
It's completely understandable that the process might seem overwhelming due to the various considerations involved. However, the effort put into researching, visiting, and evaluating the various schemes will undoubtedly pay off in the end. Choosing a service that aligns with your values, meets your families needs, and provides a nurturing environment, means you're essentially laying a strong foundation for your businesses. This decision can positively influence not just your future growth, learning abilities, social skills, and overall well-being but also the children's.
So, despite the initial complexity and the amount of consideration required, the investment of time and effort in finding the right service will undoubtedly be worth it. Your dedication to this process reflects your commitment to providing the children with the best possible start to your journey.
You need the right service and the service will be looking for certain things in their potential new educators. Finding the right serivce will help you more than I can express the best thing is that all states in Australia now have a bit more free choice with SA now having 3 family day care services available for edcuators to choose from which is a long way however from the choice provided in other states however SA will get there. (Peronsally I am in the process of registering with Holisitic Approach FDC)
Remember we are all indivudal just becasue a service works for your friends, doesn't automatically mean it will for you! Make your decisions based on what you want and need! And DON'T UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES judge somoene based on their decisions, their decisions and reasons aren't yours and you have no right to judge based on that.
I know in recent weeks, alot of peeople have said things to me about their current service, and my greatest advice to them has been exactly what is written here, its ok to shop around to find the right fit for you, just as you would when searching for a child care or school for your children, you are no less important than they are, in fact you are more important, the fit could be the difference in your physical and mental health, and I know what I would prefer!
Any questions? Ask please!
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