Over the last few weeks, Family Day Care Australia (FDCA) has been immensly helpful, however I feel like they are often given a bad name. So I wanted to write this post about our Peak Body, what they do, what their place is and what they are currenlty advocating for and why or when we should be reaching out to them. According to Family day Care Australia representatives, 'FDCA engages with and consults with the FDCA membership on all major policy and program issues primarily through online surveys, supplemented by targeted consultation with key stakeholders through FDCA’s Advisory Committees.'
Peak Body, what is this?
Lets start with the first bit here, 'Peak Body', what is this and what does it mean?
A "Peak Body" essentially refers to a national-level organization that represents and advocates for a particular sector or industry. In the context of FDCA, it serves as the representative body for family day care providers, educators, families, and individuals involved in the family day care sector across Australia.
When it comes to understanding what a "Peak Body" like Family Day Care Australia (FDCA) represents, it's all about the people involved in the world of family day care across Australia.
Think of FDCA as the heart and voice of the family day care community. They stand up for the educators, the children, the families, and everyone passionate about providing excellent care and education in a family-based setting. Family Day Care Australia representative said 'In the advocacy space FDCA represents the interests of both individual educators, as independent contractor small business owners, and approved services, with the fundamental goal of supporting FDCA members to achieve the best possible learning and developmental outcomes for the more than 80,000 children receiving education and care in the family day care sector'. Personally I am really excited to have a peak body who is supportive of all of us! And I am excited to grow this relationship further and hope every one of you is also!
Family Day Care Australia can be seen advocating for us in various capacities, including External functions which refers to the activities and engagements that involve interactions between FDCA and entities outside of its immediate membership or internal structure, so things like:
Lobbying and Advocacy: FDCA engages in dialogue with government bodies, policymakers, and relevant authorities to advocate for favorable policies and regulations that benefit family day care providers, educators, and families. They serve as a voice for the sector, influencing decisions that impact its members.
Policy Feedback and Research: They offer valuable feedback on government policies and regulations related to early childhood education. Additionally, they conduct research to gather insights, statistics, and information that can shape policies and contribute to the development of the family day care sector.
Media and Promotion: FDCA works on raising awareness about the importance and benefits of family day care through media engagement and promotional activities. They highlight the achievements, contributions, and positive aspects of their membership to the broader community.
Family Day Care Australia, can also however be seen successfully advocating for the benefit of its members or employees. Serving and supporting the organisation's internal structure, (ie members, and stakeholders). doing things like:
Information Dissemination: Providing members with the latest updates, guidelines, and relevant information pertaining to regulations, best practices, and advancements within the family day care sector. This ensures that educators and providers are well-informed.
Support and Resources: FDCA offers support services, resources, and tools to its members. This can include educational materials, professional development opportunities, access to networks, and guidance on industry-specific matters. They act as a support system for individuals involved in family day care.
A focus on External Functions:
Ok so I mentioned above about the External functions, lets have a look at what FDCA in this space currently:
Family Day Care Australia conducts, participates in and contributes to a wide range of research activities in the interest of exploring the issues associated with the family day care sector. You can find out more about this here on their website here.
Also The Family Day Care Australia Sector Profile Report which is a six monthly report which provides a detailed profile of the Australian family day care sector.
The amazing promotional activies and opportunites which FDCA take part in help to build our sector in more ways than we relise and keep the sector growing. Including:
FDCA's Market My Business Hub – which provides free, professionally designed digital marketing resources to all of our members including flyers, brochures and posters
A FREE listing on the FDCA family day care locator that allows members to customise their listing with a profile page, photo and vacancy information to help you reach families directly and promote your family day care business
Media, marketing and communications support
Access to FDCA's family day care photo library
The opportunity to participate in the Excellence in Family Day Care Awards
Media support of member events during National Family Day Care Week
After some wonderful discussions with Family Day Care Australia, here is
A focus on Internal Functions:
Now when it comes to the Internal Functions, we see these daily, these are things we all know about such as:
FDCA Insurance
FDCA Police Checks
Jigsaw Magazine
The New FDCAapp
Engagement Series
Legal services
Essentially all the things that are promoted to us as members (Find a comprehesive list here). These are things I guess we don't really think about until we need them, but none the less are an invaluable part of our FDCA memberships.
So what does all this mean for us as Educators?
FDCA is there as a Peak Body, they are there to help us and have an amazing collection of resources, services, professional Development for us to draw upon but more than that, they are there to have a confidential conversation with, to assist and guide us as educators. While Currently they are advocating for some pretty major stuff like the sleep and food prep regualtion changes which have thrown us all as educators in such a loop we don't really know where to look. They are there to help us, and if they can't help then they will refer you to someone who can. For example, have a legal issue they will refer you to their legal services which is provided by Wotton + Kearney.
Lyndal is who you will come across for general enquires, Matt for Media, Damon for FDC service connections, they are all amazing to talk to here and will also listen to what you have to say and offer advice when requested. Recently my dealings with FDCA have been absolutely exceptional, quite honestly I wasn't sure what to expect, but have been blown away by how friendly and easy to talk to they all are!
Talking to another educator, her experiences sit with connecting with a service and therefore was dealing with Damon, she says 'Damon was personable, seemed to have a genuine interest in her and her plans, spoke about his own FDC experiences with his family', this same educator also spoke about how wonderful FDCA was to deal with when it came to sorting out her FDC insurance and how easy it was to obtain quotes for home/contetns as well as car insurance.
They are people, I mean it, they are actually real people, they deserve to be respected when you interact with them, they are here to help you. And they are all so increible and approachable and will assist you the best they can in a confidential manner.
What does Family Day Care Australia say?
In order to promote the interests of the family day care sector and ensure that our key positions are heard by policy decision makers at all levels of government, FDCA regularly engages directly with the Federal Minister for Education, the Minister for Early Childhood Education, the Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education, the Executive levels of the Australian Government Department of Education, ACECQA and state and territory Regulatory Authorities. This stream of work is complemented by FDCA’s capacity as a representative on all major national ECEC stakeholder reference groups, including the Australian Government Department of Education Early Childhood Education and Care Reference Group (ECECRG), the National Children’s Education and Care Workforce Strategy Stakeholder Reference Group and the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) ECEC Advisory Committee.
A key focus for FDCA over recent years is the broader viability of the sector given the increased regulatory requirements and administrative burden felt by both educators and approved services. As such, FDCA has made submissions to all major ECEC Inquiries citing the need for more targeted support, equitable funding structures, acknowledgement of the unique strengths of the model and has pushed for tailored, supported pathways into the sector and acknowledgement of the need for more innovative models for family day care.
The following are FDCA’s key advocacy points outlined in the 2023-24 Pre-Budget Submission:
Raise the hourly CCS cap rate for family day care in line with the calculation afforded to centre-based care services so that it more accurately reflects the cost of providing family day care;
Apply an additional loading of 20% to the recalculated CCS fee cap for nonstandard hours family day care to adequately reflect the cost of this type of care;
Develop a direct funding support program (an “Approved Service Engagement Payment”) for family day care approved services to assist in the recruitment, induction and training of new family day care educators; and
Develop a direct funding support program (an “Educator Start-up Grant”) for new family day care educators to assist in overcoming some of the financial barriers to entry into the sector in establishing their micro-business.
To view the submissions go to https://www.familydaycare.com.au/representing-you/submissions
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