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State/Territory Regulations |
Please click here to view the child care regulations in each state and territory. |
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National Standards |
| Please click here to view the National Standards for family day care. |
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| National Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) |
Background - Government
The reform agenda will include for the first time an Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) for Australian children’s services. The EYLF is a document which will guide early childhood educators in developing quality early childhood programs for children aged from birth to five years. The framework will describe the broad parameters, structure, principles and outcomes required to enhance children’s learning. This will help ensure consistency in the delivery of learning programs around Australia, and will be implemented in a range of early childhood settings including family day care.
Background - FDCA
FDCA advocated for a family day care scheme pilot site to be included in every state and territory to ensure that the EYLF can be delivered in a variety of settings. To date we understand that three family day care scheme pilots – one each in the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales, have been chosen from the 29 sites funded in the tender. The trial commenced on 23 February and will continue until early April 2009.
EYLF Online Forum
An online forum has been established to encourage discussion among early childhood education practitioners and the government as they trial the draft Early Years Learning Framework.
The online forum will also support the government’s priority of trialling online consultation and engagement with the community, and will provide valuable feedback on the effectiveness of this approach.
The forum will run from 14 March to 20 April 2009.
The Early Years Learning Framework online forum will be available for registered participants. Through the online forum you will be able to review and trial the Early Years Learning Framework and supporting documents.
To register for the online forum, please complete the DEEWR Online User registration form and click once on the 'submit by email' button. On acceptance of your registration, you will be sent login details and the terms of use for the online forum.
For more information on the EYLF please click here.
EYLF References for Australian Curriculum Documents
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| National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care |
Background - Government
In December 2007, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to a partnership between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments to pursue substantial reform in the areas of education, skills and early childhood development, to deliver significant improvements in human capital outcomes for all Australians.
A national quality framework will provide parents, communities and operators of early childhood education and care services with a nationally consistent, streamlined and integrated licensing and accreditation system which ensures quality standards are implemented and maintained across all services. It will also include an Early Years Learning Framework linked to national quality standards which will underpin early childhood education and care including universal access to 15 hours a week of affordable quality early learning for 40 weeks a year in the year before formal schooling. The framework will guide early childhood educators in developing quality early childhood programs.
In August 2008 the Government released a discussion paper: A national quality framework for early childhood education and care which formed the basis of a consultation strategy that also included a number of forums held across the country in August and September.
Background - FDCA
On 15-16 February Family Day Care Australia hosted a State Associations National Meeting with participants from each carer and staff association across Australia, and individual representatives from the ACT and NT where no associations exist. The purpose of the meeting was to consider the current state of the family day care sector, its short to medium term future, and to discuss ways in which the various associations – both state and national – could better work together to facilitate the strategic change that is needed to ensure the sector’s continued growth and viability.
FDCA hosted a second State Associations National Meeting on 13-14 June. At that meeting an environmental scan was presented which highlighted political, economic, socio-demographic and technological trends in the current operating environment. This enabled the group to understand how the change agenda will be impacted on by environmental forces. The group developed a list of change priorities which culminated in the agreement that the one issue that will affect the entire sector will be the changes around the new government’s early childhood agenda.
It was agreed that four working parties would be established, with representation from each state and territory where possible, to work on the four platforms of the government’s early childhood agenda – quality assurance, regulations, workforce professionalisation and the Early Years Learning Framework. These meetings were held over August and early September and resulted in four discussion papers that were then reviewed at the third State Associations National Meeting held on 11-12 September. Participants from the annual FDCA National Advisory Meeting, held on 13-14 September were also exposed to the discussion papers and from that process a final submission to the COAG discussion paper: A national quality framework for early childhood education and care was developed and submitted on 19 September.
COAG discussion paper: A national quality framework for early childhood education and care
FDCA response to COAG discussion paper: A national quality quality framework for early childhood education and care |
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| Healthy Eating and Physical Activities Guidelines for Early Childhood Settings |
The Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Guidelines for Early Childhood Settings is part of the Commonwealth Government’s Plan for Tackling Obesity and Plan for Early Childhood.
The Guidelines are evidence-based, practical resources and materials that will support healthy eating and physical activity in children attending early childhood education and care services including family day care, child care centres and pre-school. The Guidelines will be linked to the new National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care that is expected to be introduced from 1 July 2009.
Field testing of the Guidelines took place from early April to 15 May 2009 with the online surveys now closed. The development of the Guidelines resources is due to be completed by the end of June 2009.
For further project details, please contact Bianca Gazzola at bianca.gazzola@rch.org.au or on 03 9345 6117.
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| Senate Inquiry into the provision of child care in Australia |
A senate inquiry was held in the wake of the collapse of ABC Learning. Submissions were due in January with the committee report expected in March. This has now been extended to 18 June 2009. The terms of reference for the inquiry were as follows:
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the financial, social and industry impact of the ABC Learning collapse on the provision of child care in Australia |
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alternative options and models for the provision of child care |
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the role of governments at all levels in: |
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funding for community, not-for-profit and independent service providers |
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consistent regulatory frameworks for child care across the country |
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licensing requirements to operate child care centres |
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nationally-consistent training and qualification requirements for child care workers, and |
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the collection, evaluation and publishing of reliable, up-to-date data on casual and permanent child care vacancies |
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the feasibility for establishing a national authority to oversee the child care industry in Australia; |
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other related matters |
Click here to download the FDCA submission
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Productivity Inquiry - Paid Maternity Leave, Paternity and Parental Leave 2008 |
Background - Government
The Australian Government has asked the Productivity Commission to undertake a public inquiry into paid maternity, paternity and paternal leave. The inquiry will concentrate on support for parents of newborn children up to the age of two years. The inquiry will:
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consider the economic, productivity and social costs and benefits of providing paid maternity, paternity and parental leave; |
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assess the current extent of employer-provided of paid maternity, paternity and parental leave in Australia; |
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identify the models that could be used to provide such parental support and assess these against a number of criteria. These include their cost effectiveness; impacts on business; labour market consequences; work/family preferences of parents; child and parental welfare; and interactions with the Social Security and Family Assistance Systems; |
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assess the impacts and applicability of the various models across the full range of employment forms (such as the self-employed, farmers, and shift workers); and |
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assess the efficiency and effectiveness of Government policies that would facilitate the provision and take-up of these models. |
Background - FDCA
On Thursday 5 June 2008, Policy Manager Pola Nadas and President Kym Groth presented the FDCA submission on paid maternity leave to the Productivity Commission in Brisbane. They were accompanied by a family day care carer Donna Evans and her son Darwin who provided a real life example of a maternity leave situation in family day care.
FDCA Submission to the Productivity Enquiry and Appendix - Relief Care - Katrina Mason
For more information please visit the Productivity Commission website |
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Productivity Training Places |
Background - Government
As part of its Skilling Australia for the future initiative, the government recognises the importance of nationally endorsed training in assisting job seekers to acquire skills and gain lasting employment and assisting existing workers to update or upgrade their skills.
The government has allocated 630,000 training places over four years to ensure that Australians develop the skills that industry needs. The training places will be delivered in an industry-driven system, ensuring that training is more responsive to the needs of enterprises and individuals. The training places are available from 1 April 2008.
Of the total training places, 238,000 will be allocated to job seekers. More information will be provided on the arrangements for Productivity Places for existing workers and apprentices in the near future.
The training started in April, with 20,000 training places being allocated for job seekers. Training for job seekers during this stage will be at the Certificate II and III levels.
People looking for training and organisations wishing to offer approved qualifications under the Productivity Places Program should visit the program's website for more information
Background - FDCA
Professionalisation of the workers within all child care sectors should be paramount in any discussion about outcomes for children.
The recent sector consultation on the COAG discussion paper: A national quality framework for early childhood education and care enables FDCA to advocate that as a minimum, all child care workers who have regular interactions with children should work towards obtaining a Certificate III in Children’s Services by 2011, preferably through the productivity training places initiative which must be extended to include self-employed child care workers such as family day care carers who are already in the workforce.
A survey by FDCA of family day care workers seeking access to free productivity training places engendered a response from 1,594 existing workers; slightly less than half were seeking a Certificate III in Children’s Services with the balance seeking a qualification at Diploma or Advanced Diploma level.
At present a Certificate III is a stand alone qualification and a prerequisite to the Diploma. It is proposed that the Certificate III in Children’s Services be combined with the Diploma of Children’s Services as follows:
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The Certificate III has 11 compulsory units and 4 electives, and the Diploma has 20 units. By joining the two qualifications, the 4 electives can be done as part of both qualifications. In this way, the government could professionalise child care workers more quickly and cost effectively, as well as give existing workers greater confidence in their capacity as students. |
Training funds targeting long term, existing and self-employed workers such as family day care carers would have positive outcomes for children, create better retention and transportability of competency across the industry and lower costs to government over the long term.
For more information please visit the Government productivity places program website |
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| Child Care Management System |
The CCMS is a national child care computer system that will provide improved information on child care supply and usage for families, services and the Government.
The decision to introduce a national system recognises the need for better management of, and information about child care. The system will complement the compliance strategy announced in May 2006.
CCMS builds on the recently introduced changes to the Child Care Access Hotline (CCAH). The CCAH gives families access to up-to-date information on child care vacancies. CCMS will simplify reporting arrangements to the CCAH for child care services.
The CCMS will bring all approved child care services online to standardise and simplify the administration of Child Care Benefit (CCB). Services will provide information directly to DEEWR via the Internet to allow calculation and payment of CCB fee reductions on behalf of children in their service.
With the introduction of CCMS parents will be able to access an online statement from Centrelink to obtain details of the CCB payments made on their behalf to their child care service(s).
The CCMS will be implemented progressively across child care services from 1 July 2007 to 30 June 2009. There will be a transition period as the CCB administration system moves from Family Assistance Office/Centrelink to DEEWR.
Changing the way we operate - Article from JiGSAW Issue 46
CCMS Software Solutions
Click on the link below for further information about the new CCMS products coming onto the market.
Guide to the new CCMS software solutions
For more information please visit the Government CCMS website |
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| Asbestos Legislation |
What's the impact of new asbestos legislation on family day care carers? Click here to find out.
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