State/Territory Regulations

Please click here to view the child care regulations in each state and territory.

National Standards

Please click here to view the National Standards for family day care.

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

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:

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

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:

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

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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