Information for Families
What is Family Day Care?
A Family Day Care service is a network of trained and registered educators who provide care for other people’s children in their own homes. Educators have been carefully selected, supervised and operate under the Education and Care Services National Regulations and receive regular compliance checks. This is designed to ensure that your child receives the best possible care as well as ensuring quality and continuous improvement of the Family Day Care educators.
The Role of Families
You are the key decision maker, you are also the user, or ‘customer’ of the Kids Planet Family Day Care Service. You enter into a contract with educators, and pay for the care provided. You are expected to follow guidelines provided by the Kids Planet Family Day Care Services and fulfil your responsibilities as required by the service.
As a parent, one of the biggest decisions you’ll have to make in the first few years of your child’s life is where and what kind of care they’ll receive when you want to go back to work. This is why going to a Family Day Care should be at the top of your list.
With Family Day Care, children aged between 6 weeks and 12 years are nurtured in a small group setting and, through the educators’ individualised programming, are encouraged to further develop their skills and knowledge. Family Day Care Services offer very flexible hours, and provide children with the comfort of a nurturing, home environment.
You may not know that Family Day Care also offers access to holiday care, before and after school care, after hours and even weekend care for shift and flexible workers and students who need care during weekends.
Benefits of Family Day Care
Familiar, safe and secure learning environment.
The home-based setting provides a familiar, safe and secure learning environment.
Promote effective learning
Current research confirms the importance of strong relationships with significant adults to a child’s early learning; family day care’s small group environment facilitates strong bonds and promotes effective early learning and social development.
Adjust to your needs
Family day care can offer care during standard hours, evenings, before/after school, during school holidays and in some cases weekends.
Family day care can provide education and care for children from babies to school age; offering the possibility for siblings to be cared for together, all in one location.
Community
Family day care provides experiences, which reflect the diversity of your community.
National Service
Family day care provides early childhood education and care services for children across Australia.
National Quality Framework
Family day care operates under the same National Quality Framework (NQF) as other forms of childcare; incorporating national regulations, quality and qualification standards, educational frameworks and an assessment and ratings process.
Federal Subsidies
Parents are eligible to the same Federal Government subsidies and go through the same process as other forms of childcare.
Individual Educators
Your child’s education and care is provided by an individual educator who is an approved early childhood professional educator and who operates within their own home.
Small Groups
Educators work with small groups of no more than four children under school age at a time.
Specialised Education
An educator may care for a Maximum of 7 children, including their own, with a maximum of 4 under preschool age.
Progress Monitoring
Educators work in partnership with our service that provides regular visits to monitor the children’s progress and to provide support to them.
Family Day Care Is:
- Educational
- Flexible
- Supportive
- Part of the community
- Nurturing
- Reliable
What will my child do at family day care (FDC)?
Depending on the educator and the age of the children, a typical day in family day care may involve:
- Children develop a close relationship with one consistent Educator
- Children given opportunities to learn through play-based exploration in a small group in a home environment
- Children having the opportunity to be an active participant in making decisions and planning for learning experiences
- Children participating in activities provided to suit the child’s individual needs – such as singing, story telling, make believe, play, creative experiences and inquiry based projects
- Children provided with opportunities to connect with their local community by way of outings which may include visits to the library, parks and shops
- Children having the opportunity to engage within a larger group of children through regular, supervised play group sessions and visiting other Educator’s environments
- Families get to work in partnerships with Educators and Coordinators to ensure children’s cultural background, interests and strengths are celebrated, shared and enhanced
- Children spending their time with a qualified and skilled educator able to scaffold and build onto the child’s existing knowledge and skills
- Children having meals and time for rest or naps as needed.
Fees
All Educators with Kids Planet Family Day Care Services set their own fees. Your Educator will provide you with a schedule of their fees and will charge their hourly fee for the agreed hours on the signed agreement. Family Day Care fees are competitive and affordable. Please note costs also include a Service Administration Levy per hour, which will also be shown on the educators fee schedule.
Families may be eligible for the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) to help meet the cost of childcare. The Child Care Subsidy will be paid directly to family day care services to be passed on to families as a fee reduction. Families will make a co-contribution to their childcare fees and pay to the educators the difference between the fee charged and the subsidy amount (known as fee gap).
If you would like to access this subsidy, you will need to complete a Child Care Subsidy assessment with Centrelink by following the below steps:
- Sign in to your myGov account. If you don’t have one, you will need to create a myGov account at https://my.gov.au
- Select Complete your Child Care Subsidy assessment task.
- Work through the steps to provide new information and confirm your current details.
For instructions on how to use myGov click here
About Our Educators
All the educators registered with Kids Planet Family Day Care Services meet the minimum requirements to be an educator as set out in the Education and Care Services National Regulations.
As such educators registered with Kids Planet Family Day Care Services:
- Are qualified
- Have an appropriate understanding of children’s needs and abilities
- Hold a current working with children check
- Possess a current first aid, CPR, anaphylaxis, Asthma and Epi/Ana pen training
- Possess current public liability insurance and much more
The Educator's Home
Every educator’s home environment will be different just as every educator will be different. However, there are certain characteristics of an environment that will be common which will include:
- A place where children and their families feel they are welcome
- A safe area for outdoor play or have easy access to these outdoor play areas.
- Sufficient space for children to play in groups as well as an area for quiet play
- Sufficient space for children’s sleeping
- Somewhere where equipment can be safely stored
- All hazardous items out of the reach of children
- Free from pests
- Safe, sturdy indoor and outdoor equipment that is suitable for the ages of the children and meets Australian Standards
- Appropriate learning resources to support children’s learning
- A space where children can store and have access to their belongings
- Fire extinguisher, fire blanket, smoke detectors and an Evacuation Procedure
- Electrical safety switch
- Safety glass in the care environment
Things to Consider for Families
Educators will conduct an informal orientation process for new parents and children. The critical time for your child and the educator the settling in time. If you are able to, spend some time with the child while he or she is adjusting to this new environment. Observe your child interacting with her or his new companions.
Watch the interaction between your child and the educator:
- Does the educator relate warmly to your child?
- Does she/he listen and respond to what your child says?
- How is your child relating to the educator?
- Does your child turn to the educator for comfort and support, and to ask questions?
- Allow time to chat to the educator when you collect your child. Families are able to access the care environment at any time while their child is in care.
Make sure the educator has your contact numbers at all times, plus details of another person who can be easily contacted if there is a problem or urgent inquiry, and you can’t be reached.
Discuss any special needs your child may have, such as diabetes, epilepsy, asthma or a food allergy, and how you manage them. Services will require a written health action plan to assist in the management of any adverse health events.
Locations of Our Educators
Our educators are based around the City of Dandenong and City of Casey area. Currently our educators are based at the following suburbs:
Dandenong
Dandenong North
Doveton
Endeavour Hills
Hallam
Hampton Park
Narre Warren
Narre Warren South
Noble Park