Key Themes

Visions of Excellence: Service Delivery and Business Practice

Sector professionals, leading experts and academics will examine current ‘visions of excellence’ in family day care, across both service delivery and business practice. We will examine examples of high quality or innovative practice, as applied to both educators and coordination units, with an emphasis on collaborative partnerships. Educators and coordination units are two parts of a whole service – how do we acknowledge and learn from this? What are the key principles that apply to both?

These  discussions will take place within the broader context of the National Quality Framework and the unique nature of family day care, including:

• Innovative service delivery, programming and documentation
• Examples of collaborations between educators and coordination units
• Pursuing excellence through the National Quality Standard, the approved learning frameworks and other key concepts
• Everyday learning opportunities within the ‘natural learning environment’
• Professional development and continuous improvement
• Engaging with families and communities
• The role of the educational leader
• Innovations through the use/adaptation of technology
• Adaptations of business practice from other service types or occupations

Contemporary Issues

We will identify and unpack a number of contemporary issues facing our sector. In doing so we will discuss and debate the challenges and opportunities they present, and the subsequent outcomes and actions that will influence their impact upon our vision of excellence for family day care. These issues may include:

• Reconciliation
• Cultural diversity in FDC
• The employment and/or contractor relationship between educators and services
• Continuous improvement and ongoing professional learning
• The post-election political climate
• The changing nature of family day care
• FDC and the National Quality Framework -successes and challenges
• Professionalisation

Visions of Excellence: Defining our Future

Family day care is constantly evolving. Part of the challenge for leaders within any sector is taking control of the evolutionary process, clearly projecting the potential challenges and opportunities that lie ahead and preparing clear actions to confront them. Therefore, in this session we tackle some of the big questions...

What do we want the future of family day care to look like? What are the roles of educators, coordination units and associations in shaping this future? What is our vision of professionalism and quality through the National Quality Framework and beyond this transitional period? Is the current family day care model adequate or does it need to change? How would the sector cope with decreased funding levels? What can FDC do to further support the journey towards reconciliation?

We will seek to define our own vision of excellence and the key actions and milestones in achieving this vision.

Plenary Sessions:

These sessions will address the key themes via an exciting, engaging and energised mix of panel discussions, presentations and Q&A.

Facilitated ‘Reflections and Actions’ Sessions

These sessions are your opportunity to engage on the key themes and specific issues of the plenary sessions, and to contribute to our shared vision of excellence in family day care.