Choosing between Family Day Care and Long Day Care

All children's education and care services in Australia operating under the National Quality Framework (NQF):

• go through a compliance and assessment and rating process, implemented by State and Territory regulatory authorities.
• are given service quality ratings against the National Quality Standard (NQS).
• are eligible for Child Care Subsidy (CCS)
• provide an educational program which is child-centred, stimulating and maximises opportunities for enhancing and extending each child’s learning and development.
• employ educators who are required to hold qualifications in early childhood.
• must adhere to ratios and employ educators to maintain these ratios throughout the day.
• employ an educational leader that provides guidance to educators on the development of the children’s program.

Family day care and long day care services may have different:

• Daily fees and opening hours - some services operate on weekends, overnight and during school holidays.
• Meals – depending on the service, these may or may not be included in the daily fee.
• Educator leave arrangements – in long day care, an educator on leave may be replaced with a casual educator, while in an FDC service, children may be cared for by another educator in a different home/venue. FDC educators often plan leave in advance with their families, and orientation and visits to the other home takes place. Families should be informed when an educator in any service is on leave, so that you know who will be caring for your child and to support continuity of care.
• Roles in charge of service operations - FDC schemes employ a ‘coordinator’ who will make regular visits to the educator’s home/venue to provide guidance on regulatory matters. In LDC services this is the role of the nominated supervisor or other person in charge of the day to day operations of the service.

Number of children

In a long day care setting, the number of children enrolled is determined by the state or territory Regulatory Authority and is dependent on the size of the building and outdoor play space.

Children are often grouped by their aged according to the age of the children, the size of a room and the number of educators within the room. For example, services may have a 0-2 year old room, a 2-3 year old room and a 3-5 year old room. In larger services, there may be more than one room for each age group.

Educator to child ratio

The National Quality Framework regulates the educator to child ratios for services.

Long day care services employ a number of educators to meet these ratios throughout the day. Educators often work either a morning or afternoon shift if the service is open from early morning to evening.

For more information, visit the website’s ‘Educator to child ratios’ resource.

Age of children

Multiple educators mean there can be more children present, and they will usually be grouped with children of their own age.

Meals and nappies

The service may or may not provide meals and nappies.

Programs for children

Depending on the philosophy of the service you choose, the educators may or may not take children on excursions or other activites. The service is required to ask for your permission before taking a child out of the service, and they must conduct and make available a risk assessment of the transport and location that they are visiting.

Some routines may be considered ‘regular outings’ to such things as the local library, post office, café etc. Other excursions may be planned based on the children’s interests throughout the year.

The service may invite people with specialised skills to the service for children to take part in shows, music, sport or technology activities.

For more information on excursions and visitors to the service, be sure to speak with the Nominated Supervisor.

Number of children

In an family day care service, educators operate from within their home or an agreed venue.

For family day care services, the ratio is one educator for seven children, and there can be no more than four children who are under school age.

Educators provide education and care within their homes to small groups of children. Family day care has a strong community focus as educators are encouraged to go on routine outings into the community.

Educator to child ratio

One educator looks after children of mixed age groups.

Some educators have assistant educators – mostly used for transportation of children where the educator can’t drive or where they have children preschool age and under and are required to drop off and pick up school age children.

For these services, the ratio is as mentioned above. Educator’s own children or any other children at the FDC residence are counted in the overall total of children if they are under 13 years of age and there is no other adult present and caring for those children. The number of educators at a residence cannot be increased in order to increase the number of children that can be educated and cared for.

Age of children

There will be fewer children enrolled and can be of different ages.

Meals and nappies

May or may not provide meals and nappies.

Programs for children

Family day care educators participate in child centred routine outings. This can include visits to the library, local park, community, play group, kindy gym, coordination unit play session, museum, and community gardens. Educators may visit a local TAFE to participate in play session. This supports family day care educators to network, and children within their network to play with other children. It also supports Certificate III and Diploma students to plan activities for children and child based learning experiences.

The educator/service is required to ask for your permission before taking a child out of the service, and they must conduct and make available a risk assessment of the transport and location that they are visiting.

Some routines may be considered ‘regular outings’ to such things as the local library, post office, café etc. Other excursions may be planned based on the children’s interests throughout the year.

• Think about your values, circumstances, needs and wants Then look at the different characteristics of long day care and family day care to see which model fits best with these.
• Remember that FDC and LDC services operate differently In FDC there is usually just one educator working with the children, and a coordinator, family liaison officer, and service manager who supervise and attend play sessions/play groups. It's important to meet the team at the FDC coordination unit and feel comfortable about asking them for advice.
• Visit both FDC and LDC services and ask questions

You might like to find out:

• What is the service's quality rating under the NQS?
• Is there a waiting list, and how long will you have to wait?
• What is the service's philosophy and how does this influence the educator’s relationships with the child?
• Have there been any recent staff changes?
• How many educators will there be in the room with your child?
• Has the service been sold recently?
• Who is the approved provider of the service? – this is the person approved under the national legislation to operate the service.
• How long has the service been operating for?

If you’re visiting a family day care service, you might also like to ask:

• Does the educator take the children to a playgroup, and how often does this occur?
• How often does the coordinator visit the educator’s home?
• Who else will be at the home/venue when your child will be attending?
• What experience does the educator have working in the early childhood sector?