The Story of Foundations
Foundations Family Day Care’s story is one of helping others and responsive, innovative support.
The original idea came from talking to a group of Educators whose council service was in its last throes. During discussions with them, it occurred to me that my experience might be able to help them. Then, a chance discussion with another person, who highlighted my knowledge, plus my ability to understand and interpret government requirements provided the additional push needed to submit the original applications for Provider, Service and Child Care Benefit Approvals.
Laura, Connor, Camden, me, and Craig - my family and the heart of Foundations Family Day Care
We commenced the provision of education and care with one Educator, quickly joined by another and then a third. Despite the service being so small, when it became apparent that the third was not prepared to meet the expectations I and their fellow Educators had of them, that person was let go.
We originally had Educators collecting the payments from parents, however, it became quickly apparent that was taking Educators away from their true role of educating and caring for children and creating a barrier between Educators and families, so the Coordination Unit began collecting instead. This freed our Educators from one of their administrative burdens and allowed them to concentrate on the children and their families.
In 2016, we faced our first round of Assessment and Ratings and, with a strong team, were happy to be granted the Exceeding rating. This was a credit to every Educator and staff member and meant that FFDC was one of the top 12% of services in Victoria.
The team on our 5th birthday
2018 saw the trauma of the transition from Child Care Benefit (CCB) to Child Care Subsidy (CCS). Whilst there was a small challenge for families across Australia, the Government not paying almost Family Day Care service any CCS for nearly two months resulted in many in our sector being short on money for a substantial period of time. During this time, I was exceedingly aware of the risk to our Educators, so withdrew from my mortgage to tide them over until the payments started flowing more freely.
Of course, 2020 saw the start of the pandemic and the Melbourne lockdowns. Our Educators were under substantial pressure, so we pivoted visits to be via Zoom to ensure Educators were still getting the support needed, despite the Coordination Unit being unable to visit due to the lockdown rules. The service also continued to provide other supports, such as supplying the Educators with contactless thermometers, masks and even vouchers to enable our Educators to buy food for their families, as well as successfully fighting the federal government to enable our Educators to still be able to collect JobKeeper when almost every other FDC in the country was taking the pitiful Support Payment instead. Our Coordination Unit monitored the constantly changing requirements, sometimes even multiple changes in a day, and ensured our Educators were aware of and complying with those changes, so it was with a great deal of pleasure we saw the lifting of the lockdowns, with a view to relaxing over Christmas.
With most of our Educators and almost all staff on leave, the run-up to our A&R visit was not ideal, so it was wonderful to receive the news of us being rated as Exceeding for the second time, making FFDC the only Family Day Care in Victoria to be rated as Exceeding twice including under the new and much harder system, but even then, we wanted better: we set the goal of us becoming Victoria’s first Excellent rated Family Day Care service.
The on-again, off-again lockdowns continued through 2021, and it became a bit like Groundhog Day, with everything constantly changing, but we were still stuck at home, including Melbourne’s record-breaking 18 weeks of lockdown. As with the year prior, the focus of our Coordination Unit was one of support for our Educators and of working to build our already strong sense of team. It was with a great deal of surprise and pride that we came out of that with Educators being firm friends and colleagues, even referring to each other as family. Then, in December 2021, we received another call for help, this time from Educators in South Australia, who were looking down the barrel of their service being closed.
The first group outing for our SA team to Adelaide Zoo
Craig and I spent the next couple of months exploring the possibility of opening up a second FFDC and the Service and CCS applications were submitted in February 2022. Once they were submitted, we had numerous trips between the two states, answering queries, running training days, and putting everything in place for the planned commencement.
We were still looking for ways to help our team bond when we realised that a special date was coming up on 22/2/22, which we named Tutu Day. Whilst we could not easily get together, we all encouraged each other, taking photos of us in tutus, as well as other costumes, encouraging families to join in the fun and celebrate the end of two very long years of lockdowns. We also agreed that the 22nd of February would become an annual celebration of freedom and being part of a team.
In September, I was awarded the Excellence in Family Day Care Coordinator of the Year award for Victoria and Tasmania, becoming one of four finalists for the country, followed quickly by winning the National Family Day Care Coordinator of the Year award. It also saw our first South Australian children in care with our rapidly growing team, with Foundations Family Day Care becoming the only non-government FDC authorised to operate in that state.
Since then, as well as South Australia growing at a rapid rate, including Adelaide and its surrounds as well as the Mount Gambier area, we have also made the expansion into country Victoria, with our first Educator in Hamilton and another soon to join us in Bendigo. We have also continued our strong tradition of innovation in our service, developing new ways to minimise paperwork for our Educators, such as our new method for Excursion Risk Management Plans. We are very much looking to continue developing new ways to ensure our Educators can be confident they are fully compliant whilst also minimising the administrative burden.