Regional Meeting Invitation
Wednesday 8 February at 7pm
We are pleased to invite you to the first Enhance Family Day Care Regional Zoom Meeting of the year on Wednesday 8 February at 7pm, hosted by your Children Services Team.
Our virtual meetings play an integral role in keeping you up to date with the Enhance service happenings, current Quality Focus areas and Sector wide updates.
We are pleased to share the meeting agenda for next Wednesday night, as follows:
We look forward to seeing you online!
Kind Regards
Meegan Walsh
General Manager, Children Services
In the lead up to the festive season and the Enhance Family Day Care office closures, it is vitally important to ensure you are supported and prepared in the event of an emergency.
The Enhance FDC offices will be closed from Saturday 24 December 2022, to Sunday 8 January 2023, in celebration of the holiday season. If you experience an emergency during this closure period, please contact us via our emergency number, 07 3899 1655.
Emergency situations include:
Non-emergency situations include:
The on call process for the holiday season involves:
If an emergency was to occur i.e. a bushfire or flood, Enhance Family Day Care will make the decision to close a service, if schools in the area are also closed. If you have received an order to evacuate, or other warnings from an emergency service, please evacuate immediately and inform your Enhance service as soon as it is safe to do so.
In the event of an emergency, our primary concern is to ensure you, all children, families and the local community are safe. If our office is ordered to evacuate, you will receive an email from us informing you of our whereabouts.
Bushfires and Asthma
Smoke from bushfires is a common trigger among children and adults with respiratory conditions, like asthma. In the event of an emergency, such as bushfires, it is vital to understand the risks and know how to take appropriate action. Asthma Australia has some helpful tips on how to minimise the effect of bushfire smoke, which can be accessed by clicking the button below:
Taking care this storm season
With storm and cyclone season approaching, it is important to know what to do in the event of a natural disaster, this includes having emergency kits and plans in place.
If you require assistance, please contact your Service.
For general information and resources on how to stay safe during a storm, please visit the Queensland Government's Get Ready Queensland website by clicking the button below:
R U OK? Mateship Manual
The new R U OK? Mateship Manual provides guidance and tips to help you support a family member, friend, neighbour or workmate affected by a natural disaster or an emergency now and into the future.
Find out how you can help someone who's doing it tough because of a natural disaster or emergency by clicking on the button below:
I thank you in advance for your assistance in upholding these processes for the duration of the holiday period.
Kind regards
Cathy Cahill
General Manager, Children Services
In celebration of the holiday season, the Enhance Family Day Care offices will be closed from Monday 26 December 2022, reopening on Monday 9 January 2023. Whilst our offices and Child Care Support (CCS) Help Desk are closed, your Administration Team will be working to process your payments. We ask that you review the following checklist, including deadlines, to ensure we can assist you in your preparation for the new year and to maintain CCS and Family Assistance Law compliance.
Given that your payments are now processed weekly and the CCS Help Desk will be closed between Christmas and New Year, your standard payment scheduled on 3 January 2023, will be disrupted for this week only. Upon review, changes have been made to the payment schedule to ensure minimal impact on you. Please see table below for details on when payments will be made during this period.
Please find our checklist and deadlines for the holiday season below, outlining tasks relating to care from Monday 26 December 2022 to Monday 9 January 2023.
It is important to discuss holiday care requirements with your families at your earliest convenience. Please ensure you communicate with your families the days you will be available to provide care, allowing them sufficient time to make alternative arrangements, if required.
Please note: If attendance records are not submitted to the service each Sunday, as per the deadlines above, they cannot be processed with Centrelink and payment will not be made until the following week. We thank you for your support and assistance with preparing for the end of the year by meeting these deadlines.
If you have any questions, please contact your Admin Officer. From our family to yours, we wish you a safe and happy holiday season!
Kind regards
Cathy Cahill
General Manager, Children Services
It is with a heavy heart that I announce my resignation as FDCQ General Manager Children Services. After more than eight years of service with Family Day Care Queensland, including four years as General Manager Children Services, I have made the challenging decision to take a break to spend time with my family.
It has been an honour and privilege to work with you, our dedicated and inspiring Educators. Your resilience and strength through times of challenge and change will stay with me forever. Thank you for your commitment to children and families. You are an inspiration to us all. I have learnt so much along this journey and will miss connecting in with you during our Educator meetings and our face to face visits.
Leading Enhance Family Day Care and Capricornia In Home Care has been a career highlight and I will always reflect fondly on my time with the organisation. I would like to posthumously thank Peta McNellie, former FDCQ CEO for her professional guidance, her confidence in me and her unrivalled passion for the sector.
As I leave my role, I depart knowing that Enhance Family Day Care and Capricornia In Home Care is in competent and capable hands. I feel extremely proud of the work we have accomplished over the last four years and know the team will continue to work hard with streamlining systems and processes to support you with the valuable work you do.
Jason de Bakker, FDCQ Chief Executive Officer, with Meg Walsh, Children Services Manager and the Children Services leadership team, will be reviewing our structure and arrangements for 2023 over the coming weeks. Further information will be communicated with you in due time.
My final day in the role of General Manager will be Friday 23 December.
I thank you for the opportunity to have led you, with my head and my heart, and for the support and remarkable work you do with children, families and for the Family Day Care sector. Thank you.
It has been a privilege and a joy to have worked with you. Moving forward, I wish you all the very best to lead, grow and promote exceptional home-based education and care.
Kind regards
Cathy Cahill
Children Services General Manager
We want to hear from you!
Complete the Educator survey
What matters most to you?
As we plan for 2023, we would like to know how we can best support you and your family day care.
Please complete the short survey below to let us know, confidentially if you so choose, how we can improve our service. We value your input, so please be honest and consider your responses.
We encourage you to complete the survey by Wednesday 7 December by clicking on the button below:
Findings from the survey will be presented to you during our next Educator meeting.
Your families will also be asked to complete a survey to inform us on how we can improve our service in 2023. Please encourage your families to provide their feedback via the family survey.
Thank you for taking the time to have your say.
Kind regards
Cathy Cahill
General Manager, Children Services