SLEEP, REST AND RELAXATION POLICY REVIEW

In line with our commitment to the health, safety and wellbeing of all children attending Enhance Family Day Care services, we are continuing the rollout of new and updated policies for Educators, to guide practice and support their delivery of high quality services.

The Enhance Family Day Care Sleep, Rest and Relaxation Policy, was implemented in May 2021 and is due for review.

It is important to seek feedback and reflect on the implementation of the policy, ensuring the policy is current and continues to be a useful resource for your Educator.

We would appreciate your feedback on our policy and our practices around sleep, rest and relaxation. Your feedback will keep us accountable and ensure we are considering all of our stakeholders' perspectives and the safety of children, during this review.
 
You can find a copy of our Sleep, Rest and Relaxation Policy here.
 
We are interested to hear of any improvements in practices and processes that you think could be refined or changed, and any further feedback regarding this policy.

Please provide your feedback via the link below:

Thank you for supporting Enhance Family Day Care and our commitment to providing children and families with exceptional home-based education and care.

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTS POLICIES ROLLOUT

Following the successful rollout of the Enhance Family Day Care Quality Area 2; Children's Health and Safety Policies, we have launched our next group of policies and the accompanying training module for Educators.

Our next module, focused on Quality Area 3; Physical Environments, covers the following policies:

• Sustainability Policy
• Pets and Animals Policies

These policies have been researched and written in conjunction with leading national authorities and legislative requirements relating to safe, high quality physical environments. The policies have been received by your Educator and will take effect from Monday 30 May. 

What does this mean for you and your child?
As a leader in Family Day Care in Queensland, with your child's safety as our priority, Enhance Family Day Care have put in place a number of policies that are above and beyond legislative requirements. Practice Mentors and Educators will work together over the coming weeks and months to review their practices around their physical environment, specifically in relation to sustainable practices and animals and pets.

We thank you for your assistance with this new process and for your continued trust and confidence in caring for your child(ren).

UPDATED FEE SCHEDULE

We are writing to inform you of prospective changes to your family day care fees, which will be initiated from Monday 11 July, 2022.

Each year, Educators review the costs of running their service and providing high quality education and care to your child/ren. As the cost of running a business increases, your Educator may also decide to increase their fees. Enhance Family Day Care (FDC) have made the decision to increase the Service Levy that is charged to Educators. Educators are currently reviewing their fees and, once finalised, will forward you their new Fee Schedule for the upcoming financial year.

Please be advised, your Educator’s fees may change. Once you have received the new Fee Schedule, you can use this online calculator to estimate your out of pocket child care costs. Your Educator will discuss these changes with you. This Fee Schedule will indicate the total hourly fee you will be required to pay.

Both Enhance FDC and our Educators understand the impact of fee changes on families and have taken this into consideration when setting our fees.

When and if your Educator changes their Fee Schedule:

For important information regarding Services Australia, Child Care Subsidy (CCS) Balancing, please click on the button below:

CHILDREN'S HEALTH & SAFETY POLICIES
Group 4

Following the successful rollout of the Enhance Family Day Care leadership and governance policies, we have now launched the next round of policies, and accompanying training module for your Educators, including:

• Excursion Policy
• Water Safety Policy
• Acceptance and Refusal of Authorisations Policy
• Arrival and Departure Policy

These policies have been researched and written in conjunction with leading national authorities and legislative requirements relating to children’s health and safety.

Furthermore, we have reviewed the Transporting of Children Policy, which was released in October 2020 following legislation changes. This policy has been updated from the comments and feedback provided by you and our Educators. Thank you for taking the time to contribute to our policy review process. Together, we can continue to deliver high quality care for your children. 

Your Educator has received the policies and will complete a knowledge based quiz to reinforce the content as part of our training module. The policies come into effect from Sunday 3 April.

What does this mean for you and your child?
As a leader in Family Day Care in Queensland with your child's safety as our priority, Enhance Family Day Care have put in place a number of policies above and beyond legislative requirements. Practice Mentors and Educators will work together over the coming weeks and months to review the practices around meals, breastfeeding and bottles, ensuring that practice aligns with the new and updated policies.

We thank you for your assistance with this new process and for your continued trust and confidence in caring for your child(ren).

WAIVING THE GAP FEE
Information for Families

Enhance Family Day Care (FDC) have been actively reviewing the Early Childhood Sector updates and information as released from the Department of Education and DESE. We acknowledge that this has been a confusing time for many and we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing support of your Educator and the Enhance FDC Team, during this unprecedented and constantly changing chapter.

Following sector wide research and recent feedback provided by our Enhance FDC Educators, we support the following options for any Educators / families affected by COVID-19 during the months of January and February 2022:

As a service, our position is that we support each individual Educator's business decision to waive the Gap Fee for families and Educators that are affected by COVID-19.

What this means to you I Gap Fee Waiving COVID-19 Related Criteria
Currently an Educator has the right to choose to waive the Gap Fee and receive Child Care Subsidy (CCS), if a child is unable to attend care for one of the following reasons:

1. They, or a member of their immediate household, must isolate due to COVID-19 (This includes if they are a close contact or awaiting test results).
2. The service, or a room at the service, is closed due to COVID-19. This includes where:
   • An Educator cannot provide their usual service because they, or a member of their immediate household must isolate due to COVID-19. Written advice from a state agency is not required.

NB: Educators must not waive the Gap Fee for families in any other circumstances. If you choose to keep your child at home, for non COVID-19 related reasons, you may use your allowable absences but MUST pay a Gap Fee to the service.

Unlimited Absences (time limited)
Your family will have unlimited allowable absences throughout January and February 2022. You will not have to use your 52 allowable absences for the 2021–22 financial year during this period. These absences will be automatically applied in the Child Care Subsidy System.

Gap Fee Waiving
Families who receive CCS must ordinarily make a co-contribution to their childcare fees under Family Assistance Law. This is called the Gap Fee and means paying the difference between the provider’s fee and the CCS amount.

We kindly ask you to consider what implication waiving the Gap Fee will have on your Educator. You may be aware of some childcare centres waiving the Gap Fee for some of the reasons listed above. When a childcare centre waives the Gap Fee, it will not necessarily impact their Educators, as their wages are paid by their employer. As your Educators are independent business operators, waiving of the Gap Fee will directly reduce their income. The Government is not offering any supplementary payments for Educators who waive Gap Fees.

If you have any questions or feedback regarding waiving the Gap Fee, please submit it via the form below:

We recognise that this is a challenging time for many of our families and Educators and the financial ramifications caused by isolating, pausing care or taking leave from work may prove challenging for many.

Financial Support for families having to isolate and loss of regular income:

We believe the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light just how important Educators and early learning is to individual families and the wider community. Enhance FDC are enormously grateful for the energy, time, commitment and educational support that each of our Educators bring to your children and the efforts they make to remain open and available for continuity of care.

We thank you for your ongoing support of your Educator and to our Enhance family.

LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE POLICIES ROLL OUT

Welcome back to all of our families and a very warm welcome is extended to our new families who have joined Enhance Family Day Care in 2022.

To ensure we are continuing to deliver the highest quality of education and care to your child(ren), Enhance Family Day Care will continue the roll out of our 2021/22 Policy and Training Project. This project focusses on creating a new set of policies to support best practice in Family Day Care.

Last year, 5 new training modules, covering the most important aspects of children's health and safety, were successfully implemented  and embedded into practice by your incredible Educators. This year, we are committed to completing the Policy and Training Project by rolling out the remaining policies, along with resources and training that ensure we keep children at the heart of everything we do.

This month we will be introducing three new policy training modules. The first two modules (rolled out simultaneously), cover all policies under Quality Area 7 of the National Quality Standards; Leadership and Governance. The third module will be released later this month. 

The 12 Leadership and Governance policies have been received by your Educator and will take effect from Monday 21 February 2022.

We invite you to access the new policies, highlighted in the Policy Handbook, by clicking on the button below:

We thank you for your continued trust and confidence in caring for your child(ren).

HOLIDAY CLOSURE DATES & DEADLINES

In celebration of the festive season, the Enhance FDC offices will be closed from Monday 20 December, 2021, reopening on Tuesday 4 January, 2022. During this time, our Administration team will be processing attendance records over two days only. Therefore, we ask that you review the following checklist, including deadlines, to ensure we can action any work required in preparation for the new year and to maintain Child Care Subsidy and Family Assistance Law compliance.

It is important to discuss care requirements with your Educator regarding the holiday period, at your earliest convenience. Please ensure you communicate with your Educator to let them know when your child/ren will be absent from care and to find out when they will be closed for operation, allowing both parties to make appropriate arrangements.

Please find our checklist and deadlines for the holiday season below, outlining tasks relating to care from Monday 20 December, 2021- Tuesday 4 January, 2022:

Please ensure you submit your Family Leave forms directly to your Educator.

We thank you for your support and assistance in preparing for the end of year by meeting these deadlines. We trust you and your child have enjoyed their time at family day care throughout the year and from our family to yours, we wish you a safe and happy festive season!

SAFE PLAY SPACES POLICY AND GUIDELINES ROLL OUT

Keeping your children at the heart of everything we do, I am pleased to announce our next policy roll out as part of our Policy Refresh Project. Our Safe Play Spaces Policy and Guidelines have been extensively reviewed and researched to align with best practice, changes in legislation and recommendations from leading national authorities. The Policy and Guidelines focus on ensuring that the physical FDC environment and practices relating to children’s health and safety is forefront in our FDC services.

The Safe Play Spaces policy has been received by your Educator and will take effect from Monday 1 November 2021.

You can view the Policy and the Guidelines below:

What does this mean for you and your child(ren)?

Previously, Enhance FDC had a number of policies that referenced safe play spaces, but we now have a policy that combines best practice with legislation and KidSafe recommendations. The purpose of the new, more comprehensive Safe Play Spaces policy is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children enrolled in Enhance FDC services is at the forefront of our service delivery, and that Educators are supported to create and maintain environments that inspire fun and learning while minimising risks.

Practice Mentors and Educators will work together over the coming weeks and months to review their indoor and outdoor environments, ensuring that practice aligns with our new policy and guidelines.

For more information about play spaces and safe environments for children, we encourage you to visit the Kidsafe website.

If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions regarding the new policy, please send them to [email protected] or call your local service.