FDCA advocacy leads to recommendation to reduce regulations for FDC

The “volume and breadth” of regulation relating to the family day care (FDC) sector should be reviewed, according to a report released by the Select Committee on Red Tape, Family Day Care Australia has reported.

On October 11 2016, the Australian Senate established the Select Committee on Red Tape, with FDCA making a formal submission to the inquiry in relation to the effect of ‘red tape’ on the childcare sector, appearing as witnesses at the public hearing on 12 June 2018.

As a result of their advocacy efforts, FDCA has reported that the Committee has made a “clear recommendation” that:

“the Australian Government, through the Council of Australian Governments, expeditiously work toward reducing the regulatory burden in the FDC sector, including by removing limits on the number of educators in each service.” (Recommendation 1)

The Red Tape Committee final report was released 3 December 2018, focusing on broader policy and process to limit and reduce red tape, confirming that the recommendations from sector specific interim reports, such as the recommendation listed above, still stand.

FDCA highlighted the overall comment from the committee, namely:

“2.80 For this inquiry, the committee found a high level of in-principle support for regulation in the childcare sector, but not necessarily for the volume and breadth of regulation. The committee agreed that wherever possible red tape should be identified and eliminated, especially as the recently introduced Child Care Subsidy scheme matures…”

The final report included the Federal Government’s response to sector specific recommendations. With regard to reducing red tape in the FDC sector, FDCA noted that “the Government makes an in-principle commitment to continuing to work with state and territory governments and ACECQA as appropriate to ‘look for efficient ways to implement elements of the National Quality Framework (NQF)’. The Australian Government also ‘notes the need to continuously gather evidence and collect data to inform policy setting and government decision making’.”