Northern Beaches Council Family Day Care takes a hands-on approach to child protection to ensure educators are well-equipped, supported and empowered to safeguard children from harm from their first day providing care at their home.

“We set the standard and expectation from the beginning,” Lisa Baker, Acting Manager at Northern Beaches Council Family Day Care shared. “It is a culture visible across all levels of the organisation.”

When new educators join the family day care (FDC) service, they undergo a child-focused induction process that involves face-to-face training, scenario-based learning and understanding child protection policies and procedures.

“New educators are required to complete policy quizzes to ensure their understanding of their obligations around child protection,” Lisa said. One of the quizzes requires educators to complete a scenario-based Mandatory Reporting Guide (MRG) activity.

“We ensure new educators hold a current and recognised child protection qualification and have developed a refresher webinar for educators to complete before they start providing education and care to children,” Lisa added.

To help educators navigate the complex and sensitive topic of child safety, the service provides clear, easy-to-understand resources as part of its induction process. This includes the NSW Office of the Children's Guardian's Child Safe Standards poster (PDF 347 KB) and a Family Day Care Australia resource on problematic and/or harmful child sexual behaviours. A hard copy of this resource is provided to all educators. The service’s Quality Improvement Plan, which embeds child safety as an ongoing goal, is also provided to educators during induction.

Lisa shared that creating a space for open conversations and providing practical tools helps educators feel emotionally prepared and confident in their role of protecting children, which is particularly important when working alone.

Furthermore, Rosemary Nettleship, Manager at Northern Beaches Council Family Day Care, highlighted how transparency is also at the heart of their induction, helping to build a child safe environment for children.

“We believe child safety starts with open communication,” Rosemary said.

“Our induction process ensures families and educators are fully informed about policies and practices in place. We actively share information about service policies, child safety training undertaken by educators, and child safeguarding risk assessments.”

See Something, Say Something – a program that empowers

Northern Beaches Council Family Day Care’s ‘See Something, Say Something Program’ is a core aspect of its induction program. The program is designed to give educators the tools and confidence to identify and respond to concerns about child safety effectively.

“The program addresses key child safety areas, including reporting responsibilities, required timeframes for making different reports, as well as different scenarios for educators to practice their decision-making in home-based environments,” Rochelle Clancy, Acting Executive Manager Early Learning at Northern Beaches Council Family Day Care, explained.

The ‘See Something, Say Something’ message is consistently reinforced across multiple touchpoints, including in home visits, individual check-ins and educator meetings. This ensures educators feel supported and are clear on their responsibilities, even while working alone. Reflection activities prompt educators to consider how child protection responsibilities apply within their own practice and physical environment.

A new professional development video is also in production, which will focus on family day care educators' legal and ethical responsibilities, duty of care, the See Something, Say Something approach and Code of Conduct.

Robust record keeping practices

Effective record keeping supports compliance with legislation and helps to reduce risks of harm to children, Lisa explained.

For example, Northern Beaches Council Family Day Care uses a spreadsheet to track the expiry dates of staff and educator Working with Children Check (WWCC) clearances, as well as anyone over 18 years of age who resides at an FDC residence.

The spreadsheet also contains the names and dates of birth of all children that reside at an FDC service to ensure they apply for and receive a WWCC clearance before they turn 18.

The spreadsheet is monitored daily and the FDC coordination team follows up with anyone who needs to provide a new WWCC clearance. Once received, the FDC manager verifies and keeps a record of the clearance to be compliant with WWCC requirements.

Support for educators

Child safety is a standing agenda item at every staff, coordinator and educator meeting. This helps to reinforce child protection messages and ensure children’s safety is always front of mind, Lisa shared.

Engaging in group reflection has enabled staff to identify opportunities to enhance the service’s child safe practices. One discussion led to the service making a simple tweak to its visitor log template – adding a field to enter a contact phone number – which promotes accountability and improves transparency around visitors to an FDC residence.

“Educators have allocated coordinators who conduct regular unannounced home visits and provide ongoing mentorship and support,” Lisa added.

“We strive to ensure educators and staff feel confident to speak up and advocate for the safety and wellbeing of children.”

By providing a child-focused induction, ongoing training, practical tools and a supportive environment, the FDC service creates a culture where speaking up on child safety is embedded practice.

As Rochelle said, “If something doesn’t sit right, we want educators to know they can and must say something.”