Are you thinking of starting a family daycare?
It can be a wonderful opportunity to be your own boss, work the hours you want to and best of all get you get to nurture little ones and watch them grow in a home based environment. If this interests you, there are a couple of things to consider first:
Most importantly- are you and your family prepared to run a business from home and are you ok with a job with only a salary – no super, paid leave etc
If you don’t own your home do you have the landlords permission to conduct a fdc?
How will you manage running a household and working from said house. Especially important if you have children or other responsibilities.
Can you handle being the sole carer of a child/children? There are no break times etc
Children are loud and messy, they may cry or spill bodily fluids everywhere, are you and your family ok with this
Do you have adequate space? (both indoors and outdoors) – what spaces in your home can be used for a fdc?
There must be adequate light and access to heating/cooling indoors.
Any outdoor area must have adequate shade available
Access to a laundry and/ or bathroom and kitchen facilities is required
Are you aware of all the rules and regulations regarding fdc and how this will impact you, your home and its residents?
for example – you may be subject to random spot checks by the department and may be chosen as part of your schemes accreditation
Apart from checked and registered members of your family, visitors cannot be present whilst you have fdc children
Pets must be kept away unless approved
You will almost definitely be required to make alterations to your home such as child safety devices which you and your family must have in place whilst you have children in your care, some of these may be temporary others permanent structures
You will have to spend money which you will not recoup in order to begin for example police checks, resources (such as furniture) etc
And finally you are required to comply with national law and regulations at all times– penalties may apply to (you) the individual if you break any law/regulation
All of this may sound scary but there is a lot of responsibility with opening and running a fdc, your scheme will help as will organisations such as fdc australia
I'll be posting some more info on fdc soon including some of the benefits!
feel free to ask any questions in the meantime and I'll do my best to answer them
