With the National Family Day Care Week around the corner and The Excellence in Family Day Care awards about to commence, we thought we’d have a chat with the Excellence in Family Day Care 2022 Coordinator of the Year winner, Kathi Hewitson, founder of Foundations Family Day Care to see what it takes to be a winner!
A little about the awards
The Family Day Care Australia Excellence in Family Day Care Awards are the only awards dedicated entirely to Australia’s Family Day Care sector. The awards are designed to recognise the incredible effort of dedicated educators, coordinators, and services in the sector delivering high-quality early childhood education and care to children throughout Australia.
Extensive knowledge and loads of experience are just two of the many reasons Foundations Family Day Care were not only nominated for the 2022 excellence in Family day-care awards, but they also won!
Meet Kathi Hewitson
Kathi’s motivation for entering Family Day Care is not uncommon, initially driven by the need for quality care when her own child was born as well as the need to have two incomes. Realising she wasn’t suited to sales and marketing (or ironing!), Kathi decided being a ‘carer’ (as they were known in 1994) in family day care would get her through until her son was in school.
Such is the sector and Kathi’s passion, as the industry evolved, so did her love of the job. She started working for Community Child Care in 2009 and was Australia’s first-ever professional support consultant, specialising in Family day care and in-home care.
Her role at Community Child Care was, in part, to support services in the introduction of the EYLF, leading discussions and organising education sessions with guest speakers to support the sector through the massive changes.
Kathi considers herself very privileged to have been on the committee groups giving feedback on the draft regulations, collaborating with the team writing the EYLF changes, and having the opportunity to help shape the sector into what it is today.
Welcome to Foundations Family Day Care
Foundations, established in 2013 is a collaboration of the best ideas from around the world – and that’s thanks to Kathi’s unique experience working across three Family Day Care services simultaneously as their educational leader.
Kathi has shaped Foundations Family Day Care in a way that is unique to the sector. Not only does she take pride in her democratic service structure, but she also spends a lot of time nurturing her educators and helping them understand things in a simplified way.
“A lot of the services were being run by or had educators who had come to Australia from a lot of other places, and I got very quickly used to explaining things in a very simplified form.”
The circle of trust
Kathi takes great pride in her service structure. There is no one ‘beneath’ her in this business, everyone works with her, in her circle. “Our unique democratic structure recognises that, while our directors do have the final say and final responsibility for many things, our whole team has an equal input into how our service operates.”
Foundation’s coordinating staff are employees while educators are self-employed, working under contract, throughout Victoria and South Australia, to the service. This means in every town across those two states, there is a Foundations Family Day Care educator who is their very own micro business. Their money goes back to their local community, sponsoring local athletics clubs, and buying resources from local businesses which all add value back to the community.
The pros and cons of Family Day Care
Kathi proudly discusses both sides of the coin. When it comes to the pros, there are many.
“We are one of the biggest groups of women running their own businesses in the entire country. FDC provides stable, ongoing income, usually at a higher income rate than what centre-based educators receive. Family Day Care educators can work from their own home, earning a decent income while still being able to be their own person.”
And what about the cons?
Mental health and well-being are a big focus in the family day care space. Given many family day care providers begin due to a lack of care options in their remote areas, isolation can be very real.
Foundations are very mindful of the mental health behind isolation that may develop within family day care, so much so that they have written it into their philosophy that educators who are a part of Foundations are to get out and about with the children regularly. “Not only is it good for the children to have learning opportunities out in the community, but it’s also good for the educator to have adult social interaction too”, says Kathi.
Foundations also checks in very regularly. Kathi is very ‘hands on’ when it comes to her educators. If you're in need, she's there!
Keen to learn more about Foundations?
At the moment, Kathi has 18 educators around her, 11 in Victoria, seven in South Australia and a further 27 applicants ready to join across both states. Find out more about joining Kathi and her team at Foundations.
