Family day care and personal arrangements

If you are caring for children in your own home as a sole carer, you may be regulated under the SA Law and the South Australian standards for family day-care service (for sole educator services).

Services regulated under the SA Law, and not the National Law, are called residual services.

A residual family day-care (FDC) service is:

  • a service that is providing, or intending to provide, education and care on a regular basis for a child or children under 13 years of age
  • delivered through the use of a sole educator
  • from a residence or approved venue that is not the child’s own home
  • for fee or reward
  • advertised
  • not a personal arrangement.

A personal arrangement means education and care provided to a child:

  • by a family member or guardian of a child personally, otherwise than as a staff member of, or under engagement with, a service providing education and care on a regular basis to children under 13 years of age; or
  • by a friend of the family of the child personally under an informal arrangement where no offer to provide that education and care was advertised.

People wishing to operate a residual family day-care service must apply to the Education Standards Board for approval. If approved, they must comply with the South Australian standards for family day-care service (for sole educator services).