Educators operating on their own are not eligible for a service approval under the Education and Care National Law.
Family Day Care services who employ or engage two or more educators must be approved under the National Law.
The first step is to apply for and be granted a provider approval, which assesses your fitness and propriety, and capacity to operate an education and care service.
An application for service approval may be submitted at the same time, or at any time after a provider approval has been granted.
If you are a single educator, you might wish to consider working with a Family Day Care service that is already approved and operating in the ACT. These services welcome new educators and provide support and monitoring through their coordination unit.
A Family Day Care service must have a Nominated Supervisor. This person must meet requirements for qualifications and/or experience.
The Nominated Supervisor, along with the approved provider, has responsibility for ensuring the service operates in accordance with the National Law and Regulations.
Family Day Care services must appoint for the first months after the service commences operating one full time Family Day Care coordinator for every 15 family day care educators. After the end of the 12 months period this changes to 1 full time Family Day Care coordinator for every 25 family day care educators. The coordinator’s role is to monitor and support their educators, such as through visits, phone calls and training. Coordinators must hold at least an approved diploma level qualification.
All Family Day Care educators must hold, or be actively working towards, at least an approved Certificate III level qualification in education and care. Approved qualifications are listed at ACECQA 
.
Family Day Care services must also appoint a suitably qualified and experienced educator or coordinator to be the educational leader of the service.