Back To Where It All Began For Family Day Care Expert, Jodie Signorino

Jodie Signorino is on top of things. After spending the last three years working solely in governance advising, the family day care adviser is returning to her first love: training.

Signorino’s love of training started back when workplace training was just being introduced in child care. She established a training program in all of the centre’s she was responsible for that are still going strong to this day. 

Now, almost 30 years on, Jodie will be combining her love of training with her role as the founder of JPS Family Day Care Advisers to enable improved service operation and delivery in the education and care sector.  

“I have always been sought to assist family day care services with their governance arrangements and look forward to doing more of what I love” Signorino said. 

“Bringing my skills to family day care, as opposed to centre based services, I feel like I’m making a real difference, and I am surrounded by people I trust to help me bring robust governance to a sector that has been failing on so many aspects. I am obsessive about governance, policies and systems that, once implemented, make a real difference to the business and of course ultimately the experiences children are getting. I am a parent and an early childhood professional and I believe that family day care is THE ultimate care arrangement for children and families.” 

Jodie’s policies have received acclaim by many managers and other governance advisers, and have been referred to as ‘professional’ and even ‘strict’. But she is proud that the JPS Family Day Care policy and procedures are underpinned with the five governance principles of training, mentoring, monitoring, compliance and quality improvement. Jodie credits her time at working KPV now (ELLA) with establishing her skills in developing policies that actually work, although she insists that even if you have the best policies in the world, if they are not fully implemented then they are a waste of time and money.

One of those who was influential in Jodie’s governance training and understanding was Glenda Glover, who headed up the team of governance advisers for ELLA for over 20 years. Glenda was the one that challenged Jodie and made her think about what governance is and how it differs greatly from managing. Glenda was able to instil in her team of advisers the ability to identify the symptom, whether that be a staff member not performing, a parent complaint, or the governance of the service.

‘It’s all in the governance arrangements, including the delegation of authority!’

Jodie credits this training for her ability to see ‘governance’, and help services identify the cause rather than just addressing the issues.

“If a provider or manager feel they are constantly putting out fires and dealing with same issues over and again, the problem lies in the governance!” 

Unlike Jodie, Glenda will not be pursuing governance in family day care having recently retired to enjoy her new granddaughter.

“Maybe she thinks I have learnt everything I need to know” Jodie laughed. 

However,  Jodie knows Glenda is proud of the adviser she is today. 

Meanwhile, one new adviser that has recently been welcomed into the JPS fold is Vera Vasilchenko, a business adviser that works with services to bring their governance and 3rd party software together for better operations, business optimisation and of course compliance with the family assistance law. With Vera joining the JPS team they are a one stop shop to getting your governance structure right for improvement.

“I remember thinking governance and management were the same thing. Because I was a manger I though I totally understood governance. How wrong was I back then. Since focusing on governance I now know the difference and would like providers who run a service and educators who run a home business to know the difference, I want to see family day care re-build their reputation and climb the quality ladder with confidence and professional practice’ Jodie explained. 

Signorino herself has become an influencer of sorts, with people she has worked with and trained going on to achieve great things in the education and care sector. In fact, it has been the advisers Jodie has worked with that have helped her to develop a complete governance package for family day care services.

Her influence, it seems, has extended to her home life, too. Jodie, who shares one child, Eloise, with husband Michael believes her daughter has already grasped the importance of policy development and implementation which is evident in her dealings with her school and school groups she has become a part of.

“I didn’t get it until my thirties, but at 14 she already gets the importance. It’s great to see her taking an interest in my work. In her head she is already a leader” Jodie laughed.