Your first step into early childhood education and outside school hours care
Australia's free government website for families and communities to find and compare services by quality ratings, fees, vacancies and inclusions.
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Understand how governments rate service quality and monitor safety
To ensure the health and safety of children, our national regulatory system sets a high bar for services to be rated Meeting the National Quality Standard (NQS).
Learning begins from the start
It’s important your child has opportunities to learn and develop every day. Find out about early years learning and development.
Understand how quality gives children the best start in life
Research shows quality early education and care leads to better health, education and employment outcomes later in life. Find out how educators deliver quality in services.
Calculate your Child Care Subsidy (CCS)
Find out what your Child Care Subsidy (CCS) entitlements and out-of-pocket costs may be.
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“StartingBlocks.gov.au - as a parent, I think it's really important for me to understand the national service quality rating, it gives me confidence to research centres.
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- Mother of a four year old child attending a long day care service
“StartingBlocks.gov.au website was really important, quality education is so important to my whole family. We've always taken a lot of time to choose the right place.
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- Father of a 3 year old attending long day care and family day care services
“StartingBlocks.gov.au opened my eyes to a whole bunch of things as far as really understanding those national quality standards that you're looking for.
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- Mother of 5 year old twins attending an outside school hours care service
Choosing a service
Resources to assist your child and family in preparing for early childhood education and care
Learn more