Find and compare services, view quality ratings and create a shortlist
Families can search for a children’s education and care service using the Find Child Care.tool.
Families can:
StartingBlocks.gov.au also provides useful resources for families who are looking for a service. Resources include tips for choosing a service and questions to ask when they visit a service for the first time:
This Find Child Care tool is easy to use on mobile, iPad or PC, sharing service details from national databases updated daily by governments, providers and services.
StartingBlocks.gov.au is ACECQA's family focused website.
Families can use the Child Care Subsidy Calculator tool to check how much their child care out of pocket costs might be after the government pays them Child Care Subsidy.
Child Care Subsidy Calculator results include the higher Child Care Subsidy that families may get for their second and younger children.
More information about the higher Child Care Subsidy is available on the Services Australia website.
Services Australia’s Payment and Service Finder can be found at servicesaustralia.gov.au/payment-and-service-finder.
It gives a more comprehensive estimate across a range of payments, including:
StartingBlocks.gov.au is ACECQA’s family focused website.
StartingBlocks.gov.au is ACECQA’s family focused website, created to support Your first step into early childhood education & care.
It provides free resources that children’s education and care services can use to support conversations and communications with families and communities.
These resources explain the National Quality Framework (NQF) and the National Quality Standard (NQS) through engaging formats, with some key resources translated into community languages. They also help build awareness and understanding of the important role of early childhood education and care professionals.
Families can search for a children’s education and care service using the Find Child Care tool and view and compare service fees, vacancies, quality ratings and inclusions.
StartingBlocks.gov.au is now the one national government website where families can find and compare all children's education and care services.
StartingBlocks.gov.au also provides useful resources for families who are looking for a service. Resources include tips for choosing a service and questions to ask when they visit a service for the first time:
The Find Child Care tool is easy to use on mobile, iPad or PC, sharing service details from national databases updated daily by governments, providers and services.
The StartingBlocks.gov.au website is reliable, free to access and helps with continuity of learning and transitions with Activities to do at home.
Families can search for a children’s education and care service using the Find Child Care tool.
Search results for family day care schemes provide the coordination unit information. For privacy reasons, details of individual family day care educators are not published.
The StartingBlocks.gov.au factsheet available at startingblocks.gov.au/other-resources/factsheets/choosing-the-right-service-for-your-child/. provides details on each service type to help families choose a service to suit their family.
There are many education and care options available to suit the needs of your child and your family:
These service types are not regulated under the National Quality Framework (NQF):
StartingBlocks.gov.au provides free factsheets at startingblocks.gov.au/other-resources/factsheets/.
The National Quality Standard (NQS) is informed by research about best practice and designed to encourage ongoing quality improvement.
There are seven quality areas:
Regulatory authorities in states and territories assess and rate services. Services are given ratings for each of the seven quality areas and an overall service quality rating.
Families can search for a children’s education and care service using the Find Child Care tool.
Search results include service quality ratings for each of the seven quality areas and the overall rating.
Services may be rated:
StartingBlocks.gov.au also provides useful resources for families who are looking for a service. These include tips for choosing a service and questions to ask when they visit a service for the first time:
Our national quality system sets very high minimum standards even before a service is approved to open. There should be no doubt in any parent’s mind that their child’s health, safety and wellbeing is the highest priority.
A service rating of Working Towards the National Quality Standard is not a fail.
If a service is rated as Working Towards the National Quality Standard, it means that the service provides safe education and care and is at a point on its journey to higher quality in one or more quality areas.
Our national quality system sets a high bar for services: they need to be providing quality education and care in all quality areas to be rated Meeting the National Quality Standard.
Our national quality system is not a pass-fail system, it encourages every service to get better and better.
Families can search for children’s education and care services by using the Find Child Care tool.
StartingBlocks.gov.au also provides useful resources for families who are looking for a service. These include tips for choosing a service and questions to ask when they visit a service for the first time:
StartingBlocks.gov.au is ACECQA’s family focused website.
Families can search for children’s education and care services by using the Find Child Care tool at http://www.startingblocks.gov.au/find-child-care/.
Search results include service addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and websites. Families can use this information to contact services to book a visit.
StartingBlocks.gov.au is ACECQA’s family focused website.
StartingBlocks.gov.au is a good source to find information to build parents’ and carers’ understanding of the standards services are required to meet under the NQS.
ACECQA’s series of quality early learning videos can also help families understand what quality looks like.
The videos feature the authentic and diverse voices and contributions of children, families, teachers and educators in services across Australia. They highlight unique and inspiring experiences, the development of supportive relationships, and the opportunities for children’s learning and development that are unique to quality early learning services and settings.
StartingBlocks.gov.au is ACECQA’s family focused website.
You may already know and love the popular StartingBlocks.gov.au Find Child Care tool helping parents across Australia choose the best early childhood education and care for their children.
From February 2022 onwards there are new features to help you see and compare service fees, vacancies and quality ratings, and what your family may pay for child care.
StartingBlocks.gov.au website shares information about the standards education and care services are required to meet under the National Quality Standard and how they are assessed and rated.
The National Quality Framework (NQF) provides a national approach to regulation, assessment and quality improvement for early childhood education and care and outside school hours care services across Australia.
Child Care Finder will be decommissioned.
StartingBlocks.gov.au is ACECQA’s family focused website.
You can send a question or feedback comment to StartingBlocks.gov.au through our Contact Us form.
Under our Customer Service Charter, we work hard to answer your questions as quickly as we can and the response time is often less than 5 days.
Like many organisations, ACECQA has introduced working from home arrangements to minimise risks of viral infection to staff and stakeholders. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this period.
StartingBlocks.gov.au is ACECQA’s family focused website.
Families can contact their state/territory regulatory authority. They’re responsible for approving providers and services, assessing and rating services, compliance and promoting continuous improvement.
To find the contact information for each state/territory regulatory authority please visit our Contact your Regulatory Authority page.
Please email media@acecqa.gov.au or phone 0477 301 274.
We know many families are busy and find social media a helpful way to keep up to date.
When we update StartingBlocks.gov.au we use social media to let families know, and we also post to remind families about the many ways StartingBlocks.gov.au can help them.
You can follow our daily updates on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The Australian Government funds the Inclusion Support Program.
It helps children’s education and care services to
Seven Inclusion Agencies across eight states and territories are available to work with services.
A network of Inclusion Professionals provides practical and tailored advice and support to services, including techniques for improvement and solutions to address particular barriers.
