Early childhood education and care services (long day care, family day care, preschool/kindergarten, outside school hours care) are assessed and rated against the National Quality Standard (NQS) to:
The NQS is part of the National Regulations and includes 7 quality areas that are important to children’s learning and developmental outcomes.
1 Educational program and practice |
2 Children's health and safety |
3 Physical environment |
4 Staffing arrangements |
5 Relationships with children |
6 Collaborative partnerships with families and communities |
7 Governance and leadership |
There are five quality ratings that a service can be awarded:
Services that achieve a rating of Exceeding NQS in all seven quality areas can apply to the Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) to be awarded the Excellent rating.
Service promotes exceptional education and care, demonstrates sector leadership, and is committed to continually improving.
Service goes beyond the requirements of the National Quality Standard in at least four of the seven quality areas.
Service meets the National Quality Standard. Service provides quality education and care in all seven quality areas.
Service provides a safe education and care program, but there are one or more areas identified for improvement.
There is an identified significant risk to the safety, health and wellbeing of children. Immediate action will be taken to address issues.
Services are assessed and rated against the NQS by the state or territory regulatory authority (RA) and given a rating for each of the seven quality areas and an overall rating based on these results. The quality ratings are published on the national registers on the ACECQA website and on the Starting Blocks website.
If a service has been rated as Significant Improvement Required, the regulatory authority has determined that there are identified risks to the safety, health and wellbeing of children. The approved provider is required to take immediate action to rectify these risks, and the RA will monitor the service closely to ensure those improvements are made.
It may take time for new services to meet each element required in the standards, which can result in a Working Towards NQS or Meeting NQS rating. To find out more about how your child’s service is striving to achieve quality, you can ask to see the service’s Quality Improvement Plan (QIP).
A QIP is the document which records the service’s self-assessment of the quality of its practices against the NQS and National Regulations. It also identifies any areas for improvement and contains their statement of philosophy. Educators, children, families and the community should all be involved in the development and maintenance of the service’s QIP.
Services that have not had an assessment and rating visit hold a rating of “Provisional – Not Yet Assessed”.
Education and care services must undergo many processes and approvals in order to be approved and operate under the National Quality Framework (NQF). This is also a way of ensuring quality and compliance prior to their assessment and rating.
The service will receive a rating when it is assessed and rated by the RA.
If you would like to know when the service will be assessed and rated, please contact the service directly. The RA in your state or territory, responsible for assessment and rating, may also be able to assist you.
You may also like to ask the service for their QIP and their family handbook. This will help you to make a more detailed assessment of the service’s strengths and could also help with identifying the criteria you wish to find in a service.
When regulatory authorities schedule quality rating assessments, the goal is to assess and rate the quality of services, drive continuous improvement and keep information for families and communities accurate and up to date.
To focus resources on services most in need of service improvement, the actions of the RA are responsive and risk-based. Services with a lower quality rating will be re-rated more frequently. Services with higher quality ratings will generally have a longer period of time between assessment and rating visits in recognition of their ability to meet the NQS.
RA’s consider the following factors when managing assessment and rating schedules:
Each RA manages its assessment schedule in a responsive manner, making adjustments to the schedule as new information emerges and making best use of their available resources.
It usually takes a regulatory authority 10 weeks to assess and rate a service. The rating report or rating certificate should be made available to families.
Regulatory authorities (RAs) make unscheduled and scheduled visits to services in addition to assessment and rating visits. These include monitoring, spot check and compliance visits to ensure the service is operating within the national legislation.