Quality Support Program – Dual Program Pathways
An initiative of the NSW Department of Education, in partnership with ACECQA to support ongoing quality improvement in NSW children's education and care services.
About the new Quality Support Program – Dual Program Pathways
The Quality Support Program, Dual Program Pathways is a professional learning partnership between ACECQA and the NSW Department of Education as the NSW Regulatory Authority (RA) for children’s education and care services and providers. The new program has been established to support the ongoing quality improvement of eligible children’s education and care services in NSW rated as Working Towards National Quality Standard (NQS) and/or with identified compliance support needs. Additionally, there is now a new tailored support program that is available for State Regulated Services (SRS) who are out of scope of the National Quality Framework (NQF).
It aims to enhance participating services’ capacity and capability in delivering quality children’s education and care. To do so, the program will enhance participants’ knowledge and confidence in providing quality practices and the NQS. It will also support their compliance with the NQF, including quality practices and/or regulatory standards, good practice leadership, management, and governance.
This high value program offers free tailored support and professional learning, delivered by ACECQA. Each participating service will be allocated an experienced and dedicated support facilitator who will work alongside service leaders to coach and guide them through the improvement process. The tailored professional learning and support program may also include face to face, online and telephone coaching support, online learning modules and workshops and other informative resources to support quality outcomes for children and each unique service context.
Eligible children’s education and care services can apply to participate now.
The Quality Support Program, Dual Program Pathways commenced in July 2022 and will run for a period of 12 months.
The Dual Program Pathways consists of two support pathways:
- The Quality Support Pathway is a 14-week program supporting eligible children’s education and care services located in NSW with a current rating of Working Towards NQS. This Pathway supports services’ ability to meet and/or exceed the NQS and will focus on priority quality areas. ACECQA will work alongside service leaders to continue building knowledge of the NQS, co-design quality improvements and support ongoing confidence with embedding quality practices, with the goal being quality outcomes for children. ACECQA is currently seeking expressions of interest to participate in the Quality Support Pathway.
- The Compliance Support Pathway is a 6-week program supporting children’s education and care services with identified compliance support needs. The Compliance Support Pathway will help services to understand the root cause of non-compliance instances and to co-design implementation plans, processes and management systems that support children’s health and safety as well as governance and leadership. In doing so, this pathway aims to build participants’ capabilities to ensure a sustained approach to compliance that will result in better outcomes for children, services and providers.
This pathway is by direct referral only. Services participating in this pathway will be directly referred into the pathway by the NSW Department of Education. The Department will refer services by using regulatory data that highlights a need for improvement in the areas of children’s health and safety and governance and leadership.
The tailored State Regulated Services support pathway is starting in September 2022:
- The State Regulated Services (SRS) Support Pathway will be provided in conjunction with the current Dual Program Pathways as they align their operations to the National Quality Framework (NQF) and prepare to participate in the Assessment & Rating process for the first time. By aligning operations with the NQF, services can improve educational and developmental outcomes for children and promote continuous improvement in service quality. The SRS Support Pathway is a free, 10-week tailored program providing support to state regulated services as they align with the National Quality Framework (NQF). It will be operating from September 2022 through to June 2023. The program aims to support services during this process to further develop quality and/or compliance. ACECQA is currently seeking expressions of interest to participate in the State Regulated Services Support Pathway.
Who is eligible to participate in the Quality Support Pathway?
The Quality Support Pathway is being offered to approved children’s education and care services including early childhood, family day care, preschools and outside school hours care services including vacation care services that meet the following criteria:
- located in NSW
- are currently rated Working Towards NQS.
Priority will be given to services with six or more elements of the NQS rated as ‘Not Met’. Consideration will also be given:
- based on the number of elements rated ‘Not Met’
- to services in more disadvantaged areas
- to services rated Working Towards NQS for a period of longer than four years and/or have received this rating twice or more.
Register your interest for the Quality Support Pathway
Please register your interest if your service is eligible and would like to be considered for participation in the Quality Support Pathway. Places are limited so we encourage you to complete the expression of interest early. Services that have previously participated in the Quality Support Program and continue to meet the eligibility criteria are welcome to express interest in participating.
Please note: If you are a provider with several services and would like more than one of your services to participate, please complete a separate registration for each service.
Expressions of interest will be assessed by the NSW Department of Education.
Who is eligible for the Compliance Support Pathway?
Participation in the Compliance Support Pathway is by direct referral from the NSW Department of Education. The Department will refer services by using regulatory data that highlights a need for improvement in the areas of children’s health and safety and governance and leadership.
Who is eligible for the State Regulated Services Support Pathway?
Participation in the State Regulated Services Support Pathway is open to approved NSW state regulated education and care services, including state regulated mobile children services, occasional care services and Multifunctional Aboriginal Children's Services (MACS).
Register your interest for the State Regulated Services Support Pathway
Please register your interest if your service is eligible and would like to be considered for participation in the State Regulated Services Support Pathway. Places are limited so we encourage you to complete the expression of interest early.
Please note: If you are a provider with several services and would like more than one of your services to participate, please complete a separate registration for each service.
Expressions of interest will be assessed by the NSW Department of Education.
Learn more
Since 2018, the previous Quality Support Program has helped improve quality in over 600 children’s education and care services in NSW. To learn more about the success of the Quality Support Program, read the Stage Evaluation Report on the ACECQA website.
Contact us
If you have any questions about the Dual Program Pathways, please contact ACECQA’s Dual Program Pathways team at qualitysupportprogram@acecqa.gov.au or 02 8240 4255.