Australia’s reputation for high quality children’s education and care continues to grow

Australia’s reputation for high quality children’s education and care continues to grow. ACECQA’s latest quarterly National Quality Framework Snapshot finds the proportion of services rated Meeting National Quality Standard (NQS) or above has increased to 85%.

"I’m very pleased to see the ongoing quality improvement across the nation," said ACECQA CEO Gabrielle Sinclair. "The assessment and rating system is not designed as a pass-fail system but sets a high bar for services to encourage them to continuously improve their practice. This report show that this is happening and these improvements are delivering positive outcomes for children and families".

As at 31 March 2021, 12,925 services are rated Meeting NQS or above, with 30% rated Exceeding NQS or above. More than 12,000 quality rating reassessments have also taken place, with almost half of these being for services rated Working Towards NQS. Of these services, 67% improved their overall quality rating after reassessment.

Our NQF Snapshot provides analysis and information on the profile of the education and care sector, the quality ratings of services, and the distribution of ratings by service type, provider management type and geographic location.

In addition to detailed information about the quality of education and care services, the Snapshot and interactive Online Snapshot include data about temporary service closures related to the impact of COVID-19 and other aspects of service regulation.

On 2 April 2020, in recognition of the COVID-19 global pandemic, Education Ministers announced four critical areas for time-limited regulatory action, including the temporary suspension of quality assessment and ratings. All state and territory regulatory authorities have now recommenced the assessment and rating process.