More than 30,000 education and care service quality assessments undertaken

More than 30,000 quality assessments of children’s education and care services have been undertaken by state and territory regulatory authorities since 2012, with more than 10,000 of these undertaken since the National Quality Standard (NQS) was revised on 1 February 2018.

"The large number of quality assessments that have been conducted since the National Quality Framework (NQF) was introduced in 2012 reflects a significant effort from governments, service providers, teachers and educators to measure and improve the quality of early childhood education and school age care services in Australia. This effort has been rewarded and 86% of services are now rated Meeting NQS or above, up from 57% in 2013 when quality ratings were first published,” said ACECQA CEO Gabrielle Sinclair.

In its quarterly NQF Snapshot released today, ACECQA announced 86% of services are rated Meeting NQS and above, with 28% rated Exceeding NQS or Excellent. 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.

More than 13,000 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.

The 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, such as staffing waivers.