More than three quarters of education and care services rated ‘Meeting National Quality Standard’ or above

ACECQA today announced that 94% of all children’s education and care services approved under the National Quality Framework (NQF) have received a quality rating, with 77% rated at ‘Meeting National Quality Standard’ (NQS) or above (as at 31 December 2017). 

“In the last five years, the proportion of services rated at ‘Meeting NQS’ or above has risen from 59% to 65%, 69%, 72% and now 77%”, said ACECQA CEO Gabrielle Sinclair. 

“Continuous quality improvement is one of the core objectives of the National Quality Framework. It is very pleasing to see this year-on-year improvement in service quality”, added Ms Sinclair. 

Key findings from ACECQA’s NQF Snapshot include: 

• 94% (14,687) of approved education and care services have a quality rating 
• 77% (11,253) of rated services have an overall quality rating of ‘Meeting NQS’ or above 
• 40% (1373) of services rated at ‘Working Towards NQS’ do not meet five or fewer of the 58 elements of quality 
• 3776 quality rating reassessments have been completed 
• Of the 2700 reassessments of services rated ‘Working Towards NQS’, 68% (1827) resulted in a higher overall quality rating. 

The findings are published in full on the ACECQA website: acecqa.gov.au/nqf/snapshots 

On 1 February 2018, a revised version of the NQS came into effect, which reduced the number of standards from 18 to 15, and the number of elements from 58 to 40. All education and care services will be quality assessed and rated against the revised NQS from 1 February onwards. 

Parents and carers are encouraged to visit Starting Blocks for more information about their local education and care services. 

Education and care services approved under the National Quality Framework include long day care, outside school hours care and family day care services, as well as most preschools/kindergartens.