Targeting Quality Program (TQP)
The TQP is an initiative of the Queensland Department of Education in partnership with ACECQA to support ongoing quality improvement in Queensland children's education and care services.
About the TQP
The TQP will offer free tailored professional learning and support to more than 300 education and care services throughout Queensland over a three-year period from 2024. The innovative program has been developed to ensure that all Queensland approved providers deliver compliant, high-quality services that are continuously improving.
Services with a national quality rating of Working Towards the National Quality Standard (NQS), as well as other smaller services, may be invited to participate and benefit from a range of targeted professional learning to support sustained quality improvement.
Each round of the TQP will run for up to six months and will be offered to long day care, family day care, kindergarten, and outside of school hours care (OSHC) services, as well as services under the Education and Care Services Act 2013 (ECS Act).
Purpose
The purpose of the TQP is to:
- deliver evidence based, tailored professional learning and support to Queensland education and care services
- develop participating services’ capacity to deliver practices that meet the NQS in agreed Quality Areas and Standards
- improve participating services’ knowledge of, and confidence in, the NQS and legislative requirements
- provide customised support guided by their unique context for services under the ECS Act that fall outside the scope of the NQF.
Deliverables
Commencing in 2024, the three year program will deliver:
- intensive support for priority services not meeting the NQS particularly small to medium services and services in vulnerable communities
- targeted support for those services not meeting, or are considered to be at risk of not meeting, the NQS
- support for services under the ECS Act that fall outside the scope of the National Quality Framework; and
- professional development for regulatory officers.
Participation
Participation in the TQP is by direct referral from the Queensland Department of Education (as the Queensland Early Childhood Regulatory Authority), using regulatory data to identify areas of improvement. ACECQA will invite referred services and approved providers to participate in the program.
Participation is voluntary and approved providers and service leaders are highly encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity to participate in this free, professional learning opportunity to boost service quality and support regulatory compliance and continuous improvement.
Pathways for participating services
The TQP focuses on a unique professional learning approach that consists of three distinct pathways:
- Intensive pathway
- Targeted pathway
- ECS pathway.
The Queensland Department of Education will determine the most suitable pathway for services.
When a service commences the TQP, its ACECQA quality support facilitator will reach out and spend time working with the approved provider and service leadership team to complete a self-assessment. This will help identify and understand the service’s goals, what makes it unique and the areas its team has identified as priorities for improvement.
Depending on your pathway, the service’s support journey will involve two to four of the quality improvement streams in the diagram below.
Each of the four streams contains professional learning across the seven quality areas within the National Quality Standard.
Benefits of participating
Depending on the pathway, approved providers and service leaders will have access to:
- one-on-one coaching support from an ACECQA quality support facilitator who will guide your quality improvement journey based on the unique context of your service
- opportunities to network and build positive working relationships with other service leaders in your local area and throughout Queensland
- participation in a face-to-face leadership workshop with other approved providers and service leaders
- support with developing quality improvement goals and implementing change management strategies which can be captured in your quality improvement planning documentation
- multi-platform, self-paced learning materials for you, your leadership team and educators, with opportunities for both group and individual learning
The diagram below provides an overview of the available professional learning methods which form part of the program.
Contact us
ACECQA’s Targeting Quality Program team is always happy to answer additional questions about the program. Please email your questions to [email protected].