What is the National Quality Framework?

In December 2009, all Australian Governments agreed to a new National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care. This means that all Australian children, regardless of their location, will get the best possible start in life through high quality early childhood education and care and school age care services. The Framework will help providers improve their services in the areas that impact on a child’s development and empower families to make informed choices about which service is best for their child.

The National Quality Framework includes:

• a national legislative framework that consists of the Education and Care Services National Law and Education and Care Services National Regulations
• a National Quality Standard
• an assessment and rating system
• a regulatory authority in each state and territory who will have primary responsibility for the approval, monitoring and quality assessment of services in their jurisdiction in accordance with the national legislative framework and in relation to the National Quality Standard.
• the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA).

ACECQA, the new national body is responsible for providing oversight of the new system and ensuring consistency of approach.

The objectives of the National Quality Framework are:

• To ensure the safety, health and wellbeing of children attending education and care services
• To improve the educational and developmental outcomes for children attending education and care services
• To promote continuous improvement in the provision of quality education and care services
• To establish a system of national integration and shared responsibility between participating jurisdictions and the Commonwealth in the administration of the National Quality Framework
• To improve public knowledge, and access to information, about the quality of education and care services
• To reduce the regulatory and administrative burden for education and care services by enabling information to be shared between participating jurisdictions and the Commonwealth.

To view the National Regulations and/or the National Quality Standard, go to:

http://acecqa.gov.au

To see 13 short videos for families to help explain the National Quality Framework, go to:

http://www.acecqa.gov.au/national-quality-framework/nqf-video-resources

The Early Years Learning Framework (part of the National Quality Framework) is now available in 11 different languages.  Click Here to view these.