Assessment and quality rating of early childhood services

Find out more about the assessment process and the rating of your service.

Overview

The information on this page relates to all National Quality Framework (NQF) services including centre-based services, out of school hours Care (OSHC) and family day care (FDC) services.

The assessment and rating process is conducted by authorised officers from the Department of Education (the department).

Your service is assessed and rated against the National Quality Standard (NQS), which gives an opportunity for you to show your service's overall quality, strengths and areas of improvement.

The Australian Children's Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) has information about the assessment and rating process including:

  • the steps in the process
  • the quality ratings
  • the Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) and the Self-Assessment Tool
  • the draft report
  • giving feedback on the draft report
  • the review of final ratings
  • re-assessment and rating.

How to provide feedback on the draft report

The service has ten working days to give feedback and any supporting evidence on any factual inaccuracies in the draft report to the authorised officer.

The Assessment and Rating Report information sheet from ACECQA explains how to provide feedback on your draft report to the department.

Review of final ratings

Approved providers can apply to the rdepartment for a review of the final rating received by their service. This must be submitted within 14 calendar days of receiving the final report. Refer to Review of ratings.

Quality ratings for all services that have been assessed and rated are available online at the national registers.

Quality improvement plans

ACECQA has information, training resources and templates to download at Quality Improvement Plans.

Further information

Supporting materials are available on the ACECQA website:

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