Content
Legislation
The National Quality Framework (NQF) is being established under an applied law system, comprised of the Education and Care Services National Law and the Education and Care Services National Regulations. The NQF will apply to most long day care, family day care, outside school hours care and preschools (known as kindergarten in some jurisdictions) in Australia from 1 January 2012.
An applied law system is a way of establishing national laws. A host jurisdiction (in this case Victoria) passes a law (the Education and Care Service National Law Act 2010) and other jurisdictions adopt that law or pass corresponding legislation. To view the legislation that applies to you, click on your state or territory below:
- Victoria - 12 October 2010
- New South Wales - 29 November 2010
- Australian Capital Territory - 25 October 2011
- Queensland - 16 November 2011
- Northern Territory - 21 November 2011
- South Australia - 23 November 2011
- Tasmania - 23 November 2011
- Western Australia - introduced 30 November 2011
Information about the application of the NQF in your state or territory is available from your regulatory authority.
The NQF creates a jointly governed uniform national approach to the regulation and quality assessment of education and care services. It replaces existing separate state and territory licensing and quality assurance processes.
The National Law and Regulations include:
- processes for obtaining provider approvals, service approvals and supervisor certificates
- minimum operating requirements for education and care services, relating to matters such as staffing, physical environment and educational programs
- a new National Quality Standard, against which services will be quality assessed and rated.
The National Law also establishes the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), which is responsible for ensuring the NQF is implemented consistently across all states and territories.
The Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs oversees the NQF, and will review the performance of ACECQA.
Guidelines are available to provide further information and clarification about the requirements for education and care services under the NQF.
The Education and Care Services National Law for each state and territory is available to download from this page. If you require a hard copy of the Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010, it may be purchased from the Victorian Government.