88% of outside school hours care services meeting or exceeding standards
The quality of outside school hours care services continues to rise – from 75% Meeting National Quality Standard (NQS) or above in 2020 to 88% today – according to the latest National Quality Framework (NQF) Snapshot report.
The report, released today by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), also finds that the overall proportion of children’s education and care services rated Meeting NQS or above has remained at 90% for the fourth consecutive quarter.
“For the past year, 90% of education and care services have been rated Meeting NQS or above. It’s wonderful to see the efforts of providers and educators resulting in improvements in the quality of all services. Outside school hours care services have played an important part in this quality improvement” noted ACECQA CEO Gabrielle Sinclair. “In school age care settings educators collaborate with children to provide play and leisure opportunities that are meaningful and support their wellbeing, learning and development in safe and inclusive environments”.
The report provides an overview of the children’s education and care sector and describes in detail the trend in continuous quality improvement. Raw data is available to download. The Snapshot is also supplemented by an interactive Online Snapshot with additional data on physical environment and staffing waivers and other topics.
NQF-regulated children’s education and care services include long day care, outside school hours care and family day care services, as well as most preschools and kindergartens.
ACECQA is the independent national authority that assists governments in administering the NQF for children’s education and care. Our functions include:
- keeping national information on the assessment, rating and regulation of services;
- publishing the ratings of services through quarterly NQF Snapshots
- promoting continuous quality improvement by services through the development and publication of the Guide to the NQF, research reports and sector resources
- supporting parents and carers to understand quality in services through a family focussed website, Starting Blocks.