The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) has released its 31st NQF Snapshot report, summarising quality rating results for education and care services operating under the National Quality Framework (NQF). 

The report finds 82% of services are rated Meeting National Quality Standard (NQS) or above – the highest proportion since quality ratings began in 2012. The proportion of services rated 'meeting' NQS or above has risen every year since NQS ratings were first published – from 57% in Q3 2013 to 82% in Q3 2020.

In addition to detailed information about the quality of education and care services, the Snapshot and interactive Online Snapshot also include data about temporary service closures related to the impact of COVID-19 and other aspects of service regulation.

On 2 April 2020, in recognition of the COVID-19 global pandemic, Education Ministers announced four critical areas for time-limited regulatory action, including the temporary suspension of quality assessment and ratings. The assessment and rating process typically takes around three months from initial notification to the approved provider to the publication of the final ratings. The temporary suspension of assessment and ratings due to COVID-19 has therefore had a significant impact on the volume of new quality assessment and rating results in this report. 

Snapshot highlights include:

• 16,169 NQF approved education and care services across Australia
• 93% (15,031) services have received a quality rating
• 82% (12,314) of all quality rated services have an overall quality rating of Meeting NQS or above 
• 43 Excellent rated services
• 49% (7931) services with a quality rating against the 2018 NQS.