The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) has released its 34th NQF Snapshot report, summarising quality rating results for education and care services operating under the National Quality Framework (NQF).

More than 30,000 quality assessments of children’s education and care services have been undertaken by state and territory regulatory authorities since 2012, with more than 10,000 of these undertaken since the National Quality Standard (NQS) was revised on 1 February 2018.

The report finds 86% of services are rated Meeting NQS and above, with 28% rated Exceeding NQS or Excellent. The assessment and rating system is not designed as a pass-fail system but sets a high bar for services to encourage them to continuously improve their practice.

More than 13,000 quality rating reassessments have also taken place, with almost half of these being for services rated Working Towards NQS. Of these services, 67% improved their overall quality rating after reassessment.

The NQF Snapshot provides analysis and information on the profile of the education and care sector, the quality ratings of services, and the distribution of ratings by service type, provider management type and geographic location.

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

Snapshot highlights include:

• 16,452 NQF approved education and care services across Australia
• 93% (15,373) services have received a quality rating
• 86% (13,325) of all quality rated services have an overall quality rating of Meeting NQS or above 
• 35 Excellent rated services
• 60% (9838) services with a quality rating against the 2018 NQS.