Research shows that high quality education and care improves children’s wellbeing and future cognitive, physical, social and emotional outcomes. The National Quality Framework (NQF) represents Australia’s nationwide commitment to this goal and provides a national approach to the regulation of children’s education and care services. 

Governments regulate over 17,000 services under the NQF, with around 1.4 million children attending these services. The Education and Care Services National Law and National Regulations govern the minimum standards and requirements that all providers of approved services must meet in order to operate. 

As part of the NQF, there is also a National Quality Standard (NQS)used by state and territory governments to assess and rate services. This quality rating serves as a source of information and guidance for families and the wider community, as well as a marker for continuous quality improvement for service providers and staff. The NQF Evaluation Framework was developed so that governments and their regulatory agencies have an agreed way of understanding whether and how the NQF is meeting its objectives.

This report focuses on a number of aspects of the NQF including: 

• children’s health and safety educational program and practice
• children from vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds
• workforce, and
• service provider perceptions of the NQF. 

It highlights continuous quality improvement across all seven quality areas of the NQS.