A&R re-assessment rating improvements jump higher says latest NQF Snapshot

A total of 192 early childhood education and care services (ECEC) received an improved quality rating when re-assessed, and overall quality levels across the ECEC sector reached a new high, the latest Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority’s (ACECQA) quarterly NQF Snapshot has revealed. 

The snapshot confirmed that 22 per cent of the 876 services reassessed in the period saw an improved quality rating when compared with their previous assessment and rating (A&R) visit, up from just 16 per cent seeing an improvement in the last quarter. 

The data will come as a relief for many service leaders awaiting reassessment and suggests that services are feeling more comfortable about navigating the current quality assessment environment. 

Notably, regulatory authorities have maintained a relatively high level of visits over the three months to 30 September with the fifth quarter in a row of more than 1,000 visits and third consecutive quarter of more than 1,200 return visits. 

The sustained number of visits highlights the commitment to claw back some of the time which was lost due to restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic when it came to A&R related activities, with the significant backlog now being worked through at a reasonable pace. 

Overall, the number of services rated as meeting or above the National Quality Standard has now reached 90 per cent for the first time, an important milestone for the sector, with preschool settings recording 95 per cent meeting or above, long day care (LDC) settings 89 per cent meeting or above, outside school hours care (OSHC) 87 per cent meeting or above and family day care (FDC) 68 per cent meeting or above. 

Councils have the highest overall classification across settings with 94 per cent of services rated as meeting or above, followed by non community managed not for profit organisations at 93 per cent, then community managed not for profits at 92 per cent and then for profits at 88 per cent. 

The for profit category has seen the largest improvement over time having recorded 28 per cent of services as working towards in 2017 compared to just 11 per cent now, with the for profit portion of LDC services showing similar improvements. 

On that note, the proportion of for profit LDC services rated as working towards the National Quality Standard is now just 1 per cent more than community run not for profit peers, another notable milestone for this proportion of the sector. 

To view the latest NQF Snapshot please see here.