Staff waivers outstanding marks sixth consecutive quarterly fall new NQF snapshot says

The percentage of long day care (LDC) services with staff waivers outstanding has fallen for the sixth consecutive quarter according to ACECQA’s latest NQF Snapshot, with all states and territories lower than last year. 

As of March 2025, 13.4 per cent of all LDCs had a staffing waiver outstanding, down from 16.1 per cent in the three months to March 2024, and down from 16.2 per cent in the three months to March 2023. 

With the trend now firmly lower, undoubtedly helped by positive follow on effects from the worker retention payment and a slower enrolment backdrop for the start of the year, overall levels are now approaching those recorded in the years immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic really took hold in 2020 and 2021.  

Staff waivers across all settings came in at 7.9 per cent, supported by relatively low levels of waivers recorded at outside school hours care (1.7 per cent), family day care (1.7 per cent) and preschool (2.2 per cent) services. 

On a state and territory basis, although both seeing falls over the last twelve months, South Australia at 21.6 per cent and Western Australia at 22.6 per cent have the highest percentages of LDC services with waivers outstanding by a relatively large margin but both have seen material year on year falls. 

All other states and territories recorded falls in staffing waivers outstanding, with a very sizable reduction noted in the ACT. Victoria continues to record the lowest percentages outstanding at just 1.4 per cent. 

Queensland continued to build on its strong gains in previous quarters and now stands at 13.3 per cent, a full 15.4 per cent lower than the record high recorded in Q3 2022. New South Wales has seen a more gradual reduction over time and now has 17.3 per cent of services holding waivers. 

To read the most recent NQF Snapshot click here.