National Quality Standard

The National Quality Standard aims to promote:

• the safety, health and wellbeing of children
• a focus on achieving outcomes for children through high-quality educational programs
• families' understanding of what distinguishes a quality service.^[3]

The NQS outlines seven quality areas, each containing standards and elements, that children's education and care services are assessed and rated against.

The seven quality areas covered by the National Quality Standard are:

• QA 1 - Educational program and practice
• QA 2 - Children's health and safety
• QA 3 - Physical environment
• QA 4 - Staffing arrangements
• QA 5 - Relationships with children
• QA 6 - Collaborative partnerships with families and communities
• QA 7 - Leadership and service management^[4][5]

Under the NQF, services are assessed and rated by their state or territory regulatory authority against these quality areas and given both individual ratings for each area and an overall quality rating.

The NQS is one of the core components of the NQF, which also includes the Education and Care Services National law and regulations, approved learning frameworks (such as the Early Years Learning Framework) and the assessment and quality rating process.^[6]

Under the NQF, regulatory authorities conduct assessments of approved education and care services against the criteria. Services receive ratings that reflect their performance in each of the quality areas. These ratings are published to provide transparency.^[7][8][9]

• National Quality Framework (NQF)
• Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF)