Nationally regulated services
All approved services in NSW are monitored, regulated, assessed and rated by the NSW Department of Education to ensure children are kept safe.
Assessment and rating
All NSW early childhood education and care (ECEC) and outside school hours care services are assessed and rated by the NSW Department of Education.
Services are assessed against the seven quality areas of the National Quality Standard by an authorised officer from the NSW Department of Education.
Assessment and rating gives services an opportunity to showcase how they support, educate and care for children. It identifies the strengths of services as well as areas that could be improved.
Once assessed, services are given an overall quality rating which must be displayed on a certificate at the service. The certificate uses a star graphic which gives families important information about the overall rating of a service, as well as a rating against each of the quality areas.
You can view a service’s quality rating using the Starting Blocks ECEC finder.
For more information on quality ratings visit understanding quality.
Hi, my name's Shane Snibson, and I'm from the New South Wales Department of Education. We are the regulatory authority for Early Childhood Education and Care in New South Wales. The department regulates over 6,000 early childhood education and care services across the state. One of our core functions is to assess and rate services guided by the National Quality Framework.
Assessment and rating is the process in which early childhood education and care services are assessed and rated by authorised offices against the National Quality Standard. The National Quality Standard sets a benchmark to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of children, and to improve educational outcomes for children in early childhood education and care services.
Authorised officers give services a quality rating in each quality area, and an overall service rating based on what they observe, sight, and discuss with services during a scheduled visit. Assessment and rating is an important part of supporting continuous quality improvement of services to ensure children have a quality education and care experience. Quality ratings also help families to make decisions about early childhood education and care services by providing access to information about their service's practises, so they can be confident their child is attending a quality service.
Monitoring and compliance
The NSW Department of Education undertakes monitoring and compliance activities to ensure the health and safety of children by checking that services are complying with the National Law and Regulations.
Examples of activities the department undertakes to assess risks to children and/or address specific issues include:
- providing services with information and guidance
- creating targeted campaigns to monitor a specific issue, service type or location
- unscheduled visits (no notice given to service) to investigate complaints and/or incidents.
Examples of compliance actions the department may take to address breaches of the National Law or National Regulations include:
- issuing an infringement notice
- suspension or cancellation of service approval
- issuing a direction to exclude a person from the service premises
- prosecution.
When deciding how to respond to an incident or issue, the Department will consider the circumstances of each case and the risk to children (both short and long term).
National Quality Framework
The National Quality Framework (NQF) provides a national benchmark for safety and quality in early childhood education and school-aged care services.
The NQF includes National Laws and Regulations that services must comply with to ensure children are kept safe and have access to quality learning experiences.
The National Law and Regulations regulate the following service types:
- long day care
- family day care
- preschools
- outside school hours care
The NQF also sets the National Quality Standard which all services are assessed and rated against.
Find out more about the importance of quality in early childhood education and outside school hours care services.
Supplementary Provisions Act
Some service types are regulated under the Children (Education and Care Services) Supplementary Provisions Act 2011 and the Children (Education and Care Services) Supplementary Provisions Regulation 2019.
The services regulated under the Supplementary Provisions Act include:
- mobile services
- occasional care services.