The NSW Department of Education is the Regulatory Authority in NSW responsible for regulating early childhood education and care services in NSW. This regulatory responsibility includes monitoring, assessment and rating, and the provision of regular feedback, review, and enforcement of compliance and approval processes for all services and providers. The Regulatory Authority also plays a key role in enabling families to make informed decisions when enrolling children into an early childhood education and care setting.

The three primary goals of the regulatory activity are to:

• raise quality and drive continuous improvement and consistency in NSW early education and care services,
• ensure the safety, health and wellbeing of children attending education and care services,
• improve the educational and developmental outcomes for children attending education and care services.