The National Quality Framework aims to raise quality and drive continuous improvement and consistency in education and care services.
The National Quality Framework included:
- a national legislative framework that consists of:
- the Education and Care Services National Law
- the Education and Care Services National Regulations
- a National Quality Standard consisting of seven Quality Areas:
- Educational program and practice
- Children's health and safety
- Physical environment
- Staffing arrangement
- Relationships with children
- Collaborative partnerships with families and communities
- Leadership and service management
- a national quality rating and assessment process through which services are assessed against the National Quality Standards and provided with a rating from one of the five rating levels.
- Excellent—indicates that a service demonstrates excellence and is recognised as a sector leader.
- Exceeds National Quality Standard—indicates that a service is exceeding the National Quality Standard.
- Meets National Quality Standard—indicates that a service is meeting the National Quality Standard.
- Working towards National Quality Standard—indicates that a service is working towards meeting the National Quality Standard.
- Significant improvement required—indicates that a service is not meeting the National Quality Standard and that the regulator is working closely with the service to immediately improve its quality (otherwise the service's approval to operate will be withdrawn).
- an approved learning framework - Belonging, Being and Becoming The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. The approved Learning Framework has been developed to guide educators in developing quality programs that support children's learning.
The Early Years Learning Framework has 3 inter-related elements:
- principles
- practices
- learning outcomes.
All three elements are fundamental to early childhood pedogogy and curriculum decision making.
