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Quality Assurance in Children's Services

NCAC was appointed by the Australian Government to administer the following Child Care Quality Assurance (CCQA) systems:

• Family Day Care Quality Assurance (FDCQA) for family day care schemes
• Outside School Hours Care Quality Assurance (OSHCQA) for outside school hours care services
• Quality Improvement and Accreditation System (QIAS) for long day care centres

The broad objective of the CCQA systems is to ensure that children in care have stimulating, positive experiences and interactions that nurture all aspects of their development. The CCQA systems do this by defining quality child care, providing a way to measure the quality of care provided by the service and identifying areas for ongoing quality improvement.

While there are voluntary accreditation systems for children's services in other countries, the Australian systems are unique as they are the first CCQA systems in the world to be linked to child care funding through legislation and to be funded and supported by a Federal Government.

CCQA and Child Care Benefit

CCQA is linked to Child Care Benefit payments received by services on behalf of the parents of children in their care. FDCQA is also linked to the Operational Assistance approval for family day care schemes. All services are required to register with NCAC and meet the requirements of the appropriate CCQA system in order to be eligible to receive Child Care Benefit.

Continued Child Care Benefit approval for services involves the service's compliance with the requirements of the CCQA five step process and its demonstrated commitment to maintaining a satisfactory standard of quality child care, including continuing improvement to the standard of care in accordance with the Quality Areas and Principles set out in the relevant Quality Practices Guide.

NCAC may report services that either fail to comply with or make satisfactory progress through CCQA to the Australian Government department responsible for administering Child Care Benefit.

The Secretary of the Department may impose sanctions on a service that has failed to meet its CCQA obligations. The sanctions may include suspending or cancelling a service's Child Care Benefit approval.

For more information about compliance see:

• Child Care Quality Assurance Compliance Requirements (PDF 81kb - New Window)

CCQA and Licensing Legislation

In Australia, each State and Territory Government is responsible for legislation under which child care services are licensed. Licensing provides a legal 'floor' below which no service is permitted to operate.

It typically includes structural quality factors which are most readily measured, such as space, range of equipment, number and ages of children, number of staff and the qualifications of staff. Such factors contribute to quality. CCQA builds on licensing standards to look at factors that determine quality.

The emphasis of CCQA is on staff practices and actual outcomes for children. It shifts the focus from meeting minimum standards to continuously striving towards higher standards of care.

In cases where NCAC is informed of possible licensing or child protection issues in relation to a service participating in CCQA, NCAC will communicate with the appropriate authorities.

NCAC considers licensing or child protection issues resolved when it receives advice from the relevant authority that these issues are resolved. A service's progress in CCQA may be affected if licensing or child protection issues are not resolved.

Not all states and territories have licensing legislation for family day care and outside school hours care.

Contact details for licensing authorities are available on this website.

• State and Territory Licensing Authorities