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Child Care Professionals

Page Contents:

• Becoming a Validator
• Steps in the Child Care Quality Assurance Process
• Ask a Child Care Adviser
• Standards Required for Accreditation
• Spot Checks
• Quality Areas and Principles
• Online Training
• Administrative Fees and Charges

Becoming a Validator

Validation is Step 3 of the Child Care Quality Assurance (CCQA) process. Validators are child care professionals who are selected and trained by NCAC to undertake Validation Visits of child care services. The role of the Validator is to observe practices, view documentation and ask questions to gather information, which will enable them to validate the indicators in a Validation Report against the quality standards outlined in the Quality Practices Guide for each CCQA system.

• Become a Validator

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Steps in the Child Care Quality Assurance Process

Services participating in Child Care Quality Assurance (CCQA) are required to achieve and maintain the quality standards required for Accreditation as outlined in the Quality Practices Guide, and progress through the 5 step process outlined in the links below.

• Step 1: Registration
• Step 2: Self-study and Continuing Improvement
• Step 3: Validation
• Step 4: Moderation
• Step 5: Accreditation Decision
• Review of an Accreditation Decision

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Ask a Child Care Adviser

Child care professionals regularly telephone NCAC to ask questions about child care and the Child Care Quality Assurance process. NCAC has compiled the most frequently asked questions from services and NCAC's Child Care Advisers have prepared responses.

• Ask a Child Care Adviser

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Standards Required for Accreditation

Services must achieve a composite rating of Satisfactory or higher on all Quality Areas to be Accredited. The Quality Practices Guide for each service type outlines quality indicators for each Principle. Service management, staff and families, and where appropriate, children are asked to rate each Principle from a range of four standards – Unsatisfactory, Satisfactory, Good Quality and High Quality. Below is the definition for each of the four response categories in relation to the standard of care for each Principle:

• Unsatisfactory - means that one or more Satisfactory Indicator is not evident in service practice.
• Satisfactory - means that all Satisfactory Indicators are evident in service practice.
• Good Quality - means that in addition to meeting all requirements for a Satisfactory rating, most Good Quality Indicators are also evident. While there may be some evidence of High Quality Indicators, Good Quality best describes the service's typical practice.
• High Quality - means that in addition to meeting all requirements for a Satisfactory rating, most Good Quality and High Quality Indicators are also evident. High Quality best describes the service's typical practice.

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Child Care Spot Checks

Information has been developed to assist services to prepare for and undertake a NCAC Spot Check. It provides answers to common questions about the Spot Check and includes information on what services should expect and be aware of.

• Child Care Spot Checks

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Quality Areas and Principles

• 6 Quality Areas and 30 Principles of FDCQA - for Family Day Care Schemes
• 8 Quality Areas and 30 Principles of OSHCQA - for Outside School Hours Care Services
• 7 Quality Areas and 33 Principles of the QIAS - for Long Day Care Centres

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Online Training

NCAC has produced interactive online training modules to help users become familiar with the processes and standards of CCQA. Each module includes a complete listing of the Quality Areas and underlying Principles, steps in CCQA, additional information and a quiz.

• FDCQA Online Training (New window)
• OSHCQA Online Training (New window)
• QIAS Online Training (New window)

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Administrative Fees and Charges

All requests for photocopies or replacement Accreditation documents must be made in writing on service letterhead, signed by an authorised service representative and enclosed with a cheque or money order payment. NCAC will process your payment and forward the Accreditation documents and a receipt/tax invoice to your nominated postal address.

New Owners/Sponsors please note: The cost of replacing a Certificate of Registration, Certificate of Accreditation or Quality Profile Certificate due to changes in service details, is included in the Change of Registration Fee.

However, if a new owner or sponsor requires photocopies of any Self-study Reports or Validation Reports submitted prior to the settlement date, or photocopies of previous Accreditation Decisions, administrative fees do apply.

• Registration Fees and Other Charges

Financial Year 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009

Please note: Cost is per copy of each document requested and includes GST and postage.