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Step 5: Accreditation Decision

To be Accredited, a service must achieve a rating on the composite Quality Profile of Satisfactory or higher in all Quality Areas.

NCAC advises each service of its Accreditation Decision in writing, by post. This information is not available from NCAC by any other means until at least five days after the posting date. This ensures that only specified, authorised service representatives are the first to receive Accreditation Decision information.

Accredited services are required to prominently display the Certificate of Accreditation. Each service is also provided with a Quality Profile which shows the standards of quality achieved and includes the names of service staff who participated in the Child Care Quality Assurance (CCQA) process. This Certificate must also be displayed by the service. An Accredited service is required to continue its Step 2: Self-study and Continuing Improvement cycle until its next Self-study Report is due for submission. The Accreditation period is 2.5 years between submission of Self-study Reports.

Services that do not meet the standards required for Accreditation are required to submit another Self-study Report six months from the date of the Accreditation Decision.

NCAC is responsible for maintaining a public register of the Accreditation status and contact details for each service registered to participate in CCQA

Services are advised to read the Support Documents for their service type. These provide information on the five steps of CCQA, information about the Accreditation Decision and technical information about the Accreditation Decision process.

• Support Documents

Other Steps in Child Care Quality Assurance:

• 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