The current regulatory arrangements for assessing and monitoring quality in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) are shared by the Australian and the state or territory governments. The Australian Government is responsible for child care accreditation through the National Childcare Accreditation Council (NCAC), whilst state and territory governments license and regulate child care through their own regulatory and licensing systems. There are some overlaps and duplication between requirements under the quality assurance systems administered by the Australian Government and the state and territory licensing regulations. The Australian Government recognises that this causes an unnecessary burden for service providers. The National Quality Agenda aims to the reduce the administrative red tape on services, reduce the overlap and duplication, and work towards better child care services for all Australian children.
During August and September 2008, extensive national public consultations with families, experts and the industry on proposals reforms in the areas of education, skills and early childhood development took place. This public review included consideration of a national regulatory system within the ECEC sector to reduce the regulatory burden faced by service providers.
These consultations found that:
- there was strong support for a nationally consistent approach to regulation of the early childhood education and care sector;
- service providers are looking to reduce the administrative burden of meeting compliance and reducing overlap between Commonwealth and state/territory licensing and accreditation requirements; and
- parents supported licensing and accreditation arrangements that gave them consistency and certainty around the quality of services being provided.
Further information on the key findings from the first wave of consultations is available below:
Options for enhanced regulatory arrangements for early childhood education and care form part of the COAG consultation Regulation Impact Statement that is currently available for public consultation until 31 August 2009.
Further updates on progress towards a national quality agenda will be available through this internet site.