Ratings
Services will receive one of the following ratings for each quality area and overall:
- significant improvement required
- working towards national quality standard
- meeting national quality standard
- exceeding national quality standard
- Excellent (awarded by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) on application)
For full details on each rating and the benchmarks required, visit the
ACECQA website.
The service will receive a notice of rating and this must be displayed at the service. Ratings of assessed services are also published on the
ACECQA and
Starting Blocks websites.
Reviews
The right to have decisions reviewed is an important part of promoting fairness and accuracy in the quality assessment and rating process under the National Quality Framework (NQF).
If an approved provider disagrees with their service’s quality rating, they can first apply for a
first tier review by the Regulatory Authority. If they remain unsatisfied afterwards, they can then apply to ACECQA for a
second tier review by a ratings review panel.
Prior to submitting a first tier review application, the approved provider should consider if this is the best avenue. For example, a reassessment and re-rating at the request of the approved provider may be a more suitable process, if the service’s practices have changed following the assessment and rating process.
For important information for preparing a review application, visit the
ACECQA website (relevant to both first and second tier reviews).
Help and support
Regulating for quality: assessing and rating the quality of early childhood services procedure—Read about the Regulatory Authority's processes and how decisions that directly affect services are made.
If you have questions about assessment and ratings reviews please email
ecec@qed.qld.gov.au.