During the October 2019 round of roadshows (14-28 October 2019), the NSW Department of Education did not consistently convey their intentions to introduce the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA)’s Self-Assessment Tool in relation to upcoming assessments and ratings of services as an option and mandatory from February 2020 onwards.
In all but one of the sessions ACA NSW attended, the Department communicated that the use of ACECQA’s Self-Assessment Tool would be for services to integrate their answers from the Self-Assessment Tool into the Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) submission (which would effectively mean more work for services in anticipation of their Assessment and Rating). However, the session on 24 October 2019 in Coffs Harbour explained that the use of ACECQA’s Self-Assessment Tool would be as a replacement of the QIP submission.
The Australian Childcare Alliance NSW has written to the NSW Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning (the Hon Sarah Mitchell MLC) seeking clarification.
ACA NSW's concerns are that:
- the introduction and mandatory use of ACECQA’s Self-Assessment Tool from February 2020 would further increase the ability for well-resourced services to “game” the system in order to achieve a higher rating;
- a higher if not exclusive reliance on the Self-Assessment Tool and self-reporting may provide false confidences of those rated services; and
- the integration or exclusive use of ACECQA’s Self-Assessment Tool would make NSW even more unique and our ratings arguably inconsistent to all the other Australian jurisdictions.
Members are invited to join the last ACA NSW Network Meeting for 2019 to learn more about this new development from the NSW Department of Education.
PUBLISHED: 5 NOVEMBER 2019