Governments' decisions following Review of the National Quality Framework

The early childhood education and care sector would recall that the 5-yearly Review of the National Quality Framework was conducted in 2019 but its results were delayed due to the COVID pandemic

The governments released their Decision Regulation Impact Statement (DRIS) (276 pages) on 8 June 2022.

In summary, the following are the areas of anticipated/potential changes:

1. Safety of children during transitions between services (includig school)
2. Sleep and rest requirements
3. Improving children's safety during regular transportation
4. Improving children's safety during emergency evacuations from multi-storey buildings
5. Embedding the National Child Safe Principles
6. Updating record keeping requirements
7. Restrictions on short-term relief for early childood educators (Regulation 135)
8. Educators who are "actively working towards" a qualification are making satisfactory progress
9. Research on how to best communicate and provide further guidance and advice about the Quality Ratings System to families and communities
10. Increases in fees
    
11. Changes in fees for regulatory authorities by creating a new category for centre-based services with 101 or more places and Family Daycare services with 61 or more educators
12. Introduce fees for applications for amendment to service approval (which is currently free)
13. Increase fees to ACECQA for review by the Ratings Review Panel
14. Increase fees to ACECQA for application for assessment of a course to be included in the list of approved qualifications (Regulation 138)
15. Clarification of the definition of "person with management or control" (PMC) of a service in the National Law to align with the definition of PMC in the Commonwealth's Family Assistance Law
16. Specify in the National Law that the local Regulatory Authority can administer questions to an applicant in relation to their fitness and propriety in any format and undertake an assessment of their knowledge of the NQF
17. Legislative change that provides for the Family Assistance Law cancellation as explicit grounds for cancellation of provider approval under the NQF in circumstances where the Family Assistance Law cancellation relates to fitness and propriety and/or a breach of the NQF
18. Legislative change that provides for the refusal of provider approval under the Family Assistance Law as explicit grounds for cancellation of provider approval under the NQF in circumstances where the Family Assistance Law refusal relates to fitness and propriety and/or a breach of the NQF
19. Develop guidance for services and providers about the service transfer process and how to best advise families about the transfer (for example, in relation to storage of children's records)
20. Increasing the notfication period of transfering a service to another Approved Provider from 42 days to 60 days
21. Allowing the Regulatory Authority to refuse or delay a transfer if a significant issue arises after the intervention period has ended but before the transfer date
22. Making it mandatory for transfering and receiving providers to notify the Regulatory Authority of any change or delay to the intended date of transfer
23. Increasing the notice period of the transfer of service to another Approved Provider from 2 days to 7 days before the transfer takes effect
24. Amend the National Regulations to require notification of changes to the ages of children being cared for and nature of care provided to the Regulatory Authority, with an associated offence for failing to notify
25. Regulatoru authorities to provide guidance and resources in relation to age appropriate programs and facility requirements
26. Amend the National Regulatios to require the Approved Provider to notify the Regulatory Authority where regular transportation is being provided as part of the service
27. Extend the validity of an "Excellent" rating from a period of 3 calendar years to 5 calendar years
28. Amend the legislation to remove the ability for Approved Providers to apply for waivers from prescribed element/s of the National Quality Standard

Other areas of anticipated/potential changes are:

• Family Day Care Register and notification requirements
• Details of Family Day Care educators operating above ratios due to exceptional circumstances on the Family Day Care Register
• Safety around swimming pools in Family Day Care residences
• Safety of glass used by services in Family Day Care
• Assessment and rating of OSHC services
• Removal of the "actively working towards" provision for Family Daycare educators and require them to hold a Certificate III qualification
• Include an explicit obligation for Family Daycare educators to notify the Approved Provider of circumstances that pose a risk to the safety, health or well-being of children for the Approved Provider's risk assessment
• Amend the National Regulations to require Family Daycare educators to display a diagram showing the areas of the residence for which the Approved Provider has conducted a risk assessment
• Revoke Regulation 353 relating to physical environment requirements in a Tasmanian context
• Amend the state-specific regulations for Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria in place of Regulation 74(1)(b) requiring program-level documentation for children over preschool-age rather than child-level documentation

You can download Appendix 1 that provides further detail of all the abovementioned changes.

Should you require any further information/clarification, please firstly contact the NSW Department of Education as the local regulatory authority via 1800 619 113 or ececd@det.nsw.edu.au.

PUBLISHED: 29 JUNE 2022