As services would know, the National Quality Standards were "streamlined" beginning 1 February 2018. That said, many service providers have reported that they are dissatisfied with the new system or assessment and rating.
Source: ACECQA
For the 12 months from 1 February 2018 to 31 January 2019, there were 1,055 services that had Assessment & Rating conducted by the NSW Department of Education. Based on their new ratings:
- 57.1% who previously had Exceeding were re-rated as either Meeting or Working Towards
- 69.7% retained their Meeting ratings
- 51.9% who previously had Working Toward were re-rated as either Meeting or Excellent
Compared to other comparable Australian states, NSW had the largest number of downgrades from Exceeding to lower, and the largest number of Working Towards that remained as Working Towards.
If you have had an Assessment & Rating, this is an opportunity for you to provide some feedback which the Australian Childcare Alliance NSW will convey to the NSW Minister for Early Childhood Education, the NSW Department of Education as well as ACECQA.