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About Quality Systems for Children's ServicesWhat is Quality Child Care?

Quality child care services provide more than just child care - quality services foster thedevelopment of positive relationships between carers and children and their families. They provideexperiences for children that expand their thinking and language, helping them to learn anddevelop.

A good quality child care service:

Has a clear philosophy and goals, agreed between carers, staff, management and thefamilies, which guide all activities of the service.

Appreciates, respects and fosters the individuality and the interdependence of all children,including children from diverse backgrounds and children who have additional needs.

Considers the appropriateness of all experiences and activities affecting the children inrelation to their development.

Encourages families to become involved in the service and fosters the relationship betweencarers, staff and families so that they can support one another in their complementary roles.

Quality care draws on a sound base of knowledge about early childhood, including how childrenlearn and develop. Carers providing the best level of care will know what are appropriateexperiences for and appropriate expectations of children of different ages, and will be sensitive tothe individual and cultural dimensions of development. Such carers will also know how tocommunicate and build special bonding relationships with children and will provide an environmentin which there is a balance of stimulating planned and spontaneous experiences and a balance ofactive and restful periods, appropriate to each child's individual interests and needs.

Why is Quality Important in Child Care?

In recent years, the number of Australian children from birth through primary school age beingcared for outside their homes has increased dramatically with the growth in the number of familiesin which both parents are working or, in the case of sole parents, where the parent is working. Thechanging and diverse needs of Australian families, which include work-related and non-work-relatedcare, are reflected in the increased demand for child care services. The average amount of time anindividual child spends in care has grown enormously. Very young children can spend up to 12,500hours in child care before starting school; that's only 500 hours less than the child will spend inlessons during the whole 13 years of schooling (childcare: 50 weeks x 50 hours x 5 years = 12,500hours; schooling: 40 weeks x 25 hours x 13 years = 13,000).

The quality of care young children receive, their learning experiences and relationships, particularlyin their first few years of life, are critical in shaping their future. It is now widely accepted that welearn more in our first five years of life than in any other five-year period. Research on brain

development has shown that positive experiences early in life, such as those provided in highquality child care, promote children's development. Quality child care services play an importantrole in enhancing learning and achievement throughout children's lives, in providing more positivelifelong opportunities and outcomes and in reducing poor health in later life.

The growth in our knowledge about young children; the changing and diverse needs of Australianfamilies; the numbers of children in care; and the amount of time they spend in care highlights a realneed for systematic approaches to promoting quality improvement in child care services.

What are the Quality Systems?

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Recognising the real importance of quality in child care, the Commonwealth Government hasinitiated quality improvement and assurance systems designed to promote quality care and toacknowledge services for their quality practices and initiatives.

The current systems are:

Quality Improvement and Accreditation System (QIAS) for Long Day Care Centres. The

QIAS was introduced in 1994 and was reviewed in 1998-2000. The revised QIAS willcommence 1 January 2002.

Family Day Care Quality Assurance (FDCQA) was introduced on 1 July 2001.

The broad objective of these quality systems is to ensure that children in child care services havestimulating, positive experiences and interactions that foster all aspects of their development. Thesystems do this by defining quality child care and by providing a way to measure the quality of careprovided by the service and to identify areas for ongoing quality improvement.

How are the Quality Systems Linked to Commonwealth Government

Funding?

Both the Quality Improvement and Accreditation System (QIAS) for long day care centres andFamily Day Care Quality Assurance (FDCQA) are linked to Child Care Benefit payments receivedby the service on behalf of parents of children in their care. The FDCQA is also linked to theOperational Assistance approval for Family Day Care schemes.

The Commonwealth Government appointed the National Childcare Accreditation Council (NCAC) toimplement both the QIAS and FDCQA. All long day care centres and family day care schemes arerequired to register with the NCAC and to meet the requirements of the appropriate quality systemin order to be eligible to receive the Commonwealth funding on behalf of the parents.

While there are voluntary quality systems for children's services in other countries, the Australiansystems are unique as the first quality systems in the world to be linked to child care fundingthrough legislation and to be funded and supported by a Federal Government.

Who is Involved in the Quality Systems?

Ongoing quality improvement is a collaborative process involving all members of the child careservice.

For a Long Day Care Centre the process will bring together the centre staff, management andfamilies.

For Family Day Care, the process will involve the individual carers, the coordination unit staff andmanagement as well as families.

Staff of the National Childcare Accreditation Council (NCAC) will provide support for servicesworking through the relevant quality system. NCAC staff administer all steps of the quality systemsincluding selecting peer validators to undertake the Validation Visit and scheduling Moderation. Thefinal Accreditation Decision is made by the NCAC.