Understanding the National Quality Framework and Ratings in Early Childhood Education
Australia has one of the most comprehensive and rigorous quality assurance systems for early childhood education and care in the world. At the heart of this system is the National Quality Framework (NQF)—a nationally consistent approach that regulates and improves the quality of education and care services. Whether you're an educator, a centre leader, or a parent seeking to understand how services are evaluated, this guide will walk you through the core parts of the NQF, how ratings are determined, and what it means to reach the highest levels of quality.
What are the 5 main parts of the National Quality Framework?
The National Quality Framework was introduced in 2012 to raise quality and support positive outcomes for children. It applies to most early childhood education and care services across Australia, including long day care, family day care, outside school hours care, preschool and kindergarten.
The five key components of the NQF are:
National Law and National Regulations
These form the legal backbone of the framework. The National Law sets the standard for early education and care across the country, while the Regulations provide detail on how services must operate—covering everything from educator qualifications to health and safety practices.National Quality Standard (NQS)
The NQS sets a high national benchmark for the quality of services and includes seven Quality Areas that are considered essential for delivering safe, high-quality early childhood education and care.Assessment and Quality Rating Process
Every approved service is assessed and rated by its state or territory’s Regulatory Authority. Services are evaluated against the seven Quality Areas of the NQS, and given both individual ratings for each area and an overall quality rating.Approved Learning Frameworks
These frameworks guide educators in developing programs that support and promote children’s learning. They include the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and My Time Our Place (MTOP), which are grounded in play-based, child-centred pedagogy.Oversight by ACECQA
The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) supports the implementation of the NQF, provides national leadership, and promotes continuous improvement across the sector. ACECQA also administers the Excellent rating process.
What are the NQS ratings?
As part of the assessment and rating process, every approved service is rated against the National Quality Standard. The assessment covers the seven Quality Areas, each focusing on a different aspect of service quality—such as educational program and practice, children’s health and safety, physical environment, staffing arrangements, and leadership.
After a site visit and review of documentation, the service is given a rating for each Quality Area and an overall rating, selected from the following five categories:
Significant Improvement Required: One or more areas pose a serious risk to children’s health, safety, or wellbeing.
Working Towards NQS: The service is not yet meeting all standards but is taking steps toward improvement.
Meeting NQS: The service is consistently meeting all elements of the NQS.
Exceeding NQS: The service is going above and beyond the standard in at least four of the seven Quality Areas.
Excellent: The highest rating, awarded by ACECQA to services that demonstrate leadership, innovation, and exceptional practice.
These ratings provide families with consistent, transparent information about the quality of services. They also help services identify strengths and opportunities for further improvement.
What is the highest quality rating?
The Excellent rating is the highest level a service can achieve under the National Quality Framework. However, it’s not awarded automatically during the regular assessment process. Instead, services must first be rated Exceeding NQS in all seven Quality Areas to be eligible. They can then apply to ACECQA, which assesses whether the service demonstrates:
Leadership in the sector
Meaningful engagement with families and the community
Practice and innovation that contributes to continuous improvement in the wider early childhood field
Only a select number of services across Australia hold the Excellent rating at any given time, making it a mark of truly outstanding quality, influence, and impact.
Why does this matter?
Research shows that high-quality early education has lifelong benefits for children. It boosts learning, supports health and wellbeing, and helps to build resilience and strong social-emotional foundations. The NQF ensures that services are held to a national standard—one that values continuous improvement and puts children’s best interests at the centre.
Whether you're leading a service or choosing one for your child, understanding how the NQF works empowers you to make informed decisions and strive for excellence in every aspect of early education.
Whether you're leading a service or choosing one for your child, understanding how the NQF works empowers you to make informed decisions and strive for excellence in every aspect of early education.
At Divergent Education, we specialise in supporting services to meet and exceed the National Quality Standard through tailored mentoring, compliance reviews, and operational guidance.
For everyday support, tools, and guidance aligned with the NQF, explore edubuddy, our free-to-access digital platform designed to make documentation, critical reflection, and continuous improvement more manageable for educators and leaders alike.
Start building a better service today—with the tools and guidance that make quality achievable.