Assessment and rating
Information on the risk-based approach, assessment and rating, compliance and investigations and the National Quality Framework.
NSW Early Learning Commission has moved to a new website
The independent NSW Early Learning Commission is moving to a new website within nsw.gov.au. All online content, resources and guidance developed by the NSW Early Learning Commission will be moved across from the NSW Department of Education to nsw.gov.au throughout 2026.
All relevant education and care services in NSW are regulated, assessed and rated under the same National Quality Framework (NQF). The NQF objectives are to ensure the health and safety of children in an education and care service, improve educational outcomes for these children and to promote continuous improvement in education and care services.
Assessment and rating visits
Under the NQF and as part of the continuous improvement process, services are subject to assessment and rating, which results in a service being given an overall quality rating, assessed against each of the National Quality Standards.
Quality practice positively impacts developmental and educational outcomes for children. Assessment and rating is an important measure and indicator of service practice quality and it is important that the observations made during assessment and rating reflect typical, everyday practice at the service.
If a key person with legal responsibility is not available on the assessment and rating visit day, that person can contribute via alternate means (phone or video call), before, during or within 5 days after the visit. Feedback on the assessment and rating draft report can also be provided by that person when it is received by the service.
Requests to postpone assessment and rating will be considered in exceptional circumstances in accordance with the Assessment and Rating Scheduling Policy (PDF 136 KB). Where the request is accepted, the service’s scheduled assessment and rating visit will be postponed and the service will receive 5 business days’ notice of the new visit date.
Inactive assessment and rating periods to support services
To support services to plan for assessment and rating, the below dates are inactive periods where assessment and rating visits will not be conducted other than to services that predominately operate during these periods (e.g. vacation care). Other regulatory visits and requests may still occur including requests to submit quality improvement or self-assessment documentation.
- 8 December 2025 to 9 January 2026
- 3 to 10 April 2026 (including Easter)
- 2 December 2026 to 8 January 2027
Inactive periods for assessment and rating will be removed from January 2027. This change is a key part of the Commission’s commitment to the paramountcy principle, ensuring that safe, high-quality education and care are an everyday practice.
Hi, my name's Shane Snibson and I'm from the NSW Department of Education. We are the regulatory authority for early childhood education and care in NSW. The department regulates over 6,000 early childhood education and care services across the state. One of our core functions is to assess and rate services guided by the National Quality Framework. Assessment and rating is the process in which early childhood education and care services are assessed and rated by authorised officers against the National Quality Standard.
The National Quality Standard sets a benchmark to ensure the health, safety, and wellbeing of children and to improve educational outcomes for children in early childhood education and care services. Authorised officers give services a quality rating in each quality area and an overall service rating based on what they observe, cite, and discuss with services during a scheduled visit. Assessment and rating is an important part of supporting continuous quality improvement of services to ensure children have a quality education and care experience. It's an opportunity for services to reflect on their practice, examine why they do what they do, and how they can make further improvements. Quality ratings also help families to make decisions about early childhood education and care services by providing access to information about their service's practices so they can be confident their child is attending a quality service.
Improvements to assessment and rating
Key improvements to assessment and rating were announced by ACECQA in 2022 and have been implemented nationally to make assessment and rating more effective. These improvements are important to ensure assessment and rating provides families with confidence around the accuracy and currency of quality ratings. Find out more in the Commission's resource on improvements to assessment and rating (PDF 266.7 KB).
Since October 2023, the use of partial reassessments has significantly increased. Where appropriate, partial reassessments will continue to involve an assessment of 4 quality areas, instead of all 7.
Services are advised whether their assessment is a partial reassessment or a full assessment within the 5-day notice period.
If a partial reassessment is to be conducted, the authorised officer will advise the service which quality areas will be assessed. When requested to submit their self-assessment information or quality improvement plan, services can nominate 1 quality area to be assessed at their next assessment and rating.
The Commission takes a risk-based approach to assessment and rating. Where A&R results following a serious incident, a partial reassessment of 1 or more quality areas may occur. and the service will be unable to select quality area for assessment.
In July 2024, the notice period for all assessment and rating visits was reduced to 5 business days. The 5-day notice period promotes assessment of the quality of education and care that children experience every day.
In January 2024, the online Self-Assessment and Quality Improvement Planning Portal was released to all services in NSW. The portal is a key tool to support your service’s continuous improvement journey and will support you to have a current self-assessment and quality improvement plan in place, when notified of assessment and rating.
Further enhancements to assessment and rating in NSW were identified by the NSW Early Learning Commission following a review of its processes in early 2026.
The review looked at the NSW approach to the assessment and rating process to ensure it aligned with ECEC reforms, including that the rights and best interests of children are the paramount consideration in all decisions and actions. As part of the review, further enhancements to continuous improvement and assessment and rating were identified for immediate implementation from 1 July 2026.
The Commission may request the submission of a services Self-Assessment information or Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) at any time.
This information may be used for the purpose of monitoring the services engagement with continuous improvement including in preparation for assessment and rating.
A service’s most recently submitted self-assessment or QIP will be used to support visits made by authorised officers and regular monitoring of quality uplift.
New limitations on the amount of supporting evidence services can submit have been introduced to reduce administrative burden for services and to ensure feedback provided is specific and relevant. Guidance on 'how to provide effective feedback' to draft assessment and rating reports is available on what happens following an assessment and rating visit.
For support on assessment and rating or the Self-Assessment and Quality Improvement Planning Portal please contact our Continuous Improvement Team on 1800 619 113 or ecequalitysupport@det.nsw.edu.au.
Risk-based approach
The Commission applies a risk-based approach to all regulatory processes.
As children are vulnerable members of the community, their rights and best interests are paramount. The Commission's priority is to ensure the safety, health and wellbeing of children attending education and care services in NSW.
The Commission uses evidence to inform our planning and decision-making. When assessing the level of risk, we look at:
- General risk: including their understanding of particular groups (such as different service types and entity types, and if the service Meets the National Quality Standard) within the early childhood education sector; and
- Specific risk: including information about individual applicants, approved providers or services.
By targeting resources using a risk-based approach, the Commission:
- decrease regulatory burden to the sector, and
- ensure their actions and processes are proportionate to the risks posed to children.
The determination of the risk level of a situation or applicant impacts the way the Commission monitors and regulates.
National Quality Framework
Most NSW services are regulated under the National Quality Framework (NQF). The Commission collaborates with other state and territory jurisdictions and the national authority, the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), to ensure a coherent approach to compliance under the National Law and Regulations across Australia.
We know that high-quality, inclusive, and culturally appropriate early childhood education and care has positive outcomes for children and families. Assessment and rating is an important part of supporting continuous quality improvement of services to ensure children have a quality education and care experience.
So as an authorised officer, when we're at assessment and rating, we're confirming the key practice points in the self-assessment or the quality improvement plan, and that's done by having conversations at the service. We're observing practice or we're citing documentation. It's about bringing all that information together and then aligning it to the National Quality Standards.
The assessment and rating process was really positive for myself as an individual and for our service as well. We were able to showcase our strengths and really celebrate that. And it was so lovely to see the educators proud of their practice. The authorised officer made us feel really at ease throughout the whole process. Her communication was clear. She set out the expectation of the 2 days, and it was really great to receive some constructive feedback as well.
Information for educators
The Commission's factsheet for educators provides information about assessment and rating including:
- how you’ll be notified of an upcoming assessment and rating visit
- how to prepare for a visit
- what to expect during a visit.
Read the factsheet using the links below.