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NSW Early Learning Commission

Displaying compliance and quality history

Services must display their compliance and quality history in their service under Section 172(3) and (4) of the National Law NSW.

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.

Visit NSW Early Learning Commission.

Enhancing transparency for families

The Children (Education and Care Services National Law Application) Amendment Act 2025 amends how the National Law applies in NSW to strengthen the safety and wellbeing of children in early childhood education and care (ECEC).

Under the legislative changes there is a new requirement to display compliance history and quality history (Section 172(3) and (4) of the National Law NSW) in services to provide greater transparency for families.

A ministerial guideline has been issued for this provision outlining:

  • that all ECEC services in NSW should use the approved form (the short-form template) to display their compliance and quality history

  • guidance that approved providers are required to ensure the template is completed, and information on the correct way to complete it

  • guidance on the correct way to display the compliance and quality history.

The ministerial guideline is the form prescribed by the regulator for all NSW services.

Communicating with families about your service's compliance history and the actions you have taken to resolve an enforcement action helps build trust and supports families to understand what these actions mean for their child’s safety.

When you need to start displaying your compliance and quality history

The requirement to display your compliance and quality history is now law. However, to allow approved providers and services time to complete the template, and display the history in accordance with the ministerial guideline, the regulator will not enforce the law until 20 November 2025, 2 weeks after the issue of the ministerial guideline.

How to display your compliance and quality history

The NSW Early Learning Commission, as the independent regulator for ECEC in NSW, has developed a short-form compliance and quality history template that must be used to display your service’s compliance and quality history.

Download the short-form compliance and quality history template.

It is the responsibility of the approved provider to ensure a service’s compliance and quality history:

  • is displayed as part of the prescribed information and is up to date

  • covers the past 2 years of compliance history as it appears on the approved provider view of the NQA ITS portal (or to the date the service was approved or transferred to the current approved provider)

  • includes any required prosecution information (noting this is not included in the NQA ITS portal)

  • includes the service’s current and previous quality rating

  • includes compliance actions that are the subject of review.

Services with no compliance history or quality rating

Services with no compliance history or services that have not yet received a quality rating must still display the template. Follow the steps for instructions on how to complete if your service has no compliance history or has not received a quality rating yet.

Out of scope services

Early childhood education and care services that do not operate under the National Quality Framework (NQF) will be contacted by the NSW Early Learning Commission to support accessing their compliance and quality history. If you are concerned that you have not been contacted, please contact the Commission on 1800 619 113 (toll free) or information@earlylearningcommission.nsw.gov.au

Services with prosecution actions

Providers must publish any offences for which they have been prosecuted where there is a plea of guilt, finding of guilt or a conviction. Providers must also publish the penalty for the associated prosecutions.

Steps to complete the short-form compliance and quality history template

Log in to the NQA ITS portal - if you are an approved provider, you will need to log in to the NQA ITS portal using your credentials.

  1. Navigate to 'My Provider' - once logged in, select the 'My Provider' option in the top menu bar to access your provider. If you have multiple providers under your login, you can select a different provider by clicking on the change button next to the provider’s name.
  2. Select ‘View provider information’ - from the 'My Provider’ page, click ‘View provider information’ to access and manage your provider’s information, including compliance records
  3. Select ‘View Provider reports’, then select ‘Compliance Summary’. The compliance summary report includes the last 2 years history. If you have more than one service, the service names will be shown in the report.
  4. Use the ‘Compliance Summary’ report from NQA ITS to complete the compliance section of the short-form compliance and quality history template.
  5. Providers must also publish any offences for which they have been prosecuted where there is a plea of guilt, finding of guilt or a conviction.
  6. Services with no compliance history must still display the compliance section of the template and include the wording “Our service has no statutory compliance history to display”.
  7. Display your completed short-form compliance and quality history template as part of your prescribed information. This means it must be clearly visible to anyone from the main entrance to the education and care service premise.
  8. Review your compliance history regularly. Develop processes for ensuring the short-form template is updated so your compliance history is accurate.

For assistance with completing the short-form compliance and quality history template, please see the examples below.

For assistance with accessing compliance summary reports, please refer to the NQA ITS provider help guide on Provider Information.

For assistance with registering for NQA ITS access, please refer to the NQA ITS provider help guide.

Examples

Compliance actions to be included:

  • cancellations

  • suspensions

  • conditions

  • infringement notices

  • compliance notices

  • compliance directions

  • enforceable undertakings
  • emergency action notices
  • prohibition notices
  • direction to exclude an inappropriate person.

This is an example of what a completed compliance section may look like:

TypeArea of non-complianceDate issuedStatus

Compliance notice issued

Regulation 155: Interactions with children

10 Jan 2024

Closed

Compliance notice issued

Law 167: Offence relating to protection of children from harm and hazards

Regulation 170: Policies and procedures to be followed

Regulation 92: Medication record

30 Aug 2025

Closed

This is an example of what a completed compliance section may look like where this is no compliance history to display:

TypeArea of non-complianceDate issuedStatus
Our service has no statutory compliance history to display


Providers must also publish any offences for which they have been prosecuted where there is a plea of guilt, finding of guilt or a conviction. The following information must be included in the template:

  • Type: Prosecution

  • Area of non-compliance: List the relevant Law and/or Regulation

  • Date: Use the date of conviction

  • Status: Include the details of the fine/penalty imposed.

This is an example what a completed compliance section with prosecutions may look like:

TypeArea of non-complianceDate issuedStatus

Prosecution

Law 165: Offence to Inadequately Supervise Children

10 Jan 2024

$5,000 fine

  1. Visit StartingBlocks.gov.au/find-child-care.
  2. Search the address of your service.
  3. Find your service in the search results and select ‘View details’.
  4. Scroll to the subheading ‘Quality’ and input your 2 most recent quality ratings into the short-form compliance and quality history template.
  5. If your service does not have a rating you must still complete the relevant section in the Overview of compliance and quality template with the wording ‘Our service has not been issued a quality rating’.
  6. Display your completed short-form compliance and quality history template as part of your prescribed information. This means it must be clearly visible to anyone from the main entrance to the education and care service premise.

Examples

This is an example of what a completed quality history section may look like:

Quality RatingRating issued

Exceeding

March 2025

Meeting

January 2021

This is an example of what a completed quality history section may look like if the service has not received a quality rating yet:

Quality RatingRating issued

Our service has not been issued a quality rating


Talking to families about your compliance history

Approved providers are required to keep a record of their compliance, in line with Regulation 167.

Under Regulation 177(3)(b), this compliance record must be made available to anyone who requests it. Services in NSW must also display their compliance and quality history in their service under Section 172(3) and (4) of the National Law NSW.

We strongly encourage services to be proactive in communicating with families about how any compliance issues are being addressed. Sharing the actions taken helps families understand what this means for their child’s safety.

It is also an opportunity for your service to demonstrate its commitment to transparency, continuous improvement and safe, high-quality practice.

To help guide your conversations, share the understanding your service’s quality and compliance history resource with families.

When you need to update your compliance and quality history

Your compliance and quality history must be updated within 7 days of any of the relevant compliance actions appearing on the ‘Compliance Summary’ report from NQA ITS.

Penalties for failing to properly display your compliance and quality history

Failure to properly display the prescribed information carries significant maximum penalties, which can be imposed by a Court:

(a) for an individual—$10,200; or

(b) for a large child care provider—$154,800; or

(c) otherwise—$51,600.

The regulator is also empowered to issue a penalty infringement notice (a fine), for the following amounts:

(a) for an individual—$1,020; or

(b) for a large child care provider—$15,480; or

(c) otherwise—$5,160.

Category:

  • Early childhood education

Business Unit:

  • NSW Early Learning Commission
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