What is ACECQA?

The Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority is Australia's peak regulator for quality assurance in early childhood education and care. ACECQA operates at the national level and works with state and territory regulatory authorities to enforce consistent standards across the sector.

Its core responsibility is administering the National Quality Standard, a set of quality criteria covering areas such as educational programs, physical environments, staffing ratios and qualifications, health and safety, and service management. Services including long day care centres, preschools, family day care schemes, and outside school hours care programs operate under this framework.

ACECQA conducts quality assessments leading to ratings on a four-point scale: exceeding national quality standard, meeting national quality standard, working towards national quality standard, and not meeting national quality standard. These ratings are published and accessible to families and the public. The authority also handles approval of services seeking to operate, processes complaints, and provides guidance to providers on compliance.

For Perth Metropolitan child care operators and families, ACECQA ratings and approvals determine which services can legally operate and signal to parents the assessed quality of programs and facilities. Understanding ACECQA's role and standards is essential for those seeking or providing early childhood education and care in Western Australia.