The National Quality Standard (NQS) is the national benchmark for the quality of early childhood education and care and outside school hours care in Australia. It is law: section 5 of the Education and Care Services National Law defines it as the standard prescribed by the National Regulations; regulation 8 prescribes it and Schedule 1 sets it out in full. It has 7 quality areas, 15 standards and 40 elements. Regulatory authorities assess every approved service against it under Part 5 of the Law and publish a rating at one of five levels. It sits inside the National Quality Framework (NQF) alongside the Law, the Regulations and the approved learning frameworks, and it was last revised on 1 February 2018, with child-safe wording added in 2026.
This page is the overview: what the NQS is, where it comes from, how it is structured, how it is used to rate services, how it relates to the NQF, the Regulations and the EYLF, and how to read a standard or element. The detail is linked from each section: every element’s wording, each quality area, and the ratings system.
The National Quality Standard is not guidance. The Law defines it (section 5: “the National Quality Standard prescribed by the national regulations”) and regulation 8 of the National Regulations prescribes it by reference to Schedule 1, where it is reproduced in full. Schedule 1’s own notes say what it is for: it “is used to assess education and care services to determine rating levels under Part 5 of the Law”, and the regulatory authority may suspend a service approval where a service has operated at a rating level of not meeting the NQS and has not improved (section 70(d)). The standard applies to every service approved under the Law: long day care, family day care, preschool and kindergarten, and outside school hours care. It is set by the Ministerial Council of Commonwealth, state and territory education ministers, who agree changes to the Regulations, and it is administered nationally by ACECQA (the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority), which publishes the Guide to the National Quality Framework explaining how each element is assessed.
Three levels. Quality areas describe a domain of practice. Standards state the outcome expected in that domain. Elements are the observable, assessable statements under each standard, and they are the level at which an authorised officer decides Met or Not Met. The full wording of every element is on the standards and elements page.
| Standard | Name | Wording (Schedule 1) | Elements |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality Area 1: Educational program and practice | |||
| 1.1 | Program | The educational program enhances each child’s learning and development. | 3 |
| 1.2 | Practice | Educators facilitate and extend each child’s learning and development. | 3 |
| 1.3 | Assessment and planning | Educators and co-ordinators take a planned and reflective approach to implementing the program for each child. | 3 |
| Quality Area 2: Children’s health and safety | |||
| 2.1 | Health | Each child’s health and physical activity is supported and promoted. | 3 |
| 2.2 | Safety | Each child is protected. | 3 |
| Quality Area 3: Physical environment | |||
| 3.1 | Design | The design and location of the premises is appropriate for the operation of a service. | 2 |
| 3.2 | Use | The service environment is inclusive, promotes competence and supports exploration and play-based learning. | 3 |
| Quality Area 4: Staffing arrangements | |||
| 4.1 | Staffing arrangements | Staffing arrangements enhance children’s learning and development. | 2 |
| 4.2 | Professionalism | Management, educators and staff are collaborative, respectful and ethical. | 2 |
| Quality Area 5: Relationships with children | |||
| 5.1 | Relationships between educators and children | Respectful and equitable relationships are maintained with each child. | 2 |
| 5.2 | Relationships between children | Each child is supported to build and maintain sensitive and responsive relationships. | 2 |
| Quality Area 6: Collaborative partnerships with families and communities | |||
| 6.1 | Supportive relationships with families | Respectful relationships with families are developed and maintained and families are supported in their parenting role. | 3 |
| 6.2 | Collaborative partnerships | Collaborative partnerships enhance children’s inclusion, learning and wellbeing. | 3 |
| Quality Area 7: Governance and leadership | |||
| 7.1 | Governance | Governance supports the operation of a quality service that is child safe. | 3 |
| 7.2 | Leadership | Effective leadership builds and promotes a positive organisational culture and professional learning community. | 3 |
The NQS also drives the Quality Improvement Plan: regulation 55 requires every service to assess its own practice against the NQS and the Regulations and plan improvements, and regulation 56 to review that plan annually against the NQS.
| Term | What it is | Relationship to the NQS |
|---|---|---|
| National Quality Framework (NQF) | The whole regulatory system: the National Law, the National Regulations, the NQS, the approved learning frameworks, the rating system and the regulators. See the NQF guide. | The NQS is one component of the NQF. |
| National Law | The Education and Care Services National Law, applied in each state and territory. Approvals, offences, enforcement, the rating process (Part 5). | Defines the NQS and makes it the basis for rating. |
| National Regulations | The Education and Care Services National Regulations: operational requirements (ratios, qualifications, policies, records, premises) and Schedule 1. | Prescribe the NQS in Schedule 1. Many elements correspond to a regulation (for example Element 2.1.1 and regulations 84A to 84D on sleep and rest); the regulation is the legal minimum and the element is the quality benchmark above it. |
| Approved learning frameworks | The Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 (birth to 5) and My Time, Our Place V2.0 (school age), approved under regulation 254. | Element 1.1.1 requires curriculum decision-making to work toward the framework’s learning outcomes. See EYLF learning outcomes. |
| Guide to the NQF | ACECQA’s published guidance on the Law, Regulations and NQS, including what officers look for under each element. | Explains the NQS; not itself law, but officers assess against it. |
| National Quality Standard (NQS) | Schedule 1: 7 quality areas, 15 standards, 40 elements. | The benchmark services are rated against. |
Take Element 2.2.1, Supervision: “At all times, reasonable precautions and adequate supervision ensure children are protected from harm and hazard.” Three things sit behind it. The Law: section 165 makes inadequate supervision an offence with a penalty of $34,200 for an individual. The Regulations: regulation 115 on premises designed to facilitate supervision, regulation 84B on sleep checks. The Guide to the NQF: what officers observe (educator positioning, transitions, headcounts) and ask (how the service plans supervision across spaces and times). To meet the element a service has to comply with the Law and Regulations and show the practice the Guide describes; to exceed it the service must show that practice is embedded, critically reflected on and shaped by families. Every quality area page on this site is organised that way: the standard, the elements, the regulations behind them, what officers look for, and where services most often fall to Working Towards.
Every education and care service approved under the National Law: centre-based long day care, preschools and kindergartens in most jurisdictions, outside school hours care and family day care. It does not apply to services outside the NQF scope, such as most occasional care in some jurisdictions, in-home care, and some preschools run by schools where the state has kept them under education legislation. The NQF guide covers what “outside the NQF” means. Within the NQS, the quality area 1 statement has a separate sentence for services for children over preschool age, and several elements are read with the service type in mind, but the standard is the same document for every service type.
National Quality Standard: the national benchmark for early childhood education and care and outside school hours care in Australia, set out in Schedule 1 of the Education and Care Services National Regulations and defined in section 5 of the National Law. Services are assessed and rated against it under Part 5 of the Law.
Quality Area 1 Educational program and practice; 2 Children’s health and safety; 3 Physical environment; 4 Staffing arrangements; 5 Relationships with children; 6 Collaborative partnerships with families and communities; 7 Governance and leadership. Together they hold 15 standards and 40 elements.
Yes. The NQS is prescribed by the National Regulations (Schedule 1) and the National Law requires regulatory authorities to assess and rate services against it. A service that does not meet it is rated Working Towards or Significant Improvement Required, and persistent failure to improve can lead to suspension of the service approval under section 70(d). Many elements also sit above a specific regulation that is directly enforceable with a penalty.
The National Quality Framework is the whole system: the National Law, the National Regulations, the National Quality Standard, the approved learning frameworks, the rating system and the regulatory authorities and ACECQA. The National Quality Standard is one part of the NQF: the quality benchmark services are rated against.
15 standards and 40 elements across 7 quality areas, since the revised NQS took effect on 1 February 2018. The original 2012 NQS had 18 standards and 58 elements.
The regulatory authority in each state or territory (for example the NSW Department of Education, the Victorian Department of Education, or the Queensland Department of Education), through authorised officers. ACECQA oversees national consistency, publishes the Guide to the NQF and awards the Excellent rating.
The wording did. The national child-safety amendments added child-safe language to Schedule 1, most visibly to Standard 7.1 and its elements, and introduced related regulations on child protection and child safety training and digital technologies. The structure of 7 quality areas, 15 standards and 40 elements did not change.
WIDEN Law answers questions about any NQS element with the Schedule 1 wording, the regulation behind it and what officers look for, with inline citations.
14-day free trial, no card →This page is a research summary, not legal or compliance advice. Element and regulation wording is reproduced from the current reprint of the National Regulations; confirm the position with your regulatory authority before relying on it for a compliance decision.