Quality Area 4, Staffing arrangements, has 2 standards (4.1 Staffing arrangements, 4.2 Professionalism) and 4 elements. The NQS describes it this way: “Staffing arrangements create a safe and predictable environment for children and support warm, respectful relationships. Qualified and experienced educators and co-ordinators encourage children’s active engagement in the learning program. Positive relationships among educators, co-ordinators and staff members contribute to an environment where children feel emotionally safe, secure and happy.” Services are rated Working Towards, Meeting or Exceeding NQS against each standard, and the standard ratings determine the quality area rating.
Quality Area 4 is about who is working with children and how they work together. It has the fewest elements of any quality area, four, but it carries the staffing regulations with the sharpest edges: educator-to-child ratios, qualifications, the early childhood teacher requirement, first aid and the responsible person. Ratios are assessed here under Element 4.1.1 and enforced separately under the National Law.
Wording reproduced from Schedule 1 of the Education and Care Services National Regulations, reprint current as at 12 August 2026.
| Number | Concept | Standard / element |
|---|---|---|
| Standard 4.1 | Staffing arrangements | Staffing arrangements enhance children’s learning and development. |
| 4.1.1 | Organisation of educators | The organisation of educators across the service supports children’s learning and development. |
| 4.1.2 | Continuity of staff | Every effort is made for children to experience continuity of educators at the service. |
| Standard 4.2 | Professionalism | Management, educators and staff are collaborative, respectful and ethical. |
| 4.2.1 | Professional collaboration | Management, educators and staff work with mutual respect and collaboratively, and challenge and learn from each other, recognising each other’s strengths and skills. |
| 4.2.2 | Professional standards | Professional standards guide practice, interactions and relationships. |
As at the reprint current at 12 August 2026, regulation 123 still calculates the minimum number of educators across the service and contains no room-by-room requirement. Education Ministers agreed in February 2026 to remove the across the service approach following ACECQA’s rapid assessment, and assessors are already reporting supervision gaps that service-wide counting produces under Element 2.2.1. Our under the roof ratios page tracks the status.
Exceeding is judged standard by standard against the three themes. For this quality area the Guide to the NQF and the assessor evidence typically point to:
Each element is assessed as Met or Not Met. A standard is rated Meeting NQS only when every element under it is met; one unmet element makes the standard Working Towards NQS. A standard can be rated Exceeding NQS when the service shows all three Exceeding themes for that standard: practice is embedded in service operations, practice is informed by critical reflection, and practice is shaped by meaningful engagement with families and/or the community. Standard ratings roll up to the quality area, and the quality area ratings roll up to the overall rating: one Working Towards quality area caps the overall rating at Working Towards. An overall Exceeding NQS rating needs at least four quality areas rated Exceeding, including at least two of Quality Areas 1, 5, 6 and 7. The rating levels themselves are prescribed by regulation 57.
Standard 4.1 Staffing arrangements: 4.1.1 Organisation of educators and 4.1.2 Continuity of staff. Standard 4.2 Professionalism: 4.2.1 Professional collaboration and 4.2.2 Professional standards. Four elements.
Element 4.1.1, Organisation of educators. The ratios themselves are set by regulation 123 and the Chapter 7 state provisions; who can be counted is set by regulation 122. A ratio breach is also an offence under section 169 of the National Law, independent of the rating.
Only while working directly with children, meaning physically present with the children and directly engaged in providing education and care (regulations 13 and 122). A director in the office, a cook in the kitchen or an educator on a break is not counted. Queensland (r 299F to 299H), South Australia (r 325A) and Tasmania (r 342A) have Chapter 7 provisions that allow an educator on a rest pause or a short absence to be counted for a limited time.
It depends on the number of children preschool age or under being educated and cared for: access for at least 20 per cent of operating time under 25 approved places (regulation 130); a teacher in attendance for 6 hours a day or 60 per cent of operating hours for 25 to 59 children (regulation 132); more from 60 children (regulations 133 to 135). Chapter 7 modifies these in some jurisdictions.
The training requirements sit in regulations 128B to 128E and are assessed mainly under Element 2.2.3 in Quality Area 2, but the completions belong in the staff record kept under regulations 145 to 152 and inform the Element 4.2.2 judgement about professional standards.
Type the element number or the situation in your room. WIDEN Law answers with the regulation, the NQS element and the Guide to the NQF passage it relied on, so you can check the source.
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.