14 AugACECQA update on Exceeding National Quality Standard
During 2018, ACECQA supported the sector and regulatory authorities on changes to the National Quality Standard (NQS). Included in these changes was a revised approach to how the Exceeding NQS rating level is calculated.
This article has been sourced from the ACECQA website www.acecqa.gov.au
From February 2018, every standard in a quality area must be rated Exceeding NQS for the quality area also to be rated Exceeding NQS. Before the change, the 2012 NQS required at least 60% of Standards to be rated Exceeding NQS for a quality area to also receive that rating.
There was no change in the way the overall rating for Exceeding NQS is calculated. To be rated Exceeding NQS overall, all quality areas must be at least Meeting NQS, and four or more quality areas must be rated Exceeding NQS, with at least two of these being quality areas 1,5,6 or 7.
In addition, three new Exceeding themes were introduced and are required to be met for each Standard for it to be rated Exceeding NQS. These themes replaced the 58 Element-level Exceeding NQS descriptors.
As a result of these changes, it is more challenging for a service to achieve a rating of Exceeding NQS under the current (2018) NQS than it was under the previous 2012 NQS. However, more than 4500 services have been assessed and rated against the revised version and while Exceeding NQS is a high benchmark under the 2018 NQS, almost a fifth of services are achieving this rating.
A range of relevant resources are available on the ACECQA website.
Further reading and resources
Guide to the NQF – Exceeding Theme Guidance (P. 331)
ACECQA – Educational games – Exceeding National Quality Standard
ACECQA – Educational games – Exceeding NQS themes activity
