National Quality Standards

The National Quality Standard (NQS), developed in partnership with State, Territory and Commonwealth Governments, is intended to deliver higher standards for young children in the areas of education, care and health across Australia.

Early childhood education and care services within scope of the NQS include long day care, family day care, outside school hours care and preschool services across Australia. Western Australia’s kindergarten year is what is referred to nationally as ‘preschool’.

Western Australia's approach to implementing the NQS in schools has been jointly developed by the Departments of Education and Education Services, in consultation with the Catholic and Indepedent school sectors.=

In November 2013, the Minister for Education, the Hon Peter Collier, informed all principals that early childhood programs to Year 2 in Western Australian schools will be required to meet the NQS.

Please note when viewing the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) website, the assessment and rating process and national laws and regulations do not apply to the Western Australian schooling sector. The Western Australian education sector has used the national laws and regulations to inform our implementation of the NQS.