StartingBlocks.gov.au is brought to you by the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA)

Privacy Statement

ACECQA is committed to protecting personal information in accordance with our obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

ACECQA has adopted the layered privacy policy format. This webpage provides you with a succinct overview of how ACECQA handles personal information.

Our complete Privacy Policy can be accessed on the ACECQA website.

Both this condensed privacy statement and the complete Privacy Policy were last updated in January 2024.

Legislative context

The Education and Care Services National Law (the National Law) as enacted in all the states and territories established a national system to regulate education and care services for children.

Section 263 of the National Law applies the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act) to regulatory bodies and ACECQA for the purposes of the National Quality Framework (NQF). The National Law and the Education and Care Services National Regulations (the National Regulations) modify the way the Privacy Act applies for the purposes of the National Quality Framework.

Collection and holding personal information

ACECQA only collects personal information for purposes which are directly related to its functions or activities, and only when it is necessary for or directly related to those purposes. These purposes include the following:

• guiding the implementation and administration of the National Quality Framework
• promoting national consistency in its application
• processing applications for assessment of equivalent qualifications, skills assessments, reviews of assessments and applications for an Excellent rating and conducting reviews of rating levels
• training of regulatory authority staff
• seeking feedback on ACECQA’s functions and activities to improve its services
• for the purposes of research related to children’s education and care
• selection, recruitment and engagement of staff, consultants and contractors.

ACECQA will usually collect personal information directly from the individual, either in person, in correspondence, in an application form, over the phone or over the internet. Sometimes ACECQA will collect personal information from another third party, for instance from other bodies administering the NQF, or a publicly available source.

In limited circumstances, ACECQA may receive personal information about third parties from individuals in the documents they provide to ACECQA. In these circumstances, ACECQA will attempt to ensure that the consent of those third parties is obtained prior to submission to ACECQA.

What is personal information?

In this statement and ACECQA’s privacy policy, the definition of ‘personal information’ has the same meaning as defined by the Privacy Amendment Act:

• information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable:
  (a) whether the information or opinion is true or not; and
  (b) whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

Examples of personal information include a person’s name and address, a photograph, details of someone’s educational qualifications or an email address.

ACECQA Website Collection

ACECQA does not collect personal information from individuals who only browse the website.

ACECQA will collect personal information from individuals that choose to complete online forms or contact us by email, for example when individuals:

• ask to be on an email list such as the ACECQA email subscription
• make a written enquiry to ACECQA by info@acecqa.gov.au
• send an application to ACECQA by apply@acecqa.gov.au
• complete an online survey on ACECQA’s website

Email subscriptions and conditions of subscription

Your personal information is collected for the purpose of maintaining ACECQA’s mailing lists and answering your queries. This information will not be disclosed except as authorised by law.

The following conditions apply to subscriptions to our mailing lists.

• Subscribers may cancel their subscription to the mailing lists at any time.
• A subscription can be cancelled by emailing info@acecqa.gov.au with “Unsubscribe” in the subject line of the email
• ACECQA reserves the right to change the frequency with which updates are forwarded to subscribers.

When an individual looks at the ACECQA website, the hosting service provider makes a record of the individual’s visit and logs (in server logs) the following information for statistical purposes:

• the individual’s server address
• the individual’s top level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .org, .au, etc)
• the pages the individual accessed and documents downloaded
• the previous site the individual visited and
• the type of browser being used.

ACECQA does not identify users or their browsing activities except, in the event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant to inspect the internet service provider's server logs.

Complaints

If you have concerns about how ACECQA has handled your personal information or believe there has been a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles, you can raise this with ACECQA

By email:
privacy@acecqa.gov.au

By post:
Privacy Contact Officer
ACECQA
PO Box 358
Darlinghurst NSW 1300

ACECQA will attempt to resolve your concerns. If you are not satisfied, you are able to complain to the National Education and Care Services Privacy Commissioner.