What do regulatory authorities do?
The regulatory authority in your state or territory has a number of functions. Mainly, regulatory authorities monitor approved providers and services to promote and ensure the safety, health and wellbeing of children and young people attending education and care services across Australia.
Regulatory authorities ensure services and the providers who operate them are meeting their legal obligations to keep children safe and deliver quality educational programs, ensuring children’s educational and developmental outcomes are optimised. Regulatory authorities are guided by best practice regulation principles in the day-to-day implementation of the Education and Care Services National Law and Regulations.
What are regulatory authorities responsible for?
Some examples of the responsibilities and powers of regulatory authorities under the National Quality Framework are explained below.
Assessing applications for approval
Regulatory authorities assess applications for provider and service approval before services are permitted to operate.
Provider approval includes considering whether an applicant is a fit and proper person to provide an education and care service, their history of compliance, and whether there are any other matters that may prevent them meeting their obligations under the National Law. Service approval is also likely to include a site inspection at the proposed service location and a review of the service’s proposed policies and procedures. These processes are intended to ensure service quality by preventing operators who may not be equipped to operate a service from entering the market.
Assessment and rating
Regulatory authorities carry out assessment and rating visits and issue every service with a quality rating. This involves assessing the service against the National Quality Standard (NQS), which consists of 15 standards and 45 elements. The regulatory authority issues each service with a rating from ‘Significant Improvement Required’ (SIR) to ‘Exceeding the National Quality Standard’. The rating certificate must be displayed at the service at all times so families can easily see what the service’s current rating is.
Notifications, compliance and enforcement
Regulatory authorities monitor, promote, and enforce compliance with the National Law and Regulations in a number of ways. One of these involves responding to notifications: approved providers are required to notify their regulatory authority about various matters which are set out in legislation. These include serious incidents, complaints, and changes to certain information related to the running of the service. Significant penalties apply if approved providers do not notify the regulatory authority of certain circumstances or information within the required timeframes.
Where a notification relates to a serious incident, a regulatory authority may decide to investigate further. Investigations may also be initiated by other means, for example to investigate a complaint about a service, or if a potential contravention is identified during a service visit.
Regulatory authorities also monitor quality through communication with services, including regular visits (announced and unannounced) to discuss compliance and continuous improvement.
Regulatory authorities use a risk-based approach to determine enforcement actions. If a regulatory authority thinks a breach poses a serious risk to children, they can take severe actions such as prosecution, prohibition or cancellation of approval.
Complaints management
Regulatory authorities may receive complaints from families, nominated supervisors, educators and other staff members, or any other person. Regulatory authorities consider the circumstances of each case and the risk to children and young people when deciding how to respond to a complaint. They may also consider the compliance history of the approved provider and its service(s).
The role of the independent national authority
Does the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority regulate services?
The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (also known as ACECQA) does not regulate approved providers or their services.
ACECQA works closely with the regulatory authorities in all states and territories to oversee the consistent administration of the National Quality Framework (NQF). This collaboration promotes the safety, health and wellbeing of children and young people attending education and care services across Australia. ACECQA is responsible for a range of matters, including training the authorised officers from all jurisdictions who conduct assessment and rating visits, and assessing the qualifications of individuals from overseas seeking to work in Australian education and care services.
ACECQA also works with regulatory authorities in each state and territory to promote continuous quality improvement while informing the children’s education and care sector and wider community about the National Quality Framework.