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• Child care
  • Quality
    • Trend: overall
    • Table: summary
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• Glossary

What does this mean?

In Kids Stats quality refers to the standard used by child care services to promote children’s well-being, nurture their development and provide the highest possible educational outcomes for them.

Why is it important to monitor?

While hours of child care services, type of care, and stability of care can influence a child’s development, the quality of care appears to have the strongest association with learning and developmental outcomes for children [1].

High-quality child care services are associated with a number of positive educational outcomes including early cognitive and language development, and academic achievement. This association is also evident for children’s social skills and emotional.

These associations appear to be strongest for families who are disadvantaged.

The quality of child care is enhanced by a range of factors including:

• staff to child ratios,
• the qualifications and training of staff,
• stable and consistent relationships for children,
• positive interactions between caregivers and children,
• age appropriate stimulating activities that support learning through play,
• a safe and supportive physical environment, and
• adequate nutrition and protection of children's health [2].

Indicator

Currently, there is no routine measure of the quality of all child care services collected in NSW.
 
The indicator used in Kids Stats to monitor the quality of child care is:

The number of Long Day Care centres that were accredited as a proportion of those considered for accreditation.

This indicator does not examine the quality of Long Day Care centres not taking part in the Quality Improvement and Accreditation Scheme or other child care services offered in New South Wales.

The Quality Improvement and Accreditation Scheme is a five-stage process in which the quality of a centre is monitored and assessed for accreditation. Long Day Care centres registered with the scheme must complete all five stages to be eligible for an accreditation decision. Long Day Care centres must participate in the Quality Improvement and Accreditation Scheme to receive Australian Government funding.

Main finding

The proportion of NSW Long Day Care centres accredited decreased from 97.0% in 2006 to 92.5% in 2007.

Notes: [1] Shonkoff, J. & Phillips, D. (2000). ‘Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development; Board on Children, Youth and Families,’ in From Neurons to Neighbourhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development, National Academy Press, Washington D.C.
[2] Children Now (2002). California Report Card 2002: Children’s Critical Early Years. Accessed on 14 April 2003, http://www.childrennow.org

For details of the references and to find out more about the data follow the link to Glossary and further information.