National Quality Framework (NQF)
The system regulating early childhood education and care across Australia.
The National Quality Framework (NQF) is the national system that regulates most long day care, family day care, preschool and outside school hours care services across Australia. It brings together a national law and regulations, the National Quality Standard, an assessment and rating process, and approved learning frameworks under one consistent approach.
The NQF is overseen nationally by ACECQA and administered day to day by each state and territory regulatory authority. It sets out requirements covering educational program, children's health and safety, the physical environment, staffing arrangements, relationships with children, partnerships with families, and governance and leadership.
For educators, the NQF shapes the qualifications you need and the staffing ratios you work within. For providers, it defines the rules a service is approved under and the quality areas it is rated against, including how staff are qualified, screened and supervised. Keeping educator qualifications and Working with Children Checks current is part of meeting NQF expectations, and tighter worker-record rules arrive with the 2026 child safety reforms.
This is general information, not compliance advice. Always confirm requirements with the relevant regulator, and remember that providers keep the legal responsibility to sight credentials and decide who can work.
We work hard to keep it accurate, but the rules change and we will not always get every detail right. If you think something here needs updating, email us at resources@koora.care. We would genuinely rather know, because we all do better when we help each other get it right.
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