National Partnership Annual Performance Report - December 2017

ACECQA has published the annual performance report. Some of the information was included in the ROGS report (see previous blog post). However, there is some additional information that is interesting from a quality and compliance perspective:

• The quality rating of service against the National Quality Standard was the least important factor to families when choosing a service, compared to a number of things like location and cost (p.61). This is consistent with a number of worldwide studies.
• Forty three per cent of services had one or more serious incidents recorded in the National Quality Agenda IT System (NQAITS) for 2016/17, with 84% of all recorded serious incidents relating to children, experiencing injury, illness or trauma (Page 27-8).
• The top three most breached sections of the National Law in 2016-17 were: section 167 (Offence relating to protection of children from harm and hazards) - 30% of confirmed breaches; section 165 (Offence to inadequately supervise children) - 16%; and section 174 (Offence to fail notify certain information to Regulatory Authority) - 10%. A confirmed breach is when a Regulatory Authority finds that a provider, nominated supervisor or family day care educator has failed to abide by relevant legislation, regulations or conditions at an NQF approved service (p.28).
• The top three most breached regulations  of the National Regulations in 2016-17 were: regulation 103 (Premises, furniture and equipment to
  be safe, clean and in good repair) - 11% of confirmed breaches; regulation 97 (Emergency and evacuation procedures) - 7%; and regulation 173 (Prescribed information to be displayed) and regulation 170 (Policies and procedures to be followed) - both 5%.
• A majority of surveyed approved providers who identified certain regulatory requirements as burdensome, regarded the following requirements as more burdensome than beneficial: waivers; displaying information; notifications to regulatory authorities; Quality Improvement Plans and Quality assessment and rating visits (p.75). Quality assessment and rating visits or Quality Assessment Plans were regarded as the most single burdensome requirements by 40.6% of these approved providers. When asked why they thought requirements were burdensome; staff time taken, and diverting time from other activities were cited as reasons (p.76).