Report on Government Services 2021 - Early Childhood Education & Care

Part B of the Report on Government Services 2021 (ROGS report) was published today. Section 3 deals with early childhood education and care. The ROGS report is an annual report produced by the Productivity Commission comparing the performance of State and Territory governments in the delivery of a wide range of services.

In relation to childcare, some interesting information is revealed in the report in relation to compliance. It should be noted that some of the reported data may have been affected by COVID restrictions.

 

Confirmed Breaches

The jurisdictions with the highest number of confirmed breaches of the NQF per 100 services (in 2019-20) were: NSW (245.2), Northern Territory (195.5), and Victoria (144.5). The lowest was South Australia (33.8) The report indicates these figures are not comparable between jurisdictions due to differences in administrative and reporting procedures.

Nationally, there were 156.1  confirmed breaches per 100 services (up from last year's 132.4). The highest rates were for family day care (690.5  breaches per 100 services, up significantly from 292.3 last year) and centre based day care (182.3 breaches per 100 services, up from 158.8 last year).

The report did not publish data on compliance action taken by Regulatory Authorities this year "due to data quality concerns arising from a recent change to the NQA ITS".

Serious Incidents

The jurisdictions with the highest number of serious incidents reported (as defined in regulation 12 of the National Regulations) per 100 services (in 2019-20) were: ACT (176.5); South Australia (112) and Tasmania (111.5)  The lowest was Victoria (86.6).

Nationally, the total number of serious incidents grew again. There were 103.3 serious incidents per 100 NQF services with a total of 16,632 serious incidents having occurred. 13,077 of these incidents related to child injury, trauma or illness. These figures up up again from last year when the figures were 101.7 serious incidents per 100 NQF service and 16,185 serious incidents.