The year in review
Chairman and CEO’s Report
For early childhood education and care services across Australia, 2012 was a significant year of major reforms
with the introduction of the Education and Care Services National Law and the Education and Care Services
National Regulations.
These major reforms also included the commencement of
the National Quality Standard (NQS) and the Assessment
and Rating (A&R) process for long day care, preschool,
family day care and out of school hours care services across
Australia. A new national body, the Australian Children’s
Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) was
formed to oversee the new system and ensure consistency
across the nation. Within KU, 2012 was a year of supporting our services
through these reforms and ensuring our services met all
the requirements under the new legislation. KU continued
to implement the final phase of our Strategic Plan “Making
the KU Difference” with our major focus on continually
improving the quality of our early childhood education and
care services, while balancing our commitment to quality
with financial sustainability and the cost to families.
For children and families, the reforms aim to raise quality and
drive continuous improvement. Each service will be rated
and those ratings will be published on a website, allowing
parents and carers to see the results. KU developed a booklet to assist families within KU and
the wider community to gain a better understanding of
the seven quality areas in the NQS. Throughout KU and the
wider community, 80,000 free hard copies were distributed
and an electronic copy was made available on our website.
At KU, the assessment and rating process has proved to be
Our commitment to the professional learning and
a rigorous and challenging test of our systems as staff and
development of our staff was expanded to not only include
centres have been assessed on seven separate aspects of
professional development in the areas required by the new
their operations and practices. Happily the KU services which
legislation, but also to continue our move towards more in-
were assessed in 2012 performed extremely well against
depth and sustained thought
the criteria, with 85 per cent
KU services performed extremely leadership. KU’s Professional
of KU services either meeting
or exceeding national quality well against the criteria, with 85% Learning Program was
standards. The results are either meeting or exceeding national expanded to include non-KU
participants from the wider
well above the average of
quality
standards.
early childhood sector. KU’s
47 per cent for all centres
Annual Conference was a great success with more than 721
assessed in the same time period according to the report
early childhood educators participating. Ten KU educators
published by the Australian Council for Education Research
continued to work towards gaining their Marte Meo
in November 2012, (in May 2013 ACECQA updated the
Supervisor level certification. KU also had the first and only
sector percentage to 55 percent).
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Quality Assessment and Rating
KU is a strong advocate for and champion of the National Quality Standards. It is inspiring and affirming to see KU’s
long term commitment to quality, and our planned approach to the implementation of the reforms, evidenced in the
first of our Assessment and Rating results.
1 Educational Program & Practice
2 Children’s Health & Safety
3 Physical Environments
4 Staffing Arrangements
5 Relationships with Children
6 Collaborative Partnerships with Families & Communities
7 Leadership & Service Management
0 0
Exceeding NQS
4
KU Children’s Services
Meeting NQS
10
10
20
20
30
30
Working Towards NQS
40
40
50
50
60
60
70
70
80
80
90
90
Significant Improvement Required
100
100