Families across the state are benefitting from higher quality early childhood education and care thanks to more on the ground inspectors and support for services.
Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning Sarah Mitchell said more than 50 per cent of early childhood education services had improved their overall quality rating over the last year, helping children across the state receive better care than ever before.
“Providing our youngest learners with quality care and education in their formative years sets them up for life, which is why this government has employed more inspectors and invested in more support programs,” Ms Mitchell said.
“We have increased the number of frontline regulatory staff by 30 per cent since 2018. The staff made 7,394 visits in 2020, up from 6,102 in 2019.
“Inspectors are not only there to enforce regulations, but offer support to services to help them improve.
“More than 80 per cent of early childhood education and school aged care services in NSW are now meeting or exceeding the National Quality Standard, an increase of more than 25 per cent since 2014.”
In addition to increasing its frontline workforce, NSW has invested more than $13m over two years to support the sector with a range of programs.
Ms Mitchell also launched a new website today to provide parents with easy to understand information about the quality of early childhood education services in NSW.
“The Early Childhood Education Finder helps parents across NSW choose a service for their child,” Ms Mitchell said.
“The website will help them find a service with confidence, helping them to understand its quality rating.”
NSW has the largest number of education and care services regulated under the National Quality Framework of any state or territory.
The Early Childhood Education Finder is available at: https://bascfinder.service.nsw.gov.au/ecec