Governance

Governance Arrangements

Boutique Bubs prides itself on providing a high quality program and educational curriculum. We are guided by the Education & Care Services National Regulations 2011 and Education & Services National Law Act 2010. Both the National and State frameworks fosters individualised learning and a broader perspective on children, ensuring they have a sense of belonging, being and becoming.

 

Two regulatory schemes for early childhood services in Victoria

National Quality Framework (NQF), which consists of the Education and Care Services National Law (National Law) and the Education and Care Services National Regulations (National Regulations) Children's Services Act 1996 (CS Act) and Children's Services Regulations 2020 (CS Regulations)

Both schemes aim to ensure children attending early childhood services are protected from harm, and that their opportunities for learning and development are maximised.

The regulatory requirements under both schemes are aligned, where appropriate. The main differences between the two schemes are:

• The NQF operates nationally and regulates education and care services that are provided to children on a regular basis. These services are assessed and quality rated against the National Quality Standard
• The CS Act regulates education and care provided to children on a non-regular, or ad hoc basis in Victoria only. The CS Act is sometimes referred to as 'State law' to distinguish it from the NQF. The National Quality Standard does not apply to services regulated under the CS Act.

Services regulated under the National Quality Framework

Around 95 percent of early childhood services in Victoria are regulated under the NQF and are called 'education and care services'.

An education and care service provides or intends to provide education and care on a regular basis to children under the age of 13 years.

Services that meet this definition are generally required to operate under the National Quality Framework and include:

• preschools (kindergartens)
• long day care services
• family day care services
• outside school hours care services
• school holiday care program that operate for 28 or more days a year
• For more information see : National Quality Framework

The National Quality Standard (NQS) sets a national benchmark for the quality of children’s education and care services across Australia. “An overall rating of Exceeding NQS is given to services that go above and beyond the requirements of the NQS in at least four of the seven quality areas.

Services are assessed against the NQS by the state or territory regulatory authority and receive a rating for each of the seven quality areas of the NQS, as well as an overall rating.

Here are Boutique Bub’s exceeding results across the quality areas.

 

The role of the Department

The Secretary of the Department is the regulatory authority under both regulatory schemes in Victoria. The functions and powers of the regulatory authority are delegated to the Quality Assessment and Regulation Division (QARD) to administer and enforce the law and regulations.

We are expected to undertake the full range of functions and powers provided to us to promote the safety, health and well-being of children attending education and care and children's services. For more information, see: Statement of Expectations

Our regulatory framework explains how we undertake our regulatory functions, including driving continuous quality improvement in education and care services - view the Regulatory Framework for Education & Care Services in Victoria

One of our key functions is to monitor the compliance of early childhood services, as set out in our Monitoring Compliance Policy.

We also investigate breaches of the National Law, National Regulations, CS Act and CS Regulations. The QARD Investigation Guidelines explain our approach.

To obtain copies of the documents mentioned above please go to https://www.education.vic.gov.au/childhood/

The regulations

For more information on the regulations, see:

• Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010 (National Law)
• Education and Care Services National Regulations (National Regulations)
• National Quality Standard (ACECQA)
• National Quality Standard Table (pdf - 117.6kb)

Administering the framework in Victoria

In Victoria, responsibility for administering the National Quality Framework is shared between us and the Australian Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA).

We are the regulatory authority for Victoria and are responsible for:

• granting service and provider approvals
• carrying out the quality assessment and rating process
• making sure education and care services meet the requirements of the National Law and National Regulations.

Authorised officers are located at our regional offices. To view the relevant contact details, refer to Quality Assessment and Regulation contacts.

ACECQA is the national, independent statutory authority that governs the National Quality Framework.