How government assessors rated every South Australian childcare centre

Just three SA childcare centres are rated excellent by government inspectors, while 163 do not meet the national standard. See how the centres in your area rate.

More than 160 South Australian childcare centres do not meet the national quality standards.

Annual data released by the Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority shows 163 of 1256 services statewide were rated as “working towards” national quality framework standards at the end of September.

Yet some centres have not been inspected for years.

A spokesperson for the Education Standards Board said those listed as working towards the NQS still provided a safe program.

“A Working Towards NQS rating does not mean that a service provides a unsafe education and care program,” the spokesperson said.

“To be rated Meeting NQS, all elements across each of the seven quality areas must be met. “This means that a service may be rated Working Towards NQS based on not meeting a single element within one quality area.

“Forty per cent of services rated Working Towards NQS receive that rating due to not meeting one or two of the seven quality areas of the NQS.”

The seven areas considered by government inspectors include education, health and safety, physical environment, staffing, relationships with children, partnerships with families and communities, and governance and leadership.

As for the centres that have not been assessed for a number of years, the spokesperson assured they were a top priority.

“The Education Standards Board is prioritising those services that have not been rated for a long period over the next two years,” they said.

“Services with a meeting or exceeding rating are afforded earned autonomy, meaning less frequent or intense regulatory intervention.

“Regulatory resources for reassessment of quality standards were allocated to services rated as working towards.

“In addition, to acknowledge the Covid challenges faced by services, the volume of reassessments has been lower.”

Yet only 44 centres were been inspected between January and September this year compared with 80 for the same period in 2021, 67 in 2020 and 183 pre-pandemic in 2019.

Of the 1256 statewide centres, just three were awarded an excellent rating, while 526 exceed the national standards and 561 meet them.

Alberton Preschool, or better known as the Nest joins Nazareth Early Childhood Centre and Lobethal Community Kindergarten in the top class.

The Nest director of curriculum and early years Briony Murdoch said its outdoor area, including rock mountain, mud area, bridges and an abundance of nooks and crannies, put it above the rest.

Alberton Preschool director, Briony Murdoch pictured with, Pema, 4, Klara, 4, and Michael, 4. Picture: Dean Martin

“Environmental education and sustainability practice are really integral to what we do here,” Ms Murdoch said.

“It’s so important and something that lots of children don’t necessarily have a lot of time for at home.

“We try to be really inclusive and responsive to children's needs as we are an integrated setting, we have our playgroup preschool and reception age children all in the one space.”

The centre was awarded an excellency rating in 2020 and Ms Murdoch said it was important to maintain consistency in the challenging years that followed.

“We’ve tried to be consistent for the children and keep the program the same, we all know having that time to connect with people have having that time to play outdoors is really important,” she said.

“When the rest of the world changes, the kids walk through the gates and they don’t know any different.”

‘We must do better’

Australian Childcare Alliance state president Kerry Mahony said there was an ongoing regional childcare crisis.

“In the metro areas, there are many centres with plenty of vacancies but once you move out into the regions there is a real lack of new centres being built,” Mr Mahony said.

“It’s difficult to attract qualified teachers to relocate out of the city, it’s a crisis that is happening not only here but across Australia.”

Mr Mahony said as long as state and federal governments continued to duel over childcare responsibilities staffing shortages would continue.

Australian Childcare Alliance state president Kerry Mahony. Picture: Supplied

“The Federal Government are wrestling with the acute shortage in trained staff and we can only hope they come up with a solution,” he said.

“Through next year there will be a short fall of an estimated 40,000 childcare staff nationally, 8000 of those are early childcare teachers, there really is a crisis in the availability of trained staff.

“There is also the argument about wage increases … most centres don’t have the facilities to increase their wages without putting up their fees.

“There’s no room to absorb the increase in pay no matter how much you want to do it, we really need some national government support for a wage increase.”

Education, Training and Skills Mister, Blair Boyer said the Malinauskas Labor Government would conduct a Royal Commission into early childhood education and care to see what can be done to better support SA families.

“The first 1000 days are crucial to the brain and social development of children,” Mr Boyer said.

“Nearly a quarter of South Australian five-year-olds have started school behind their development milestones – nearly the highest proportion of all states.

“Clearly we must do better.”

Mr Boyer said it would look into accessibility, affordability and quality of care and hear from experts in early childhood development, leaders in preschool and long-day care services in the public, private and community sectors, and importantly, parents.

“It’s important that we don’t pre-empt this vital piece of work,” he said.