The best and worst childcare centre scores across Ipswich region revealed

An in depth report rating every childcare centre across Ipswich has revealed the ones who are top of the class and those with work to do. SEE HOW YOUR CENTRE SCORED

Choosing the people who will care for your little ones during working hours is one of the most important, and difficult, decisions for parents of young children.

Luckily, there are frameworks like the National Quality Framework, determined by the The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority that assess each centre and program’s performance across 7 key quality areas, which can help parents decide where their priorities lie.

These criteria include educational program and practice, children’s health and safety, physical environment, staffing arrangements, relationships with children, collaborative partnerships with families and communities and governance and leadership.

Within 20 kilometres of the Ipswich city centre, there are almost 150 childcare services, including long daycare, outside school hours care, family day care and preschools/kindergartens.

Of these, 84 centres and programs were deemed to be ‘meeting’ the standard across all 7 quality areas.

There were 37 that are categorised as ‘exceeding standard’ and 15 are still ‘working towards’ in some, if not all quality areas.

As at the time of writing, no centres in the region were rated ‘excellent’ or ‘significant improvement needed’.

Centres categorised as ‘working towards’ are not necessarily failing and many of these centres stressed the importance of families remembering this.

A spokesperson for Catholic Early Ed-Care, who is responsible for running the Immaculate Heart Catholic Primary School Outside School Hours Care, says that their program being rated as ‘working towards’ was a good result.

“As the service was assessed as “working towards” in five of the seven quality areas, and at a higher level in other areas, this is regarded as a good result, and one the service is committed to building upon,” they said.

“A rating of “working towards NQS” is not a failure, as the assessment and rating process was never designed to be a pass-fail system. Rather, it is a system that examines a broad range of quality measures and encourages continuous improvement.”

Similarly, the team at Kambu Amaroo Long Daycare Centre, a centre run by the Kambu Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Corporation, noted that the ratings were not the be all and end all.

“Kambu Amaroo Long Day Care Centre is just as focused on what we need to work towards as we are focused on continual quality improvements,” a spokesperson said.