KindiCare Quality Index reveals QLD childcare centre ratings in Australia

Is your childcare centre worth the money you pay? In Queensland there are 243 centres that only rate as “fair”. See how the ones near you compare.

Exclusive: More than 1000 Australian childcare centres are underperforming according to comprehensive ratings based on official inspections, as well as parent reviews.

The 2022 KindiCare Quality Index rated 1072 childcare operations ‘fair’, which is the bottom category.

They accounted for 6.3 per cent of Australia’s centres.

In Queensland there are 243 centres rated ‘fair’. Bottom of the list is Moura Child Care Centre in Central Queensland, with a rating of 6.3.

There are 1127 childcare centres with a ‘good’ rating; 1158 rated ‘very good’; 300 rated ‘excellent’ and 82 ‘outstanding’.

Tied at the top is Ashgrove Memorial Kindergarten and Goodstart Early Learning North Lakes Winn Street with a KindiCare rating of 9.9.

They are also the national runners-up.

Moura Child Care Centre manager Maureen Clancy, defended her service, which looks after 24 children, in Moura, around 180km west of Rockhampton.

The centre is working towards national standards.

“We deliver what we can deliver and we do our best in the circumstances,” Ms Clancy said.

“We follow all the protocols and the parents are happy, they can’t get all the days they want.

“We work our backsides off, with no support from anyone. If we have been marked down it must be for minute things, like the building.

“I called a carpenter to do some work and he told me he can’t even talk to me until 2023.

“And the staffing problem is causing more hardship.”

Kinder kids Shiu 4 and Larissa 4 relax in a meditation and yoga room at childcare. Picture: David Caird

There is only one centre in the country with a perfect score of 10 – Essex Heights Juniors in Mount Waverley in Victoria, which has been crowned the best childcare centre in Australia by KindiCare.

The KindiCare app and childcare comparison website, which released the index, has worked out a unique score for every early learning service based on their current and historical assessment and ratings under the National Quality Framework from ACECQA, parent and community feedback and reviews, the stability and length of operation of the service as well as other characteristics known about a service.

KindiCare founder Benjamin Balk. Picture: Supplied.

KindiCare founder and CEO Benjamin Balk said those who rated ‘fair’ are mainly centres that are still ‘working towards’ meeting national standards.

Others have not been inspected for many years which meant they lost marks.

He noted that some of the top performing centres have introduced risky play in their activities, such as allowing children to climb trees.

Others are ripping up astro turf and laying grass, so kids can play and get dirty, which parents liked.

Ashgrove Memorial Kindergarten in Brisbane has an outdoor classroom with a large area of real grass to play on, as well as a fort and a tree for kids to climb.

“It’s really important to strengthen a child’s core and upper body strength, because this filters down to their fine motor development and helps them to sit and concentrate for longer periods, which prepares them for school,” co-director Lisa Cranny said.