National Standards for child care services

The Australian Government and State and Territory Governments have jointly developed National Standards for child care services. These standards express a national view about the level of care all Australians should expect to find in the different kinds of child care services available to them.

The National Standards comprise minimum standards for safe, nurturing and developmentally appropriate environments for children in formal child care settings. States and territories have utilised these Standards to inform child care regulations, funding guidelines and information resources. However, the degree to which the Standards have been implemented varies between jurisdictions.

The Australian Government and State and Territory Governments have published the report - A review of the approach to setting national standards and assuring the quality of care in Australian child care services - PDF  (1.4 MB) | RTF  (2.6 MB). The report will be used to inform future development of Australian and State and Territory Government legislation, regulations and quality assurance measures for children's services.

For information about national standards for particular types of services, visit the FaCSIA Child Care web site.

• National Standards for Outside School Hours Care - PDF  (232.7 KB) | RTF  (142.7 KB)
• National Standards for Family Day Care - PDF  (321.5 KB) | RTF  (247.9 KB)
• National Standards for Centre Based Care – PDF  (99.8 KB) | RTF  (312.5 KB)

Related information

• Child Care Service Handbook
• Information for Child Care Service Providers