ACECQA has just published its seventh Annual Performance Report on the National Quality Framework. The report gives insights into the quality of services as well as compliance over time as it provides data for all financial years since 2016-17.
The Report shows that incidents involving injury, trauma or illness continue to account for almost 80% of all reported serious incidents but this figure has been declining steadily since 2016-17. On the other hand, serious incidents where emergency services have attended (12.6%), a child is missing or unaccounted for (8%), or a child locked in or out of the service (1.4%) has increased over the same time period. The rate of reported serious incidents per 100 approved services has also increased. The proportion of services reporting one or more serious incidents has also been increasing since 2016-17. It is now at 66%. Interestingly, the rate of reported serious incidents per 100 approved services is higher for those services exceeeding or meeting NQS than those rated as working towards NQS.
In relation to breaches of the National Law and Regulations, the rate of confirmed breaches has also continued to climb. In 2022-23 there were 193 confirmed breaches per 100 approved services. In 2016-17 the rate was only 98. Family Day Care continues to far exceed other service types in relation to the confirmed breach rate. The Report also shows that services with higher quality ratings are consistently less likely to have confirmed breaches than those with lower quality ratings. In 2022/23, services rated exceeding NQS had a rate of 92 confirmed breaches per 100 approved services, compared to a rate of 179 for services rated meeting NQS, and a rate of 478 for services rated working towards NQS. Breaches of section 165 and 167 continue to be the most breached sections of the National Law, accounting for 55% of confirmed breaches. This is up from 46% in 2016-17.
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