Report on Government Services 2023

Part B of the Report on Government Services 2023 (ROGS report) was published yesterday. This part of the Report deals with child care, education and training. The ROGS report is an annual report produced by the Productivity Commission comparing the performance of State and Territory governments in the delivery of a wide range of services. Some of the data has already been published by ACECQA. However, the Report reveals some interesting information in relation to childcare service compliance:

• The jurisdictions with the highest number of confirmed breaches of the NQF per 100 services (in 2021-22) were: NSW (273.6), WA (168.7) and Queensland (142.4). The lowest were: South Australia (39.4), ACT (46.5), and Tasmania (61.5). Nationally, there were 162.2 confirmed breaches per 100 services (slightly down from last year's 164.1), with the highest rates being for family day care (441 breaches per 100 services, down from 494.5 last year.) and long day care (209.6 breaches per 100, slightly up from 200 last year). In recent reports, data has not published on the proportion of breaches resulting in action being taken by Regulatory Authorities "...due to data quality concerns arising from a recent change to the NQA ITS."

• The jurisdictions with the highest number of serious incidents (as defined in regulation 12 of the National Regulations) that have occurred per 100 services (in 2021-22) were: South Australia (156.3), ACT (157.8), and Tasmania (168.4). It's interesting to note that the jurisdictions with the lowest rates of confirmed breaches had the highest rates of serious incidents. The lowest rates of serious incidents occurred in Victoria (101.3), NT (105.8), and NSW (118.5). Nationally, there were 123.8 serious incidents per 100 NQF services with a total of 21,022 serious incidents having occurred. This is down from last year when the figures were 125.2 serious incidents per 100 NQF service and a total 20,599 incidents. However, generally the trend has been going up with rates in previous years being 103.3, 101.7, and 97.9.