The Quality Support Program (QSP) is a professional learning program designed to support early childhood education and care (ECEC) service leaders to embed continuous quality improvement and improve the quality of their teaching practices.

Delivered in partnership between ACECQA and the NSW Department of Education, there are 2 pathways within the program: Meeting National Quality Standard (NQS) Pathway (formerly Quality Support Pathway) and the Compliance Support Pathway.

The program is available to services that are currently rated Working Towards NQS and located in NSW. This includes long day care, family day care, preschools, mobile preschools, occasional care, Multifunctional Aboriginal Children's Services (MACS) and outside school hours care (OSHC) services, including vacation care services. Both pathways of the program deliver tailored support, and eligible services can access one-to-one sessions with facilitators who have expertise across preschool, long daycare, family day care and out of school hours care.

Compliance Support Pathway

Service leaders who need additional support to uplift governance and compliance in their service can register their interest for the Compliance Support Pathway. This pathway is a free program that runs for up to 10-weeks and helps ECEC services develop and refine processes and systems to ensure safety and compliance with the National Law and Regulations.

Eligible services may express interest in the program or be directly referred to the Compliance Support Pathway by the NSW Department of Education as the regulatory authority for the ECEC sector.

Spotlight on OSHC participants

After taking over management of an OSHC service in La Perouse in mid-2023, provider 3Bridges saw the Compliance Support Pathway as an ideal opportunity to support and extend its new team’s knowledge of compliance and sector requirements. The 3Bridges La Perouse team was paired with ACECQA Support Facilitator Tamika Baliva.

“The Compliance Support Pathway has proven to be an essential part of our team’s development, reinforcing 3Bridges’ commitment to quality service [delivery] and a continuous learning environment,” shared Helen Pentecost, Sector Development Manager at 3Bridges.

“The coaching approach empowers participants to navigate compliance challenges with confidence, integrity and professionalism,” Helen added.

While participating in the program, the 3Bridges team recognised the value of developing a guide for all responsible persons at the service with key information about service practices, processes and individual children’s needs. The aim of the document was to support the consistency of operations and continuity of care for children in the absence of the service’s nominated supervisor.

“Our facilitator provided feedback, guidance and support throughout the program to enable the implementation of our new resource,” shared Eric Mayhew, Risk and Compliance Officer at 3Bridges. “The resource has been invaluable in implementing consistent practices across the service regardless of the responsible person or team members on duty.”

Since completing the program, the team has also introduced a ‘Policy of the week’ review to facilitate discussion about 3Bridges policies and procedures and identify opportunities for staff to build upon their knowledge or skills.

Meeting the National Quality Standard Pathway

Designed to support services rated Working Towards the NQS, the free 21-week Meeting NQS Pathway program supports services to enhance their understanding of the NQS and identify quality improvement goals.

Spotlight on OSHC participants

Salty Kids OSHC also partnered with Tamika while participating in the Meeting NQS Pathway. Service director Jess Aitken shared that while the Salty Kids team felt they had a good understanding of the NQS, they wanted support with strengthening the quality of their practices and implementing these improvements to uplift overall service quality.

“Our facilitator demonstrated a remarkable ability to guide our team, helping us break down complex standards and processes into manageable, clear steps,” Jess shared. “Her direction made a real difference, empowering us to implement improvements with confidence and clarity.”

Delivering quality support

Tamika shared that she draws on her leadership experience in ECEC when mentoring and coaching services participating in the Quality Support Program.

“My experience in OSHC settings enables me to collaborate with each service to strengthen leadership and embed quality practices that ensure children's safety, high quality education and care and compliance with the National Quality Framework,” Tamika explained.

“I really enjoy working one-on-one with each service to reflect on practice, establish goals and encourage a culture of quality improvement and compliance that supports children's health, safety and wellbeing, in their unique setting.”

Jess shared the Salty Kids team found Tamika’s expertise and insights about OSHC highly beneficial. “Having someone to connect theory to reality and provide situations we could visualise made it much easier to understand and start thinking of ideas to apply to our service,” Jess said.