A step-by-step guide to finding and interpreting a long day care centre's NQS rating using the official ACECQA register.
Why Check the NQS Rating?
Every approved long day care centre in Australia is assessed against the National Quality Standard (NQS) and given a public rating. Checking a centre's rating before you visit — or before you enrol — gives you an independent, evidence-based assessment of its quality that goes beyond what you can learn from a website or a tour.
This guide walks you through exactly how to find and interpret a centre's NQS rating using the official government register.
Step 1: Go to the ACECQA National Register
The Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) maintains the National Register of early childhood education and care services. You can access it at acecqa.gov.au/resources/national-registers. This is the official, authoritative source — not a third-party directory.
Step 2: Search for the Centre
On the National Register, you can search by service name, suburb, or postcode. If you are comparing multiple centres in a particular area, a postcode search will return all approved services in that area, making it easy to compare ratings side by side.
Enter the name or location of the centre you are looking for and select it from the results. Make sure you are looking at the correct service — some providers operate multiple centres with similar names.
Step 3: Read the Rating
The service's profile will show its current overall NQS rating and its rating for each of the seven quality areas. The five possible ratings, from highest to lowest, are: Excellent; Exceeding National Quality Standard; Meeting National Quality Standard; Working Towards National Quality Standard; and Significant Improvement Required.
Note the date of the most recent assessment. A rating from three or four years ago may not reflect the centre's current practice — particularly if there has been a change in leadership or staffing.
Step 4: Read the Assessment Report
The National Register also links to the centre's most recent assessment report, which provides much more detail than the rating alone. The report explains the evidence behind each rating, identifies areas of strength, and notes any areas where the centre is working to improve. Reading the report gives you a much richer picture of the centre's quality than the summary rating alone.
Step 5: Use the Rating to Inform Your Questions
Once you have read the rating and the report, use what you have learned to inform the questions you ask on your tour. If the centre received a strong rating in Relationships with Children (Quality Area 5) but a lower rating in Staffing Arrangements (Quality Area 4), ask specifically about staff stability and retention. If the centre is rated Working Towards in any area, ask the director what they are doing to address it.
A centre that engages honestly and constructively with these questions — rather than becoming defensive — is one that takes quality seriously and is genuinely committed to improvement.
