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Approvals and certification

The Department of Education, Training and Employment is the regulatory authority in Queensland responsible for assessing and approving new provider approvals, service approvals and supervisor certificates under the National Quality Framework (NQF).

The process for approving both providers and services and issuing supervisor certificates is set out in the Education and Care Service National Law Act 2010 (National Law) and Education and Care Services National Regulations 2011 (National Regulations).

The new approval system comprises three interrelated approvals.

• An entity (or business) must be granted a provider approval (e.g. the licensee under the current system) which allows someone to operate one or more education and care service under the NQF - across the nation.
• An Approved Provider must be granted a service approval for each education and care service it operates. Service approval relates to each individual site/premise the type of care can vary under the one service approval.
• There must be a person with a supervisor certificate who has consented to be the Nominated Supervisor for each service.

Provider and certified supervisor approvals granted under the new system are ongoing and recognised and accepted in all other States and Territories. The Department may review an approval at any time, but there is no need to apply for renewal. Service approvals are specific to the state in which the premises are located.

The National Regulations set out specific information required for each type of application. They also prescribe timeframes for Regulatory Authorities to make approvals decisions and notify an applicant of the outcome.

Decisions made by Regulatory Authorities in relation to the approvals process are reviewable. An application for internal review must be made in writing to the Regulatory Authority within 14 days after being notified of the decision.

All services in-scope of the NQF that were licensed before 31 December 2011 were transitioned into the new approvals system automatically without application.

Further information relating to provider and service approvals and supervisor certificates can be found in the National Law and National Regulations:

Provider approvals - Part 2 of the National Law and Part 2.1 of the National Regulations

Service approvals - Part 3 of the National Law and Part 2.2 of the National Regulations

Supervisor certificates - Part 4 of the National Law and Part 2.3 of the National Regulations

A new national IT system is being developed which will streamline the approval process and will be used to record and report monitoring and compliance information and assessment and rating information.

Until the IT system is fully operational, services can download provider approval, service approval or supervisor certificate application forms available on the ACECQA website . Visit the ACECQA website for further information about the IT system.

For more information contact your regional office .

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This page was last reviewed on 30 Apr 2012

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© The State of Queensland (Department of Education, Training and Employment) 2012.

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