The Minister for Child Care, Kate Ellis, joined Anthony Albanese today to visit a local child care centre which will be trialling the new assessment and ratings process of the National Quality Framework.

SDN Marrickville is one of over 200 Early Childhood Education and Care services that have volunteered to participate in the development of a quality rating system for child care services.

“I am delighted with the progress of the trial here at SDN Marrickville and have been impressed by the goodquality of service the staff here are providing,” Ms Ellis said.

“The new assessment and rating system will, when finalised, for the first time, give parents better information to be able to compare the quality of child care services and make the best decisions for their child.”

The quality rating system will also help services recognise where they need to improve, increasing the safety and well being of children across Australia.

“Only recently we have seen data released from the National Child Care Accreditation Council that reveals many too Australian child care centres are failing to meet basic hygiene, safety and education standards,” Ms Ellis said.

The quality rating system is only one part of the Australian Government’s National Quality Agenda which will help lift the quality of child care nationally.

The National Quality Agenda will improve educator-to-child ratios, to ensure every child gets more individual care and attention and raise educator qualifications so that educators can lead activities that help children learn and develop.

“SDN Marrickville are already meeting much of the new quality standard, including the 1:4 ratio of educators to babies and their prices are comparable to other services in the area,” Mr Albanese said.

“It is great to see a centre in my electorate demonstrating that it is possible to deliver high quality child care at an affordable price.”

The Australian Goverment is committed to delivering affordable, accessible and quality early childhood education and care for families.

The Australian Government will provide $14.4 billion in child care assistance for families through the Child Care Benefit and the Child Care Rebate over the next four years.

This is $8 billion more in direct assistance than was provided in the last four years of the Howard Government.

For more information about the National Quality Framework and the National Quality Standard, visit www.mychild.gov.au or call 1800 181 088.

Anthony and Kate Ellis reading to children at SDN Childcare in Marrickville.