Buying A Childcare Centre

There are certain legislative requirements that need to be meet before a person or entity can own a childcare business. Not least important of these requirements is hold Provider Approval.

The following information is from the the The Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) webpage and is a good place to start for a prospective childcare buyer to understand the process.

What you need to know to open an education and care service in Australia.

I want to learn about:

The legislation

Before opening a service you must understand what regulatory and funding requirements apply.

The Education and Care Services National Law and Regulations applies to most education and care service types in Australia.

You should be aware of:

local government planning controls
working with children checks and child protection laws
health department rules
food safety requirements.

Understanding how these rules apply in your state or territory is important to planning a new business and working out the costs involved.

There are funding programs that subsidise child care fees for families using child care. Find out more about the Australian Government fee support.

The National Quality Framework

The National Quality Framework is a national system which aims to raise quality and drive continuous improvement and consistency in children’s education and care services through:

the National Law and National Regulations
the National Quality Standard
an assessment and quality rating process
national approved learning frameworks
a regulatory authority in each state and territory responsible for the approval, monitoring and quality assessment of services in their state or territory
a national body – ACECQA, which assists governments to implement the NQF.

Types of education and care services

Most long day care, family day care and outside school hours care services are regulated under the NQF. The NQF also applies to preschools (or kindergartens), except in Western Australia and Tasmania.

If the service you are planning to operate is covered by the NQF, you will find information about applying for approval and regulatory requirements below.

Services that are not covered by the NQF may be regulated under local law. Information on seeking approval to operate one of these services is available on the website of your local regulatory authority.

Applying to operate a service

To operate a service, you will need to apply for provider approval and service approval. You can apply for these online after registering an account on the NQA IT System (NQA ITS). Lodging notifications and applications through the NQA IT System offers reduced processing times.

Alternatively, use the paper based PA01 Application for provider approval and PA02 Declaration of fitness and propriety forms.

Note that the NSW and Victorian regulatory authorities only accept applications and notifications submitted online using the NQA IT System.

Who to contact

Find out what we do and how we can support you.

Regulatory authorities in each jurisdiction are responsible for assessing most applications and notifications. In most cases your regulatory authority is the first point of contact.

The Australian Government Department of Education website has information about registering an early childhood education and care service for the Child Care Subsidy

The Child Care Provider Handbook is an operating guide for approved providers that offers practical information about the requirements and responsibilities of providers and services that are approved under the Family Assistance Law.

You may also find useful information about setting up and running a service from your local council and state or territory government agencies responsible for health and child protection.

For information and resources on business planning and the steps for setting up a new business, visit www.business.gov.au.