Despite figures announced on quality ratings for child care by ACECQA, our recent survey said two thirds of parents rate the standard of care their children are receiving as excellent. Under 2% thought the care their children received was below average.

Although regular assessment and evaluation of child care operators is of course necessary, the new ratings system is putting huge amounts of pressure on these services, many of whom are struggling to keep their heads above water with the new National Quality Framework guidelines.

The admin that these assessments impose on child care operators is huge and initiating a program and employing qualified staff to implement it takes time.

One of the most important and key areas, as far as overall quality is concerned, is the provision of set numeracy and literacy programs in child care, particularly for those children who are in their last year of preschool before going into formal education.

By issuing figures that essentially damn child care services for not meeting the new high standards, will only serve to stress out the child care operators, the underpaid child care workers and the parents of the children in their care.

However given the fact that child care places for the under twos in inner city areas are in such short supply, efforts and focus should really be more on how to provide more child care places in the areas that have unmet demand than putting more stress on the providers.

We have just initiated our own ratings system which allows parents to have their say about child care providers in a monitored and fair way. We believe that this approach is much more positive in terms of giving parents the confidence they need when considering a child care service for their child.

At the end of the day the majority of the parents surveyed said they are very happy with the standards of child care provided.

Let’s also remember that its very early days in the quality ratings assessments, so it's important that we shouldn't get carried away with these initial figures from ACECQA.

For more information on what the ratings mean for you and your child click here