ACECQA Board Position on Authorised Officer Qualifications
22 December 2011
An Authorised Officer under the Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010 is a
person authorised by a regulatory authority as an appropriate person for the purposes
of the Law. In considering whether a person is an appropriate person, the regulatory
authority must take into account the requirements determined by the National
Authority.
The ACECQA Board, in fulfilling its role under Section 225(1)(o) and Section 195(5)of the
Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010 to determine the qualifications of
authorised officers in the regulatory authorities, has
1) noted:
a. the objectives of enhanced quality outcomes for children in education and care, and
continuous improvement in the quality of services underpinning the National
Partnership Agreement on the National Quality Agenda for Early Education and Care
and the National Law
b. that regulatory authorities are regulating a range of service types including
pre-schools, long day care, family day care and outside school hours care services
c. that qualifications should be defined broadly to include skills, attributes, experience
and educational qualifications
d. that on commencement of the National Quality Framework (NQF) on
1 January 2012, existing staff in positions in regulatory authorities across the
jurisdictions will have a variety of skills, experience and educational qualifications
e. the functions of authorised officers under the National Law are varied and include
monitoring compliance with the National Law and Regulations; investigating
incidents and complaints; taking compliance action; assessment and rating of
education and care services; managing approvals and administrative support (this
will be referred to as ‘assessing and monitoring’)
f. it is important to understand that authorised officers will not necessarily be doing,
or solely be doing, quality assessment or rating of a service
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g. that the approach to performing these functions will differ across jurisdictions and
that authorised officers will require a range of skills, experience and educational
qualifications to perform these functions
h. to be consistent with other aspects in the implementation of the NQF, regulatory
authorities should be ‘working towards’ further developing a professional and
skilled workforce for the delivery of all of their functions under the NQF, which may
include working towards qualification requirements
i. the importance of national consistency in training for authorised officers, the need
to develop a sustainable and ongoing strategy for training of authorised officers, and
the desirability of authorised officer training being an accredited course leading to
an educational qualification
j. that when an authorised officer is performing assessment and rating functions, a
particular educational qualification in itself is not sufficient to ensure that an
authorised officer is able to accurately observe current practice and assess it against
the National Quality Standard (NQS)
k. the definition of ECEC qualifications from the 2010 National Early Childhood
Education and Care Workforce Census, which in part aims to assist the
Commonwealth and State and Territory governments to implement the NQF,
includes early childhood teaching, primary teaching, other teaching, childcare,
nursing, other human welfare studies, behavioural science and other early
childhood education and care related qualifications
l. that like the qualifications for the broader workforce under the NQF, qualifications
for authorised officers should be implemented over time
m. the qualifications for authorised officers should be reviewed in 2014 by the ACECQA
Board
2) determined that:
a. the definition of ECEC qualifications in the 2010 National ECEC Workforce Census
would be adopted (see 1(k) above)
b. the key requirements for authorised officers are they:
 are appropriately trained for the functions they are undertaking in assessing and
monitoring

are appropriately trained in the NQF, including the National Law, Regulations
and the NQS

have qualifications and experience consistent with the functions they are
undertaking in assessing and monitoring
o qualifications could be in a variety of fields at different levels
o length and type of experience is not defined but experience in the types
of services they are assessing and monitoring may be relevant
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
are appropriately trained in record keeping, investigation, decision making and
report writing

have knowledge, expertise, professional values, integrity and the ability to
develop respectful working relationships, which will give them credibility with
the services they are assessing and monitoring, the families of the children in
those services, and the broader sector.

are reliable and consistent in their assessments and enforcement approach

are able to operate as part of a team based approach to assessment

have opportunities for ongoing professional development

if they are undertaking assessments and ratings of services, have skills,
experience and qualifications to enable informed assessment of the pedagogical
aspects of the NQS
c. the minimum qualification requirements for authorised officers from 1 January 2012
are skills, experience and qualifications consistent with the functions they are
undertaking in assessing and monitoring
d. once the authorised officer training program has been implemented by jurisdictions
and no later than 1 July 2012, the minimum qualification requirements for
authorised officers are:

assessment and rating training for those authorised officers undertaking that
function

training in the NQF, including the National Law and Regulations and NQS

skills, experience and qualifications consistent with the functions they are
undertaking in assessing and monitoring
e. given that about 70 per cent of the services covered by the NQF are in the Early
Childhood Education and Care sector, from 1 January 2014, each jurisdiction will aim
to have more than 50 per cent of its authorised officers holding early childhood
education and care qualifications, whether at diploma, degree or higher degree
level
f. qualifications for authorised officers will be reviewed in 2014 by the ACECQA Board.
This review will include consultation and be informed by the outcomes of other
reviews including the 2013 Workforce Review and the 2014 COAG Review of the
National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education and Care. The
ACECQA Board will then establish qualification targets for 1 January 2020.
g. ACECQA will monitor the consistency across the jurisdictions of the achievement of
the goals and report to the Ministerial Council in 2014, 2016 and 2018 on the
increasing qualifications of the authorised officers.
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