S E R V I C E S
Assessment and Rating
Preparation
From feasibility and site assessment through to your first enrolment.
Assessment and rating is the one day your practice gets judged by someone who does not know you. Most services prepare by building documentation. That is the wrong order, and it is why so many sit at
Meeting and cannot work out why.
Who this is for
A visit scheduled and no plan for it
A Working Towards rating you want lifted
Meeting, and you cannot work out what Exceeding would take
A QIP nobody has opened in a year
A new Centre Manager facing their first assessment
You have been rated and disagree with it
What we do
Build the people
The Centre Manager first, then the educators. Pedagogical leadership, practice coaching on the floor, and mentoring for the ones ready to step up.
Build the plan
A Quality Improvement Plan written with your team rather than handed to them. A plan that does not reflect your rooms will not survive an assessor’s questions.
Build the evidence
Once the practice is genuinely there, documenting it is the easy part. Doing it in the other order is the mistake most services make.
How it works
Where you actually are
A review across all seven quality areas. Not what your documentation says, what an officer would see on the day.
The gaps
Element by element. Whether each gap is a system that failed or a practice that never matched the system. Different problems, different fixes.
The work
Our people in your service, observing practice, coaching educators and working alongside your Centre Manager.
The visit
We request the assessment only when the systems and practice are genuinely embedded. Not before.
How it works
Where you actually are
A review across all seven quality areas. Not what your documentation says, what an officer would see on the day.
The gaps
Element by element. Whether each gap is a system that failed or a practice that never matched the system. Different problems, different fixes.
The work
Our people in your service, observing practice, coaching educators and working alongside your Centre Manager.
The visit
We request the assessment only when the systems and practice are genuinely embedded. Not before.
What it costs
Quoted on scope, and on where you are starting from.
A service that is close needs a readiness review and a QIP rebuild. A service rated Working Towards needs considerably more, and it takes longer.
We will tell you honestly what we think is achievable and roughly how long it will take. We would rather be conservative than win the work on an optimistic promise.
What we have done
Every quality area Meeting
Two rated Exceeding
A service that came to us as a focused service for the regulator, with conditions on its service approval.
Read the case study →
Anyone who tells you a service can be documented its way to Exceeding has not sat through an assessment visit.
Frequently Asked Questions
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No, and be wary of anyone who does. Ratings are awarded by an Authorised Officer based on what they observe on the day.
What we can do is make sure the practice is genuinely there and the evidence supports it, and tell you honestly whether we think you are ready.
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Depends where you start. A service close to Exceeding might need six months. A service rated Working Towards with staffing problems is usually a year or more.
Compliance can be fixed in months. Practice takes longer, because it means changing how people work rather than what is written down.
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Yes, though what we can achieve depends on where you are. Six weeks is enough to prepare evidence, rehearse how your team talks about their practice, and make sure your Quality Improvement Plan reflects reality.
It is not enough to change practice that is not there.
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Your team, with us. Never us alone.
A QIP written by a consultant reads like one, and an assessor will ask your educators about it. If they cannot speak to it, the document works against you.
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There is a formal process, and we can help you work through whether it is worth pursuing.
More often the useful question is what the officer actually saw, and whether the gap was a system or a practice. That is the conversation that changes the next rating.
Start with a conversation
Thirty minutes, no cost. We will tell you honestly whether we can help.