Early learning and childcare quality indicators

The structure of the framework

The quality indicators for early learning and childcare (ELC) are grouped under four important headings:

Leadership

The quality indicators for leadership are:

• leadership and management of staff and resources
• staff skills, knowledge, values and deployment
• leadership of continuous improvement

Children thrive and develop in quality spaces

The quality indicator for children thrive and develop in quality spaces is:

• children experience high quality spaces.

Children play and learn

The quality indicators for children play and learn are:

• play and learning
• curriculum
• learning, teaching and assessment

Children are supported to achieve

The quality indicators for supporting children to achieve are:

• nurturing care and support
• wellbeing, inclusion and equality
• children’s progress
• safeguarding and child protection

Illustrations of practice

All quality indicators have themes to support your self-evaluation. There are illustrations of practice for each theme. These describe what we might see in a setting where the quality of provision is ‘very good’.

There will be a ‘weak’ illustration for some quality indicators, where appropriate. For more information about the principles of this framework and the grading criteria, return to the framework home page.