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:
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.
