Providing quality feedback on your Assessment and Rating draft report
Once your service has undergone an assessment and rating (A&R) and received its draft report, you are able to provide feedback on any factual inaccuracies in the report and evidence to support your feedback. This article will provide you with guidance on how to submit quality feedback to us on your draft report and clarify what good evidence looks like.
If you choose not to provide feedback, the draft report will become the final report and is emailed to the approved provider and service with a copy of the notice of rating certificate.
I have received my draft report, where do I start?
Once you receive your draft assessment and rating report by email, the cover letter has a link to the NQAITS portal, where an ASR (Assessment and Rating record on NQAITS) is visible to the service. Services must use this link to provide feedback on the draft report.
Prior to submitting feedback, you may wish to contact the Authorised Officer who conducted your visit to seek clarification on the draft assessment and rating report and the relevant evidence required to support a rating change.
What information should be included as feedback?
If you identify any factual inaccuracies in the draft report, provide feedback that is focused and relevant to the Element, Exceeding theme or Standard and provide supporting evidence such as photos or documents.
We recommend that services use the ACECQA Assessment and Rating draft report feedback template.
This example feedback response may assist in demonstrating what might be considered meaningful evidence.
When providing feedback:
| Do | Don't |
|---|---|
| Describe factual inaccuracies or factors that existed during the assessment and rating. For example, any evidence that was not available, presented or seen by the authorised officer at the visit. | Avoid general or broad statements. |
| Provide examples of evidence of practice that demonstrate a change of rating. | Present information that is a judgement and not a fact |
| Ensure you are succinct, clear and that you align your feedback to the element or standard. | Provide evidence that does not relate to the element or standard. |
| Stay within the word limit for each field in the template, if completed | Include evidence of improvements or rectifications of non-compliance that have occurred after the assessment and rating visit. |
| Provide recent information; include dates and other key facts. | Share information not related to the service being assessed. |
| Include examples of practice demonstrated at a previous assessment and rating, or a previous service where educators were employed. | |
| Re-supply documents already submitted as part of the initial assessment and rating (such as the service QIP or philosophy). |
How long do I have to provide my feedback?
Once we issue your draft report, you have ten working days to provide feedback on the report. After this time the ASR will disappear, services cannot provide any further documentation and the final report will be issued.
Where do I submit my feedback?
Feedback should be submitted through the NQA ITS portal against the ASR record.
What happens after I submit feedback?
The authorised officer who conducted the initial assessment and rating visit will assess the evidence you provide. If the evidence leads to a change in the report, including a change in rating, the new evidence will be captured within the corresponding Standard in the final report.
If the evidence does not result in a change to the report, this is captured with in the final report, with reasons why the feedback did not change the report. Outcomes of the feedback process are approved by a senior delegate, prior to the final report being issued.
How do I provide feedback about the process to the ESB?
If you would like to share your feedback about the assessment and rating process, the assessment and rating visit or the conduct of the Authorised Officer, we encourage you to consult the Complaints Management Framework and email your feedback to: educationstandardsboard@sa.gov.au.
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We encourage you to read and share the article with your early childhood peers, to guide your decision-making to support the type of documentation you need to provide at the feedback stage for draft reports.
More information
The ACEQA Guide to the National Quality Framework sets a national benchmark for the quality of education and care services. Section 3 describes the Assessment and Rating process and provides information about every step of the process.
If you have further questions or need assistance with the assessment and rating feedback process, please contact us oneducationstandardsboard@sa.gov.au or (08) 8226 0077.