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Developing a Quality Improvement Plan through children’s participation

Find out how children's participation can create meaningful, responsive and effective Quality Improvement Plan (QIP).

VECRA- Developing a Quality Improvement Plan through children’s participation

In our June newsletter we explored how educators can embed children's agency into everyday practice. This article builds on that theme by providing practical guidance to support the development of a Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) informed by children's voices, ensuring their perspectives help shape continuous improvement.

Approved providers must comply with NQS Element 7.2.1 and ensure an effective self-assessment and QIP is in place for each service. Read the Guide to the National Quality Framework for information on the self-assessment process and what is required.

A QIP is most effective when it reflects the voices, experiences and ideas of the children who attend the service. ACECQA identifies self-assessment and continuous improvement as the foundation of an effective QIP. Children's perspectives are an important source of evidence during this process, helping educators identify strengths, priorities and opportunities for improvement across all quality areas of the National Quality Standard (NQS).

Children’s participation in learning frameworks and the Child Safe Standards

Services must deliver an educational program to all children being educated and cared for that is based on an approved learning framework.

Approved learning frameworks recognise children as capable, active participants in their learning. Each framework highlights the importance of children's voices, agency and participation.

VEYLDF supports Victorian children from birth to 8 years in their development as confident learners, becoming strong in their identity and connection to others. The VEYLDF has recently been updated. To learn more about the updated VEYLDF, register for upcoming information sessions.

EYLF supports children's learning from birth to five years and through the transition to school. It recognises educators intentionally creating opportunities for children to express their ideas, make choices and influence decisions strengthen children's agency, identity, wellbeing and learning outcomes.

MTOP is a framework for school aged children. It supports educators working with school age children in outside school hours care (OSHC) and other school age care settings.
It recognises children as active citizens with the capacity to contribute to decisions that affect them. By providing genuine opportunities for children to share their perspectives, make choices and collaborate in planning, educators strengthen children's agency, wellbeing, identity, learning and sense of belonging.

Together with the Victorian Child Safe Standards (CSS), these frameworks encourage educators to create meaningful opportunities for children to express their views, influence decisions and contribute to continuous improvement.

Building or updating your QIP through children's voices

Under the National Regulations (Regulations 31 and 55), a service must develop a QIP within 3 months of service approval and make it available for inspection on site.

When developing the QIP, educators should think about what children are telling them. Educators can gather children's perspectives through:

  • conversations during play and routines
  • drawings, photographs and learning stories
  • group discussions
  • observations of children's interests and behaviours
  • children's suggestions for learning environments, and
  • reflections about daily routines and experiences.

Demonstrating continuous improvement

Continuous improvement is an ongoing cycle of listening, reflecting, acting and evaluating. A QIP should clearly demonstrate how children's voices have influenced improvement priorities, the actions taken in response and the positive outcomes achieved for children.

This cycle aligns with ACECQA's continuous improvement approach and supports Victorian Child Safe Standard 10, which requires organisations to regularly review and improve child safe practices.

Updated

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