Australia has a new national agenda for early childhood which includes new national standards  which all early childhood services will be assessed and rated against from now on. We were visited by the department staff last November and recently received our final report – Exceeding the National Quality Standards! This is a pretty big deal for us as we are a little country kinder and we haven’t bought any packages to support us through the process (you can spend  many $$$ to buy a feeling of security that if it’s cost a lot of money it must be going to make you somehow a top service). Yes, it was daunting and a lot of work and it’s ongoing – they will come around again in 3 years time – but we feel that we have a benchmark now and hopefully can get on with working with children and families – which is what we are here for!