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Approval process for early childhood providers

How to apply to become an approved provider to operate an education and care service.

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Applicants must apply for approval to the relevant Regulatory Authority before operating an education and care service. The Victorian Early Childhood Regulatory Authority (VECRA) is the Regulatory Authority for Victoria.

VECRA is responsible for:

Information about requirements for provider and service approval is available on the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) website. ACECQA is the national, independent statutory authority governing the NQF.

Provider approval

Obtaining provider approval is the first step toward operating an approved service.

An application for provider approval can be made by either:

All provider applications must be submitted through the National Quality Agenda IT System (NQA ITS system).

The approved provider of an approved education and care service is responsible for:

Applicants can submit an approval for provider approval and service approval at the same time, but service approval cannot be granted unless the provider approval application has been granted.

Provider approval is recognised nationally. This means that an approved provider does not need a separate provider approval in each state or territory in which they operate an approved education and care service (a service). However, separate approval must be sought from the respective Regulatory Authority in the state or territory in which the service will be operated.

Considerations before applying for provider approval

Before applying for provider approval, applicants need to consider the following:

The applicant must decide what type of legal entity they will use before applying for provider approval.

If you wish to change the legal entity type after being granted provider approval, you must submit a new application for provider approval and pay another application fee. For example, you will need to reapply if you change from sole proprietorship to a company.

Applicants should seek professional advice about which legal entity is appropriate for their circumstances. VECRA cannot provide advice on these matters.

The legal entity type and name must be consistent in the application for:

Persons with management or control

An applicant for provider approval must nominate a person or persons to be a ‘person with management or control’ (PMC).

If you are a sole proprietor, you must be listed as a PMC in addition to any other PMCs. If you are not applying as an individual, you must nominate one or more PMCs within the entity.

A PMC is a person within or outside the approved provider who:

The number of PMCs depend on the legal entity and size of the organisation, such as:

The approved provider must nominate the PMCs for their organisation.

ACECQA has information to help you decide who in your organisation should be nominated as a PMC: Identifying persons with management or control of a service from 1 July 2023 – Prospective providers.

Each PMC must demonstrate that they are a fit and proper person to be involved in the provision of an education and care service. This is important as PMCs make decisions that can impact the safety, health and wellbeing of children at their service(s).

Application checklist

Establishing an education and care service is an important decision. It comes with the responsibility of ensuring the service is compliant with the National Law and National Regulations.

As an applicant, the following questions may assist you in determining if you are ready to apply for provider approval:

  1. Am I familiar with the National Law and National Regulations?
  2. What is my legal entity and how will I ensure there are appropriate governance arrangements in place?
  3. What is my service philosophy and how am I committed to operating a quality education and care service?
  4. How will I engage, monitor, assess and support my educators?
  5. What is the National Quality Standard and how will I develop a Quality Improvement Plan?
  6. How will I ensure that my educators can plan and deliver an educational program to children?

If you cannot confidently answer these questions, you should undertake further research before applying. ACECQA offers online courses about the National Law which applicants and PMCs may find useful to prepare for their application.

The application process

Application submission

You must submit the following information online through the NQA ITS system as part of your application:

All these forms must be complete before the application can be submitted. This includes the supporting documents requested.

Prescribed fee

Refer to ACECQA’s information on prescribed annual and transaction fees.

The applicant must pay the relevant fee online. If payment is not received by the due date, then the application is invalid.

Incomplete applications

If an application is incomplete, VECRA will contact the applicant to request the missing information. The application cannot progress without all the required information.

You must submit the requested information through NQA ITS.

Fitness and propriety assessment

Each applicant and every PMC will be assessed for fitness and propriety. Information about criteria for fitness and propriety can be found in ACECQA’s Guide to the NQF.

Mandatory criteria can be found in section 13 of the National Law. They include:

VECRA may also assess

VECRA can consider other relevant circumstances when assessing an applicant and their PMC’s fitness and propriety. This includes assessing each PMC’s knowledge of the National Law and conducting referees’ assessments of their management and experience relevant to the early childhood education and care sector.

Online knowledge assessment

In Victoria, each PMC will be assessed to:

  1. demonstrate their ability to understand and use of
  1. show awareness of the National Quality Framework (NQF) in the operation of an education and care service.

This assessment is conducted by an online knowledge assessment. The online knowledge assessment tests the person’s knowledge and understanding of an approved provider’s obligations when operating a service.

The assessment tests:

An online onboarding process must be completed before commencing the online assessment. The purpose of this process is to enable you to:

Conditions on provider approval

Approved providers must comply with the National Law and the conditions of their provider approval.

Provider approval is granted subject to conditions that are:

Additional conditions may be applied to provider approval by VECRA when approval is granted and at any other time.

Notification of decision

Decisions about an application for provider approval will be made within 60 days of VECRA receiving a valid application. This timeframe may be extended with consent from the applicant. This timeframe does not include the time taken by an applicant to provide additional information or for each PMC to complete the online knowledge assessment.

The applicant will be notified within 7 days of the decision.

If the application is successful, you will receive a provider approval certificate via email.

Assistance and advice

For more information and assistance, contact VECRA’s enquiries and support team:

VECRA can only discuss an application with:

Please have the application reference numbers ready when contacting the VECRA about your application. These numbers begin with either ‘APP’ or ‘PR’.

Education & training

Updated 27 March 2026

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