Your QIP Does Not Need More Words. It Needs More Movement.
A Quality Improvement Plan can contain a significant amount of information and still create very little improvement.
Many services have QIPs that have grown over years. They contain old assessment and rating actions, historical concerns, repeated references to staff training, lengthy progress notes and a long list of goals marked ongoing. The document expands, but the team's understanding of current priorities often becomes less clear.
A useful QIP should help a service answer three simple questions:
What are we trying to improve?
What are we doing about it?
How will we know practice has improved?
If leaders and educators cannot answer those questions confidently, adding more content to the document is unlikely to help.
What the QIP is actually for
Under Regulations 31, 55 and 56, services must develop and maintain a current QIP, assess practice against the National Quality Standard and National Regulations, identify areas for improvement, include the service philosophy, and review and revise the plan at least annually or when directed by the regulatory authority.
These requirements are important. However, they do not require services to focus on all 15 standards and 40 elements simultaneously. ACECQA also makes it clear that its QIP template is optional rather than mandatory. Services can use a format and process that best suits their context.
That flexibility creates an opportunity to make the QIP genuinely useful rather than simply comprehensive.
The QIP is an improvement map, not the service archive
The purpose of the QIP is to show where the service is now, where it wants to improve and how it intends to get there.
It does not need to become the storage location for every incident report, meeting minute, policy review, training record, compliance activity or historical note.
Those records may be critically important. They may also need to be retained under legal, regulatory or organisational requirements. They simply belong in the appropriate recordkeeping system, rather than being duplicated throughout the QIP.
For example, if an improvement identified during assessment and rating in 2024 has been successfully implemented, the service can summarise the outcome, explain how the practice is now monitored and move detailed working notes to an archived evidence location.
Keeping completed actions permanently open does not demonstrate continuous improvement. It can make it harder to identify the work that genuinely requires attention today.
A current QIP should clearly show:
An honest assessment of current practice.
A manageable number of meaningful priorities.
The outcomes the service is seeking.
Specific actions, responsibilities and review points.
Evidence of impact, not just evidence of activity.
How successful changes will be sustained over time.
Choose fewer improvements and do them well
When everything becomes a priority, the QIP often feels like another compliance task rather than a tool for improvement.
A smaller number of well-chosen priorities allows leaders to provide the support that meaningful change requires, including time, coaching, resources, feedback and follow-up.
Before adding an item to the active improvement plan, consider four questions:
Risk
Could the current gap affect children's safety, rights, wellbeing or the lawful operation of the service?
Impact
Would improvement significantly strengthen children's experiences or service quality?
Evidence
What evidence tells us this is a genuine practice gap rather than an assumption?
Readiness
Can the service realistically provide the leadership, time and resources needed to address this priority now?
High-risk issues should not be delayed because another goal appears easier to achieve. For lower-risk priorities, sequencing matters. Services tend to make greater progress when they complete, embed and close areas of work before opening multiple new improvement projects.
Build every improvement around movement
A practical improvement cycle does not need to be complicated.
1. Define the gap
Describe current practice using observable evidence, data, feedback or records. Avoid vague statements such as "educators need to be more intentional."
2. Identify the desired outcome
Describe what will be different for children, families, educators or the service when improvement is achieved.
3. Act with ownership
Identify the few actions most likely to influence practice. Each action should have:
A responsible person.
Required support.
A timeframe.
An expected output.
4. Check the impact
Return to practice. Observe rooms, routines, conversations, documentation and feedback.
Ask:
Has practice changed?
Is the change consistent?
Is the intended outcome visible?
5. Embed and close
Confirm the improvement can be maintained through normal service systems rather than relying on one leader to sustain momentum. Summarise the outcome, identify how it will continue to be monitored and close the goal when sufficient evidence exists.
Write goals that people can act on
A weak goal might read: Improve critical reflection across the service.
The intention is reasonable, but it does not provide a clear picture of what success looks like.
A stronger version could be:
Over the next eight weeks, each room team will use one fortnightly critical reflection discussion to identify a question about current practice, gather at least two perspectives, trial a change and evaluate its impact on children's experiences. The Educational Leader will meet with room leaders fortnightly to support the process and review evidence of changed decisions within planning, environments, routines or interactions.
This version makes the process, timeframe, responsibilities and expected evidence clear.
Importantly, it also keeps documentation proportionate. The goal is not to produce more paperwork. The goal is to use reflection to improve practice.
Create a simple quality rhythm
QIPs are more likely to stay active when they become part of the regular rhythm of the service.
A focused 15-minute discussion each week or fortnight can be enough to maintain momentum.
During the review:
Restate the intended outcome.
Identify what has changed since the last discussion.
Examine one useful piece of evidence or feedback.
Discuss the current barrier or inconsistency.
Agree on the next action, responsible person and review date.
Progress notes should capture decisions, learning and next steps.
A useful progress note explains:
What was trialled.
What was observed.
What the team learned.
What will happen next.
Simply recording ongoing rarely provides meaningful evidence of improvement.
The real evidence is in the service
A well-written QIP can support assessment and rating, but no document can compensate for practice that is inconsistent or not understood by educators.
The strongest evidence of improvement is alignment.
Educators can explain the change.
Leaders can describe how it was supported.
Records show thoughtful follow-up.
Everyday practice reflects the intended outcome.
The QIP should make that journey easier to see and follow. It should not become the journey itself.
Less clutter. Clearer priorities. Visible ownership. Regular review.
That is what creates movement.
NEXT STEP
If your QIP has become large, static or difficult for educators to engage with, Early Years Practice Co. can help simplify the process, identify meaningful priorities and establish a review rhythm that results in visible improvement.
Explore Leadership & QIP Support or book a conversation.
EARLY YEARS PRACTICE CO.
Official reading
— ACECQA — Developing and reviewing your Quality Improvement Plan
— ACECQA — Guide to the National Quality Framework (March 2026)
Services must continue to retain records required under the National Law, National Regulations, other applicable legislation and organisational retention schedules. Simplifying a QIP does not authorise the deletion or disposal of required records.