TWO out of three Tasmanian childcare centres have failed to meet national quality controls -- including kids' health and safety standards.
But the sub-standard centres will not be given a deadline to come up to scratch.
Official data to be released today reveals that 17 out of the 26 Tasmanian centres assessed under the national quality benchmarks have been rated as "working towards" the standards.
The 65 per cent failure rate is well above the national average of 44 per cent.
But one in four of the Tasmanian centres "exceeds" the national standards and will now be able to apply for an official "excellent" rating.
Parents will be able to check the "report card" for individual childcare services today, when the Australian Children's Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) publishes the first inspection results on its website.
ACECQA has assessed 1620 childcare services nationally -- 13 per cent of the total.
It has found one in four childcare providers nationally does not meet the national standard for children's health and safety.
One in three is below the standard for "educational program and practice" or for "physical environment".
And at least one in 10 does not meet the minimum staffing requirements, while one in six is below-standard for "relationships with children".
Childcare centres are being marked in seven areas -- education, health and safety, physical environment, staffing, relationships with children, partnerships with the community and leadership. If they fail in just one field, they get a low "working towards" rating.
News Ltd revealed on April 8 that barely half the nation's childcare centres met the tough new standards, based on preliminary data.
ACECQA board chairwoman Rachel Hunter yesterday said centres would not be given a deadline to meet the quality standards.
"This does raise the bar on quality," she said.
"There is no time limit in the national law for a service to (attain) a rating of meeting the national standard."
Federal Childcare Minister Kate Ellis said the publication of centres' ratings was a "a watershed day for high quality childcare in Australia".
"For the very first time, parents will be able to know exactly how their local childcare centre is tracking against national standards," she said.
"This is the first tranche of ratings to show up and we expect a significant roll out over the next year."
Ms Ellis yesterday launched a trial in Brisbane of the government's $5.5m program to make childcare more flexible for shift workers.
Australian Childcare Alliance president Gwynn Bridge said Australia did not have enough childcare workers for all centres to comply with new staffing ratios next year.
"The bar is set very high and we've had such little time to implement (the changes)," she said.
"All the bells and whistles don't necessarily make a centre the best one for education and care".
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