Policy to practice: drop-off and pick-up times as ‘barometers of quality’ in assessment and rating of Australian early childhood education and care services

Abstract Each week, over a million Australian children are dropped-off and picked-up from an early childhood education and care (ECEC) service. The transitions between caregivers that occur at these times present opportunities to directly observe relationships between children, families, and educators at a point of potential stress. In this paper we converge analyses of two data sources to ask whether such transitions are barometers of quality in ECEC services. First, using quantitative and qualitative methods we analyse Australia’s Guide to the National Quality Framework to understand the extent to which policy identifies drop-off and pick-up transitions as markers of quality. Using content analysis, we then examine observational field notes from assessors (N = 27) taken when applying this standard in assessment and rating of ECEC services. We identify that drop-off and pick-up times are rich sources of information about relational quality that are identified in policy as barometers of ECEC quality yet infrequently observed in quality assessment practice.