For NSW early childhood services
Stay on top of compliance, not buried under it.
Cordance reads your policies and procedures against the National Law and Regulations, obligation by obligation. It shows where you are covered, where you are exposed, and exactly what to write to fix it. Then it keeps watching as the rules and your documents change.
18
required policy areas
100+
obligations tracked, each one cited
3
layers aligned: regulation, policy, procedure
Grounded in the National Regulations, the National Quality Standard and ACECQA guidance.
The regulation
Conduct of risk assessment for excursion
reg 101(2)“…a risk assessment must consider any water hazards, and if the excursion involves transporting children, the means of transport…”
Your policy
Excursion Policy · §4 Risk assessment
1 to strengthenCovers route, activities and supervision. Missing: water hazards and transport requirements.
Your procedure
Excursion day checklist SOP
carries it outChecked against the policy and directly against reg 101. Aligned.
Recommended fixcloses reg 101(2)
CopyAdd to §4 after clause 4.3: “The risk assessment will also consider any water hazards along the proposed route or at the destination, and the means of transport…”
- 1Reads the regulation
- 2Maps it to your documents
- 3Drafts the missing wording
- 4You paste it in. Covered.
Illustrative view. In your account, every finding cites the regulation it comes from.
How it works
From a folder of Word documents to a defensible position.
Upload your documents as they are
Word or PDF, policies and procedures alike, no sorting or filing first. The engine reads your documents the way an assessor would, then works out which required areas each one addresses.
Every obligation, checked
Each of the 18 policy areas required by regulation 168 is mapped obligation by obligation: covered, weak, misplaced or missing. Every finding cites the regulation it comes from.
Fix it, then keep it fixed
Every gap comes with suggested wording you can take straight into Word. When the regulation changes, or you upload a new version, coverage is rechecked automatically.
Watch it happen
Excursion Policy.docx
checking…- Coveredreg 100(1)Risk assessment carried out before authorisation is sought
- Coveredreg 101(1)Risk assessment identifies and assesses risks to any child
- Coveredreg 102(1)Written authorisation from a parent before the excursion
- Coveredreg 102(4)Authorisation states the date, destination and transport
- Needs workreg 101(2)Risk assessment considers water hazards and transport
- Coveredreg 99(4)Release of children only to a parent or authorised nominee
- + 6 more obligations checked
Recommended fixreg 101(2)
CopyAdd to §4 Risk assessment, after clause 4.3:
“The risk assessment will also consider any water hazards along the proposed route or at the destination, and the means of transport, including seatbelt requirements for each child travelling…”
Paste into Word, re-upload, watch it turn green
Illustrative view. In your account, every finding cites the regulation it comes from.
What you get
The core features.
Obligation-level assessment
Every extracted obligation checked against your documents with the evidence quoted back, so no verdict is ever a black box.
Recommended fixes
The missing wording drafted with exactly where it goes, so closing a gap takes minutes in Word, not a rewrite.
Read the source
The official regulation PDF with your coverage drawn onto every provision, so you never have to take our word for what the law says.
Procedure chain checks
Every SOP checked against its policy and directly against the regulation, so paper compliance has nowhere to hide.
Conflict detection
Documents telling staff two different things get caught and reworded, before an assessor or an incident finds them first.
Change watch
Amendments arrive flagged with the documents they touch, so you update before the change becomes a finding.
Estate map
Every area, policy and procedure on one live picture, so the broken link is the first thing you see, not the last.
Ask
Plain answers grounded in the regulation and your own documents with every claim cited, so you can check the answer, not just trust it.
Compliance Position Report
A one-click export for your Board, assessor or insurer with the audit trail behind it, so proving your position takes a print, not a week.
The full chain
Traced end to end, down to the procedures your staff actually follow.
Most tools stop at the policy. Cordance traces the whole chain: the regulation that imposes each obligation, the policy that answers it, and the SOP that puts it into practice. Advisory frameworks sit alongside the binding law: the same policies are read through the National Quality Standard, and through any framework you take on.
The step that matters is the one a link-by-link check misses. A procedure can follow your policy faithfully and still breach the regulation, so every SOP is read against its policy and directly against the regulation.
And the whole estate is drawn as a live map: the hierarchy from each regulation area down to each procedure. A policy with no procedure behind it is paper compliance. A procedure with no policy behind it is unmanaged risk. Both appear on the map as broken links, visible at a glance.
directly
Administration of medication
What the law requires before medication is given to a child
Medication Policy
Authorisation and verification before administering
Medication administration SOP
Two educators check the dosage against the authorisation
The check most tools miss: the procedure is also read directly against the regulation, because following the policy faithfully is not the same as following the law.
The whole estate, one live map
aligned open findings missing linkareas
policies
procedures
The policy promises it, nothing carries it out.
Change watch keeps the map live: an amendment to 168(2)(ha) commencing 1 October already flags the documents it touches, before it becomes a finding.
Why it holds up
Built to survive an assessor’s questions, not just a quick scan.
Obligation level, not checklist level
It never stops at “you have a medical conditions policy”. It checks that the policy sets out what regulation 90 actually requires of it, clause by clause.
Catches the technical breaches
Content in the wrong policy is still a breach. If your pick-up authorisations live in the enrolment policy, a keyword search says you are fine. Cordance does not.
Your authorised nominee pick-up procedure sits in the Enrolment Policy. Regulation 168(2)(f) requires it in Delivery and collection of children. Suggested rewording ready.
Graded against best practice
Coverage is graded weak, adequate or strong, anchored to the regulation, the NQS and official guidance. Not to a vendor opinion.
Watches for change
When the National Regulations move, you see which of your clauses are affected before it becomes a finding at your next Assessment and Rating.
Amendment to 168(2)(ha) commences 1 October. 2 of your policies are affected. Suggested updates drafted for review.
Two ways to run it
Run it yourself, or run it with us.
Same engine, two levels of support. Start self-service and bring us in later, or the other way around.
Self-service
Manage your own compliance
Upload your policies, review the findings, accept the suggested fixes and keep your audit trail current. Built for a Nominated Supervisor to run without training, in the gaps of a normal week.
- Free, complete check of one policy
- Per-service subscription covering every policy and SOP
- You stay the decision maker on every finding
Consultant-led
For groups and multi-centre providersWe run it with you
Our consultants run the full assessment, walk the findings through with you, redraft policies alongside your team and set your ongoing review cycles. Best practice done with you, not to you.
- Full assessment and remediation, done for you
- Ongoing reviews on your cadence, across every centre
- Assessment and Rating preparation support
The engine underneath
Built as an engine, not a checklist.
The regulation is loaded as data, never hard-coded. The same engine that reads the National Regulations today can hold any regulated industry’s framework tomorrow. Childcare is where we start, not where we stop.
Early childhood education
NSW
Aged care
National
NDIS providers
National
Financial services
National
See what your policies actually cover.
The first policy is free, the findings are specific, and nothing changes without your say-so.