In this article we argue, through a case study in a large, urban local authority in England, that local stakeholders in early years provision express a variety of perspectives on quality but are constrained by a national framework which promotes an "official" definition of quality. We offer a quality-defining model that captures the role of both "official" definitions and more pluralistic approaches to quality. Finally, we highlight mechanisms already in place in the structure of early years services that could offer social spaces for the quality-defining process to take place.