Strengthening Child Safety in Early Childhood Education and Care
Australian governments are committed to ensuring the safety, health and wellbeing of children in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services, including centre-based and family day care (FDC) services.
Following extensive consultation and analysis, Education Ministers have agreed to major reform package to keep children safe in early childhood and to amend the National Law to make the safety, rights and best interests of children the paramount consideration for all decision makers in the ECEC system.
Key reforms outlined in the National Child Safety Review
Decision Regulation Impact Statement (DRIS).
The agreed reforms are those that will deliver the greatest improvements to child safety.
They reflect government and community expectations and prioritise the safety of children above all else.
Key reforms at a glance
The reforms aim to address critical areas of child safety, including digital device use, staff conduct, and physical environments, and include to:
- mandating the use of service-issued devices only for taking images or videos of children (in centre-based services only, mandating that personal devices that can take images or videos cannot be in the possession of any person while working directly with children)
- establishing ‘inappropriate conduct’ as an offence and broadening regulatory responses
- mandating the national child safety training for all staff, volunteers and students
- enabling Regulatory Authorities to proactively share the identity of prohibited individuals and individuals subject to enforceable undertakings with their current approved provider
- broadening the range of regulatory response available for addressing misconduct
- removing the ability to apply for service waivers related to regulation 115—premises designed to facilitate supervision
- requiring approved working with children checks prior to commencing any work in ECEC services and mandating notification of any changes to status
- extending the limitation period for offences to enable prosecution to be undertaken
- allowing the effective identification, monitoring and regulation of ‘related providers’
- expanding the powers of regulatory authorities to gather and share information with/from recruitment agencies.
Additional measures for FDC are to:
- require assessments of FDC residences to include areas near the residence that may be accessible to children
- enable authorised officers to access areas beyond the FDC service premises for a specific purpose or instance.
Education Ministers also announced additional national actions to further strengthen child safety in education and care services. These include:
- making the safety, rights and best interests of children the paramount consideration under National Law
- making use of the National Educator Register mandatory from February 2026
- national CCTV rapid assessment
- threefold blanket increase for all penalty amounts
- expansion of the number of offences where a penalty infringement notice can be applied
- a suite of changes to increase transparency for families (i.e. compliance actions and regulator visits)
- review of educator-to-child ratio practices (i.e. under the roof practices)
- staged approach to the development of a national educator register.
Why these reforms matter
These changes are designed to reduce risks and strengthen safeguards across the ECEC sector. The expected benefits include:
- reduced risk of harm through stricter regulations and better oversight
- clearer standards for behaviour, reporting, and regulatory responses
- enhancing trust and confidence in the ECEC sector by aligning with the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.
Implementation timeline
The reforms will be implemented in stages to allow adequate preparation and support.
Legislative amendments for the majority of the reforms are expected to be finalised by the end of 2025 with new laws to come into effect in 2026.
The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) and Regulatory Authorities will provide guidance, training, and resources to support a smooth transition.
Education and Care Services National Regulations will be implemented from
1 September 2025, including a requirement for services to have policies and procedures for the safe use of digital devices, a reduction in notification timeframes for reporting allegations and incidents of physical and sexual abuse from 7 days to 24 hours, and services to be free from the use of vaping devices and substances.
Background—overview of national public consultation
The Australian Children’s Education and Care Authority’s
Review of Child Safety Arrangements under the National Quality Framework (PDF, 2.3MB) (the Review), published in December 2023, highlights ongoing efforts to strengthen child protection in education and care settings.
A 6-week national public consultation was conducted from 28 April 2025 to 11 June 2025. Deloitte Access Economics, supported by the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC)—National Voice for Our Children, facilitated the process on behalf of all governments. Engagement methods included webinars, focus groups, surveys and submissions.
During consultation, SNAICC—National Voice for our Children, supported a culturally safe approach, and contributed to developing the considerations for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within each reform area of the DRIS.
More information
Read about the DRIS and other important national reforms on the
Australian Government Department of Education website.