National child safety training in Geccko is mandatory for people working or volunteering in an early childhood education and care (ECEC) service.
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This is the Australian Government Geccko training portal.
It is not affiliated with JWGeckoTM/GeckoTM Learning.
Overview
National child safety training is mandatory for people working or volunteering in ECEC.
Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of every child in ECEC is a shared national priority.
The training supports all people involved in ECEC to:
- meet their legal child safety obligations
- strengthen safeguarding practice
- reduce harm to children.
The training is available only through Geccko – the Australian Government’s online learning platform for the ECEC sector. It is free and providers can access support to help staff to complete it.
The training has been developed by the Australian Centre for Child Protection (ACCP) in partnership with the Queensland Government, on behalf of all Australian states and territories and the Australian Government.
This is a National Child Safety Reform initiative. All Education Ministers agreed to new mandatory national child safety training at a special purpose meeting in August 2025.
Who is the training for?
National child safety training applies to everyone who works or volunteers at an ECEC service regulated under the:
- National Quality Framework (NQF)
- Child Care Subsidy Minister’s Rules 2017 (Minister’s Rules).
This includes:
- Centre Based Day Care
- Family Day Care
- In Home Care
- Outside School Hours Care
- preschools and kindergartens.
What does the training involve?
National child safety training consists of:
- Foundations of child safety
- Course 1: Understanding child safety
- Course 2: Understanding and identifying child abuse and neglect
- Advanced child safety
- Course 3: Creating child safe cultures through everyday practice
- Course 4: Responding to safeguarding concerns
- Course 5: Leading and governing child safety
Courses 1, 2, 3 and 4 are available now. Course 5 is expected to be available from 30 September 2026.
Which courses do I need to complete?
The courses you must complete depends on your role within the service.
| Role | Foundation training (courses 1 and 2) | Advanced training (courses 3 and 4) | Advanced training (course 5) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Persons with management or control | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Nominated supervisors | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Persons in day-to-day charge | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Staff members who work directly with children | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Other staff members who do not work directly with children | ✅ | ||
| Volunteers and students | ✅ |
Use the role descriptions below if you need help identifying which role applies to you.
Persons with management or control (PMC)
A person within or outside the approved provider who:
- manages the delivery of the provider’s services, or
- has significant influence over the planning, direction or control of the activities or delivery of the service.
Nominated supervisors
A person who has been nominated as the nominated supervisor of a service and has consented to this nomination.
Persons in day-to-day charge
A person who has been appointed as a person in day-to-day charge of a service and has consented to this appointment.
Staff who work directly with children
A staff member who at any time is:
- physically present with children, and
- is directly engaged in providing education and care to children as part of their role.
Staff who do not work directly with children
A staff member who:
- is not physically present with children, and
- is not directly engaged in providing education and care to children.
Volunteers
A person with an unpaid role in the delivery of ECEC on a regular or semi‑regular basis. This may be frequent or infrequent, but is distinct from:
- a one‑off occasion
- a visitor to the service
- a parent, family member or carer of a child at the service.
When determining whether a volunteer arrangement is regular or semi‑regular, providers should:
- use their professional judgement
- take a risk management approach, with the paramount consideration being the safety and wellbeing of children
- consider whether Working with Children Check or Working with Vulnerable People requirements apply to that arrangement in their jurisdiction.
Students
A person who is:
- completing a supervised placement in an ECEC service, and
- enrolled in, and completing, an approved ECEC qualification.
This does not include high school students undertaking work experience who are not working towards an approved ECEC qualification.
Undertaking an ECEC VET qualification?
If you are studying an ECEC vocational education and training (VET) qualification, you will complete child safety and child protection content as part of your studies.
Completing these units does not replace the national child safety training requirement. Students must still complete the required training through Geccko.
HumanAbility is reviewing ECEC VET qualifications to help ensure future child safety content aligns with and complements national child safety training.
When do I need to complete training?
Foundation training
Anyone working or volunteering at a service before 14 August 2026 must complete foundation training by 27 August 2026.
Anyone who starts working or volunteering at a service on or after 14 August 2026 must complete foundation training by whichever occurs first:
- before they start working directly with children at the service
- within 14 days of being employed at the service.
Advanced training
You do not need to complete advanced training on launch day. Under National Law, you have plenty of time to complete the training.
Anyone who is required to complete advanced training must do so within 6 months of course 5 being published.
People who start working in the sector after course 5 is published must complete advanced training within 3 months of their start date.
Refresher training
Ongoing, staff must complete refresher training once every 2 years.
How to get help with your Geccko account
If you need help with your Geccko account or are experiencing technical issues:
- call 1300 615 262 to hear a message
- complete our online enquiry form and we will reach out to you – this is the fastest way to get support.
You do not have to complete the training immediately. Under National Law, everyone has plenty of time to complete the training.
Managing your training in Geccko
National child safety training is completed in Geccko. Child safety training delivered through other platforms or providers does not meet the mandatory requirement.
Is Geccko the same as JWGeckoTM/GeckoTM Learning?
No, these are different platforms. National child safety training is available only on Geccko, the Australian Government’s online learning platform for the ECEC sector. Please do not register for national child safety training through any other provider or platform. Visit JWGeckoTM/GeckoTM.
How to register
You need a Geccko account to access and complete the training.
To ensure personal training completions can be tracked and reported correctly, each person must:
- have their own Geccko account
- use a personal email.
Generic or shared emails are not permitted.
For help with registering, logging in and using Geccko, visit the Geccko page.
Completing training
Log in to Geccko and select national child safety training from the homepage. Select and enrol in the courses required for your role.
Load times
The training includes a high level of multimedia content, including video, audio, and accessibility modifications, to ensure it is comprehensive and inclusive.
Performance may vary depending on your device, browser or internet connection.
Transcripts are available if video content does not display correctly.
Managing progress
You don’t need to complete the training in one sitting – you can pause, save your progress and return at any time.
To avoid losing progress:
- use the ‘Exit course’ button at the top right
- close the browser tab
- click ‘Continue’ in the Viewing Activity popup.
Do not leave the training open and unused for long periods as this risks losing your progress.
Evidence of completion
After completing training, you can download a completion certificate from Geccko.
Separate certificates are issued for:
- Foundations of child safety – courses 1 and 2
- Advanced child safety – courses 3 and 4
- Advanced child safety – course 5 (when available).
The number of certificates you need depends on the training required for your role. Refer to the course matrix above.
For instructions on downloading your completion certificate, visit the Geccko page.
Companion materials
National child safety training is accompanied by companion materials in a range of downloadable formats, like videos, booklets and information sheets. These materials are designed to help services develop on-the-ground communities of practice. They are not part of the mandatory training requirement.
Access the companion materials on the ACCP website.
Organisations may not use the training or its content to design additional training. National child safety training is available only through Geccko.
Training support
Child Care Subsidy (CCS) approved providers can access support to help staff complete training.
Support options apply across both foundation and advanced training. Providers should plan how they use available support to manage training requirements across both.
You can only claim one type of support for the same hours of mandatory training. This means you cannot claim both CCS for a service closure and the professional development subsidy for individual staff to complete the training.
Service closures
Providers can claim CCS for up to 5 hours each year, after 5 pm, while they close to complete national child safety training. Providers will have record keeping obligations.
Centre Based Day Care and Outside School Hours Care
Services can close for part of the day from 5 pm onwards, for up to 5 hours per calendar year.
The closure must finish by the service’s normal closing time.
Family Day Care and In Home Care
The 5-hour annual cap applies per individual educator.
Each educator can be unavailable between 5 pm and normal closing time (no later than midnight), for up to 5 hours per calendar year.
Find out more about service closures to support national child safety training.
Professional development subsidy
Providers can apply for a professional development subsidy to help cover the cost of wages while staff complete national child safety training.
Check availability and find out more about the professional development subsidy.
Provider responsibilities
Determining who needs to complete training
Providers are responsible for determining:
- who needs to complete national child safety training at their service
- which courses each person needs to complete.
This should be based on:
- a person’s role and duties
- the regularity of their engagement
- the level of contact they may have with children
- their professional judgement and child‑safety risk assessment.
If you are unsure, you should take a precautionary approach and contact your state or territory regulatory authority for advice.
Managing completion and evidence
Providers are responsible for ensuring their staff complete national child safety training.
Due to privacy protections, we cannot share training records directly with providers or other groups such as tertiary institutions.
Providers should ask staff to share their certificate as evidence of completion. Each certificate includes a unique certificate number.
Tertiary institutions may request that students provide their certificate of completion where this is required for placement or assurance processes.
If additional evidence is required, you may ask learners to provide a screenshot or download of their training history from Geccko. To access this information, learners should:
- log in to Geccko
- go to the My Learning tab
- select Training history
- select Completions
- take a screenshot of the page or download their training history summary.
Recording training in the worker register
Providers must record completion of national child safety training in the National Worker Register for all staff and volunteers.
PMCs who do not perform any other role are not included in the register. You must still retain evidence of completion for these people.
You must record foundation and advanced training separately. You should only record advanced training once all required courses have been completed.
All staff should keep copies of their completion certificates.
Understanding the legal requirement
National child safety training is mandatory under:
- the National Law and Regulations
- the Child Care Subsidy Minister’s Rules 2017 and Child Care Subsidy Secretary’s Rules 2017 (for services not regulated under the NQF).
State and territory regulatory authorities, supported by ACECQA, oversee compliance with National Law requirements, including national child safety training.
Find out more about National Law training requirements, including whether you also need to complete child protection training, on ACECQA’s website. For jurisdiction specific requirements, contact your regulatory authority.
We oversee compliance with the Minister’s Rules for services that are not regulated by NQF. Learn more about Family Assistance Law quality and safety regulation.
Privacy and security
We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). These require us to:
- collect only the information we need
- inform you about how it will be used
- ensure it is stored securely.
Read more about how the department handles personal information.
Read the Geccko privacy statement.
The Australian Government also has strict security requirements for all IT systems that handle personal information. Under the Protective Security Policy Framework:
- agencies must protect government information and minimise security risks
- systems must align with the Australian Signals Directorate’s Information Security Manual (ISM), which sets out cybersecurity controls to protect data from cyber threats.
We have ensured that Geccko meets these requirements. The platform provider, Acorn:
- complies with recognised industry security standards
- follows strong security practices to safeguard sensitive information.
Read more about Acorn’s security standards on their Trust Centre page.
More information
Access the training
To access and complete national child safety training, register or log in to Geccko.
To learn more about Geccko, visit the Geccko page.
Use the online enquiry form if you need help with:
- account and access issues
- course access and tracking issues
- browser, device and connectivity issues
- other general account enquiries.
Training requirements
For more information about training requirements and how they apply in your state or territory, visit the ACECQA website or contact your regulatory authority.
Training contents and development
To learn more about how the training was developed, visit the Australian Centre for Child Protection website.
Help spread the word
Use our communication toolkit to support registration and completion of national child safety training.