Actions arising from special Education Ministers Meeting 22 August 2025
Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of every child in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is a shared national priority.
Governments across Australia have come together to strengthen safety, improve quality, protect children.
Together, we are building a system where safety is embedded in every aspect of ECEC through:
- robust regulation
- aligned decision-making
- a deep commitment to safeguarding children.
The vast majority of educators are professionals doing the right thing while educating and caring for our youngest Australians. While the National Quality Framework (NQF) provides a strong and effective foundation for ECEC, ongoing efforts are essential to further strengthen safeguards that ensure the safety and wellbeing of every child.
This page shares the joint actions governments are taking to build a safer early learning system – where every decision puts children first.
Child Safety Review – Decision Regulatory Impact Statement
Following extensive consultation, Education Ministers have agreed to a comprehensive package of reforms. These are outlined in a Decision Regulation Impact Statement (DRIS).
The reforms aim to address critical areas of child safety, including digital device use, staff conduct, and physical environments, and include to:
- ensure the safe use of digital devices in ECEC services
- mandate child safety training for all staff, volunteers and students
- establish ‘inappropriate conduct’ as an offence for all staff and volunteers
- enable regulators to proactively share the identity of prohibited individuals and individuals subject to enforceable undertakings with their current approved providers
- broaden the range of regulatory responses available for addressing misconduct
- require individuals to hold a valid working with children check before starting work in an ECEC service
- mandate notification to providers and regulators of any changes to working with children check status
- remove the ability to apply for service waivers related to regulation 115 – premises designed to facilitate supervision
- allow the effective identification, monitoring and regulation of ‘related providers’
- extend the limitation period for offences to enable prosecution to be undertaken
- expand the powers of regulators to gather and share information with/from recruitment agencies
- require assessments of Family Day Care residences to include areas near the FDC residence that may be accessible to children
- enable authorised officers to access areas beyond the FDC service premises for a specific purpose or instance.
National Actions
In addition to the DRIS, Education Ministers agreed on comprehensive national actions to strengthen child safety and quality.
National Educator Register
A new register will give regulators clear visibility of who is working in the sector and where.
Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) and all states and territories will partner to develop the register. It will collect and maintain information about all staff working in ECEC including their:
- identity
- training and qualifications
- working with children checks.
Ministers agreed to mandate use of the register through National Law. Regulators will use it to monitor, identify and respond to risks associated with people working in ECEC.
The register will be further developed into a national educator registration scheme.
A testing phase will start in December 2025, with national rollout from February 2026.
It will be built by ACECQA.
Mandatory child safety training
Mandatory child safety training will ensure all educators have the skills, ability and authorising environment to detect, escalate or report abuse.
All ECEC staff will be required to complete new national child safety training.
The Australian Centre for Child Protection will develop a mandatory national child safety training package. The package will be free for ECEC staff. An Australian Government grants program will support workforce subsidies to help cover wage costs. Grants will be available for small to medium providers operating up to 25 services.
Mandatory training will be available from early 2026. Grants will be available from 1 July 2026.
National CCTV assessment
While closed-circuit television (CCTV) may be an important child safety measure, concerns exist about how it can be used safely.
A national assessment will explore the use of CCTV in ECEC in up to 300 services, with a strong focus on ethics, safety and transparency.
The assessment will provide a robust evidence base to inform nationally consistent best practice guidance on use and operation of CCTV in services, including privacy and storage considerations.
The Australian Centre for Child Protection will oversee design and implementation. A different independent expert will evaluate the assessment.
The assessment will take place in a range of service types, including those in regional, rural, and remote communities.
The assessment will start this year. A final report will be provided to Education Ministers in 2026.
Fast-tracking a ban on personal mobile devices
From 1 September 2025 all states will ban the use of personal mobile phones or digital devices capable of taking images or videos while working directly with children. States and territories will monitor compliance.
Unannounced spot checks and joint regulation expansion
The Child Care Subsidy (CCS) is a powerful lever to uplift quality and safety in ECEC.
Recently strengthened laws allow Australian Government authorised officers to conduct unannounced service visits and spot checks. These spot checks are expected to commence in November.
Additionally, the Australian Government will boost monitoring, including joint compliance work with states and territories.
Increased transparency for families
Making compliance and regulatory information available to families empowers them to make informed decisions about the service they choose.
From 1 September 2025, the following information will be published on StartingBlocks.gov.au:
- the date the local regulator last visited each service
- conditions placed on a provider or service by the regulator
- compliance breaches and enforcement actions
- a clearer link between a service and their provider.
Additionally, ACECQA will develop resources and education for families to help them better understand child safety and quality. Resources will become progressively available from September.
In October 2025, Education Ministers will receive further advice about requiring services to physically display compliance breaches.
Tripling penalties
Current penalties aren’t a strong enough deterrent and are not commensurate with other care industries.
Maximum penalties under the National Law and National Regulations will be tripled.
Increased penalties will be in place early in 2026, pending the passage of legislation.
Rapid assessment of safeguarding practices
ACECQA will run a rapid assessment into safeguarding practices and how these can be strengthened to enhance child safety.
This will involve reviewing how current requirements under the NQF are operationalised, including considering how services use the ‘under the roof’ approach.
A report shared with Education Ministers by December 2025.
Assessment and ratings visits
To ensure compliance with the National Quality Standards, state and territory regulators will:
- assess and rate services on average every 3 years
- assess and rate ‘working towards’ services more frequently.
Working with children checks
Ministers also noted the important progress made by the Attorneys-General in delivering urgent reform to improve national consistency and strengthen the quality of working with children checks.