Foundations of national child safety training is now available, marking a significant national step to strengthen child safety in early childhood education and care (ECEC).
Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of every child in ECEC is a shared national priority. New mandatory national training will support all people involved in ECEC to meet their legal child safety obligations, strengthen safeguarding practice, and reduce harm to children.
There are 2 components to national child safety training:
- foundation training, available now
- advanced training, available from July 2026.
Foundation training is mandatory for all people working or volunteering in ECEC services regulated under the National Quality Framework.
Staff have 6 months to complete foundation training. Ongoing, staff must complete foundation training once every 2 years.
Providers can access support to help their staff to complete the training.
The training has been developed by the Australian Centre for Child Protection, in partnership with the Queensland Government, on behalf of all Australian states and territories and the Australian Government.
The training is free and delivered through Geccko – the Australian Government’s online learning platform for the ECEC sector.
This is a National Child Safety Reform initiative, agreed by all Education Ministers to strengthen child safety arrangements across ECEC.
More information
People working or volunteering in ECEC can register or log in to Geccko to access the training.
Providers can read about support to complete training on our national child safety training page.
For more information about training requirements and how they apply in each state and territory, visit the ACECQA website or contact your regulatory authority.
To learn more about how the training was developed, visit the Australian Centre for Child Protection website.