National child safety training

About national child safety training

Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of every child in ECEC is a shared national priority.

National child safety training is now mandatory for everybody working or volunteering in an ECEC service regulated under the NQF. The training is available only through Geccko – the Australian Government’s online learning platform for the ECEC sector.

The new 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:

• foundation training, available now
• advanced training, available from July 2026.

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.

The training is free and providers can access support to help staff to complete it.

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.

How to register for Geccko

You need a Geccko account to access and complete national child safety training.  

To ensure personal training completions can be tracked and reported correctly, each person must have their own Geccko account using a personal email. Generic or shared emails are not permitted.

For all information about Geccko – including registering, logging in, completing training, updating your details and account troubleshooting – visit the Geccko page. 

Foundation training

Foundation training is the first stage of national child safety training. It is available now.

Who needs to complete foundation training

Foundation training is mandatory for any person who works or volunteers in an ECEC service regulated under the NQF. This includes:

• the approved provider of the service
• each person with management or control of the service
• each nominated supervisor of the service
• each person in day-to-day charge of the service
• each Family Day Care educator employed or engaged by the service
• each staff member of the service
• each volunteer at the service
• each student who participates in the service.

This applies even to staff who do not work directly with children.

The requirement applies across all NQF-regulated service types, including:

• Centre Based Day Care
• Family Day Care
• Outside School Hours Care
• preschools and kindergartens
• occasional care.

While In Home Care and some Community Child Care Fund Restricted services are not regulated under the NQF, we encourage all staff to complete the training.

Training structure and duration

Foundation training consists of 2 courses:

• understanding child safety
• understanding and identifying child abuse and neglect.

You must complete both courses to complete foundation training. It is estimated to take approximately 2 hours to complete, although this will vary from learner to learner.

Please be aware that the training includes a high level of multimedia content, including video, audio, and accessibility modifications, to ensure it is comprehensive and inclusive. As a result, performance can sometimes vary depending on individual circumstances, such as the user’s device capability, browser version, or internet connection quality. These factors can affect how quickly content loads, even when the system itself is functioning correctly. Each video includes an onscreen transcript within the course, which can be used if video content does not display correctly.

When to complete foundation training

All existing staff must complete foundation training by 27 August 2026. Staff entering the sector from 14 August 2026 must complete foundation training by whichever occurs earlier:

• 27 August 2026, or
• 14 days from when they are employed by the service, or
• before they work directly with children.

Ongoing, staff must complete foundation training once every 2 years.

How to access and complete foundation training

National child safety training must be completed in Geccko, the Australian Government’s official training platform for the sector. Child safety training delivered through other platforms or providers does not meet the mandatory requirement.

To access and complete foundation training:

1. Register for Geccko: You must have your own Geccko account using a personal email address.
2. Enrol in foundation training: Log in to Geccko and select national child safety training from the homepage.
3. Complete the 2 foundation courses in order: You must complete Course 1 before Course 2 unlocks.
4. Download your completion certificate: Once you have completed both foundation courses, you can download your completion certificate.

Is Geccko the same as JW Gecko/Gecko 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 

Managing progress

You don’t need to complete the training in one sitting – you can pause, save your progress and return at any time.

Learners who wish to take their time to progress through the training should take care to:

• 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 both courses of foundation training, you can download a completion certificate from Geccko. Providers should ask staff to share their certificate as evidence of completion. Each certificate includes a unique certificate number.

For instructions on downloading your completion certificate, visit the Geccko page.

Advanced training

Certain people must also complete advanced training. Advanced training will be available from July 2026.

We will provide information about advanced training ahead of its release.

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 material. They are not part of the mandatory training requirement. 

The companion materials will be available soon 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.

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.

Some jurisdictions may also offer training support. Contact your regulatory authority for more information.

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 soon apply for a professional development subsidy to help cover the cost of wages while staff complete national child safety training.

Find out more about the professional development subsidy to support national child safety training.

Reporting and compliance

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.

Legal requirement

The National Law and Regulations have now been updated to mandate national child safety training.

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.

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.