Today, the Australian Government introduced legislation to strengthen regulation of the early childhood education and care sector.
The proposed legislation ensures quality and safety is a paramount consideration when assessing Child Care Subsidy (CCS) provider approval applications and for maintaining ongoing CCS provider and service approval.
The amendments make it clear that the Government expects all CCS-approved providers and services to be providing high-quality and safe care as a condition of gaining and maintaining approval to administer the CCS.
When assessing whether a provider or service meets this new consideration, we will work closely with State and Territory Regulatory Authorities and have regard to a number of sources of information including:
- the provider’s demonstrated commitment to the provision of high-quality education and care
- previous and current assessment ratings under the National Quality Standard
- serious incidents that have occurred or are occurring, complaints about, or circumstances that may have resulted in a serious incident
- any previous or current conditions placed on a provider or service in relation to quality and safety
- a provider’s record of non-compliance with the Family Assistance Law
- a provider’s record of non-compliance with laws of the Commonwealth, or a state or territory relating to quality and safety
- whether the providers record of quality and safety has improved over time, including the extent of improvement
- other matters relating to quality and safety that are relevant.
Providers or services who do not meet this quality and safety consideration can be subject to compliance action. This includes:
- suspension or cancellation of their CCS approval
- being refused CCS service applications
- having conditions placed on their approval, for example to address the quality and safety risk in a specified timeframe, or preventing expansion.
The proposed legislation also expands powers to publicise certain additional compliance actions taken against providers. We already publish information about some compliance actions including suspensions and cancellations. The legislation includes new powers to publish information about infringements, conditions placed on approvals, and refusals of applications for new services on our enforcement register. Information will also be published about the non-compliance that led to action to ensure public transparency.
The strengthened laws also introduce new powers of entry. This means Australian government authorised officers will be able to conduct unannounced service visits and spot checks to:
- check that CCS is being administered correctly
- allow safety concerns observed to be reported to state and territory regulators.
Changes will be made to streamline the delegation to apply for monitoring warrants and to appoint an appropriately qualified and experienced expert to conduct an independent audit of a large child care provider.
Providers can find out more about how to improve their quality and safety by:
- contacting their state or territory regulator
- visiting ACECQA’s website.
The legislation also introduces the direct gap fee collection measure. From 1 January 2026, Family Day Care and In Home Care providers must collect gap fees directly from families. This means that educators in these services will no longer collect the gap fee on behalf of providers. This change was previously announced in 2024, and the commencement date deferred to 1 January 2026 in direct response to sector feedback to allow more time to transition.
Changes are subject to the passage of legislation.
For more information, read the Ministers' media release.