National legislation to strengthen child safety laws has been passed as part of a commitment by all Education Ministers.
The Early Childhood Legislation (Child Safety) Amendment Bill 2025 passed through the Victorian Parliament.
The bill will give effect to key recommendations from:
- the Child Safety Review
- national actions agreed by Education Ministers in August and October 2025.
Key reforms include:
- making the safety, rights and best interests of children the paramount consideration in the operation of an education and care service
- establishment of a national early childhood educator register and requirement for providers of National Quality Framework (NQF) approved services to enter and maintain their workforce information in the register for access by the regulatory authorities
- mandating only service-issued devices for taking images or videos of children
- mandating no personal devices when working directly with children (centre-based)
- mandating child safety and child protection training for all staff, volunteers and students
- establishing ‘inappropriate conduct’ as an offence
- enabling regulatory authorities to proactively share the identity of prohibited individuals and individuals subject to enforceable undertakings with their current approved provider
- broadening the range of regulatory responses available for addressing misconduct
- removing the ability to apply for ongoing service waivers related to regulation 115 – premises designed to facilitate supervision
- allowing the effective identification, monitoring and regulation of ‘related providers’
- making it an offence for anyone subject to a prohibition notice to give a recruitment agency false or misleading information about their prohibition notice
- expanding the powers of regulatory authorities to gather and share information with and from recruitment agencies
- extending the limitation period for offences to enable prosecution to be undertaken, including a ‘stop the clock’ provision for prosecuting offences
- a three-fold increase to all maximum penalties under the NQF
- expanding the use of Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs), and
- requiring individuals to hold an approved/valid working with children check (WWCC) before starting work and mandate notification of any changes to WWCC to approved providers and regulatory authorities.
Additional measures for Family Day Care (FDC) include:
- requiring assessments of FDC residences to include areas near the residence that may be accessible to children
- enabling authorised officers to access the FDC service premises and areas beyond residence for monitoring and compliance or investigation of offences or alleged offences.
Most amendments will begin on 27 February 2026. Some provisions will take effect earlier.
Amendments to the statute of limitations will occur the day after Royal Assent. This is anticipated by 9 December 2025.
Changes to maximum penalties and infringements will apply from 1 January 2026.
These reforms reflect a national commitment to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children in ECEC.