New Child Safety Rules
From 1 September 2025, there will be stricter rules when it comes to child safety at education and care services. See what’s changing.
BY HEJIRA CONVERY, KINDICARE
Whether you’re selecting an early learning service, or are settled in at a centre, child safety is a number one priority.
You need to be certain that your little one will be well supervised and wonderfully cared for in your absence, and there are rules in place to ensure this happens.
Under the Education and Care Services National Regulations, childcare providers are legally obliged to look after children's safety, and these rules are about to get a little stronger.
At the federal government’s request, the Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) has completed a Child Safety Review.
And on the back of this, Education Ministers around the nation have agreed to amend the National Regulations and the National Quality Standard to bring in stronger, mandatory child safety measures.
These changes aren’t huge, however, any strengthening of child safety rules is good news, and the federal and state Education Ministers are meeting next week to talk about child safety some more.
For now, we know that from 1 September 2025, changes to the National Regulations mean that:
1. There will be new requirements for the safe use of digital technologies and online environments.
Services will need to have clear policy and procedures for the safe use of CCTV and digital devices, plus a safe approach when it comes to images and videos of children, and parents’ consent to them.
2. Abuse allegations will have to be reported within 24 hours.
Currently, this has to happen within seven days, but the rule change means that approved providers must notify their regulatory authority about any allegations, complaints or incidents of physical or sexual abuse to a child at the service much sooner.
3. Vaping substances and vaping devices won’t be allowed in early education and care services.
At the moment, services must be free of tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs, so the vaping rule change is a common sense extension of this.
Then, from 1 January 2026, the National Quality Standard will be slightly reworded to ‘sharpen the focus’ on child safety.
You can see the changes here, and if you’re interested, ACECQA has also released two new Child Safety Guides for childcare providers:
- The NQF Child Safe Culture Guide, and
- The NQF Online Safety Guide.
Going forward, Australia’s Education Ministers are united in wanting to strengthen child safety in early childhood education and care services.
The new Minister for Early Childhood Education, Dr Jess Walsh, has gone on record saying, “The Australian Government is absolutely committed to ensuring that children have a positive, rewarding and safe early education experience to get the best possible start in life.”
So, it will be interesting to see which additional actions may emerge from the Education Ministers’ child safety discussions next week.
And all of this reinforces the importance of sending your child to a quality service, where dedicated and professional educators have child safety front of mind at all times.
