New Safety Laws
The Department of Education is now able to cut funding to childcare services that are failing to meet safety and quality standards.
BY HEJIRA CONVERY, KINDICARE
Childcare safety and quality is incredibly important to us families, so it’s good to see the Early Childhood Education and Care (Strengthening Regulation of Early Education) Bill 2025 being approved by the House of Representatives and the Senate, and given Royal Assent.
This legislation now ensures that safety and quality is a ‘paramount consideration’ when childcare providers are assessed for their Child Care Subsidy approval.
The legislation then keeps safety and quality as a paramount consideration for maintaining Child Care Subsidy provider and service approval.
If a provider or service isn’t up to scratch when it comes to safety and quality, the legislation allows for strong compliance action to be taken against them.
Depending on the circumstances, this could mean that they have to meet certain conditions to get Child Care Subsidy approval, or may have their Child Care Subsidy approval suspended or cancelled.
So, this legislation gives the Department of Education the power to cut federal funding to childcare providers or services that don’t meet the quality and safety standards required of them.
And with the Child Care Subsidy representing about 70 per cent of the funding centres use to operate, there’s huge motivation to meet those standards.
This legislation also expands the powers of the Secretary of the Department of Education when it comes to information sharing.
The Secretary is now able to publicise actions taken against childcare providers, with details included.
For example, they can share why a provider didn’t get their new service approved, or what conditions have been placed on their Child Care Subsidy approval.
This is positive for families, because it gives us more knowledge (and thus, power) when choosing a childcare service.
And the Minister for Education, Jason Clare says, “If my Department imposes a condition on a centre and says, ‘You've got this time to get up to scratch,’ they have to tell the parents at that centre what's happening as well.”
The new legislation also provides broader powers when it comes to the monitoring of approved services.
Authorised officers of the Australian government are now able to do unannounced service visits and spot checks to check that the Child Care Subsidy is being administered in the right way, and to better support safety and quality in early childhood education and care.
You can also rest assured that this legislation isn’t the last action being taken by the government.
Jason Clare says they are working on a national educator register, which will track early childhood workers from centre to centre and state to state, so there’s clear intel about who’s worked where.
And in the next couple of weeks, Education Ministers from all the States and Territories will meet to talk about early childhood education and care.
