Child safety and compliance

Early childhood education and care services are required to create and maintain safe environments for children.

Everyone has a role in keeping children safe in education and care services:

• Approved providers (who operate services) must create and maintain a child safe culture in all aspects of their service environments. This requirement covers both physical and online environments.
• Services need to be proactive in creating and maintaining a child safe culture in their day to day practice. This can be achieved through both the relationships and interactions educators have with children, and the documents (like policies and procedures that support their work.
• State and territory regulatory authorities monitor services and providers to ensure they comply with their legal obligations and meet national standards for safety, quality, and compliance.
• ACECQA overseas the implementation of the National Quality Framework (also known as the NQF) across the country, and provides resources to support approved providers and services to create and maintain child safe environments.

State and territory regulatory authorities monitor approved providers and their services to assess and promote compliance with the National Law and Regulations. Monitoring is a proactive way of assessing and influencing service quality.

Regulatory authorities may identify non-compliance through direct monitoring of services and approved providers or from complaints received directly from the public.

Regulatory authorities actively monitor services and approved providers through:

• Assessing and rating services against the National Quality Standard (NQS). This may involve the service completing a self-assessment and staff from the regulatory authority visiting the service. Assessment and rating may also include interviews, phone calls, emails and video conferences between the regulatory authority and the service or approved provider. Assessment and rating encourages continuous improvement by engaging the approved provider and the service in a process of self-evaluation, as well as providing a detailed report of their performance against the NQS.
• Short notice or unannounced visits to services. These visits are used to monitor a service’s compliance with the National Law and Regulations; investigate complaints, incidents, or risks to children's safety and wellbeing; and observe routine daily service operations. Sometimes, little or no prior notice is given to the service before a visit, so that daily practice can be viewed.
• Longer notice monitoring visits to services. These visits encourage providers and others to comply with their obligations and provides preparation time for the visit. For example, ensuring certain paperwork is readily available or particular staff members are present.
• Targeted campaigns. These campaigns look at the way services and approved providers are complying with a specific issue of concern that is a priority to the regulatory authority.

Look for the ‘Last visited date’ in the Regulatory activities section on their service page on StartingBlocks.gov.au.

Consequences for not complying with (breaching) the National Law and Regulations vary based on the risk posed to children and the provider’s history of compliance.

Your state or territory regulatory authority monitors education and care services and their compliance with the National Quality Framework (NQF).

If non-compliance is identified, one tool available to regulatory authorities is enforcement actions under the Education and Care Services National Law. Enforcement actions can be taken to protect children’s safety, health and wellbeing and may be made public depending on the circumstances.

Regulatory authorities take enforcement action to promote the health, safety and wellbeing of children, including when a provider or service isn’t following the National Law.

Regulatory authorities consider how serious the issue is, and if it is assessed as posing a serious risk to children, stronger enforcement actions may be taken. These can include prohibiting someone from working at a service, taking legal action, or cancelling a provider or service approval to operate.

These 6 types of enforcement actions are published on StartingBlocks.gov.au:

Conditions placed on a service or provider approval

Regulatory authorities can add conditions to a provider or service approval to require them to comply with specific requirements in addition to the National Law. For example, a service may only be allowed to care for children over 1 year old. These conditions are published on StartingBlocks.gov.au to help families understand important information about providers and their services.

If a condition has been issued by a regulatory authority, you will see a flag that says ‘Enforcement action issued’ on the provider or service page on StartingBlocks.gov.au. A pop up will then show the words ‘Condition imposed’.

Amendment of provider or service approval

Regulatory authorities can change a provider or service approval. For example, a service may be required to care for fewer children until certain issues are fixed (e.g. a water leak in a playroom). In more serious cases, the provider or service approval to operate may be suspended (see below).

If a provider or service approval has been amended by a regulatory authority, you will see a flag that says ‘Approval amended’ on the provider or service information page on StartingBlocks.gov.au. A pop up will then show the words ‘Approval amended’.

Suspension of provider or service approval

Regulatory authorities can suspend a provider or service approval to ensure children’s safety, health and wellbeing. For example, a service may be suspended from operating by the regulatory authority if it has not fixed issues posing a significant risk to children from a previous compliance notice/s.

If a provider or service approval has been suspended, you will see a flag that says ‘Enforcement action issued’ on the provider or service information page on StartingBlocks.gov.au. A pop up will then show the words ‘Notice of suspension issued’.

Compliance notices or directions

Regulatory authorities can give formal instructions to providers and services. These instructions make sure they are aware of their responsibilities, the requirements they haven’t met, what they need to fix and by when. For example, a regulatory authority may give a service a compliance notice if it doesn’t have an appropriate sun protection policy.

If a compliance notice has been issued by a regulatory authority, families will see a flag that says ‘Enforcement action issued’ on the provider or service page on StartingBlocks.gov.au. A pop up will then show the words ‘Compliance notice issued’.

The reason for the compliance notice is not shown on the StartingBlocks.gov.au website.

Emergency action notices

Regulatory authorities can give approved providers emergency action notices requiring them to fix serious safety issues at a service immediately. For example, if a broken gate is a risk to children’s safety, the service may be told to repair it straight away.

If an emergency action notice has been issued by a regulatory authority, you will see a flag that says ‘Enforcement action issued’ on the provider or service information page on StartingBlocks.gov.au. A pop up will then show the words ‘Emergency action notice issued’.

The reason for the emergency action notice is not shown on StartingBlocks.gov.au.

Enforceable undertakings
Regulatory authorities can make legally binding agreements with an approved provider or an individual. An enforceable undertaking sets out what an approved provider or individual agrees to do or stop doing to comply with the National Law. For example, an approved provider might agree to train all staff in health and hygiene practices.

If an enforceable undertaking has been arranged with a regulatory authority, you will see a flag that says ‘Enforcement action issued’ on the provider or service information page on StartingBlocks.gov.au. A pop up will then show the words ‘Enforceable undertaking issued’.

The reason for the enforceable undertaking is not shown on StartingBlocks.gov.au.

• Can I see your register of compliance actions against the service?
• Can I see your Code of Conduct and service philosophy?
• How does the service follow the Child Safe Organisation Principles?
• Does the service use the NQF Child Safe Culture and NQF Online Safety Guides?
• What behaviour guidance policies are in place at the service to promote children's wellbeing and safety? Can you give some examples of what this looks like at the service?
• What are the qualifications of the educators who will be caring for and educating my children?
• How many educators are still studying for their qualifications?
• What ongoing child safety/child protection professional development do staff participate in and how frequently does this occur?
• What is the staff turnover like?

Please note your service or provider may not be able to discuss some sensitive and confidential information, and it may not be able to be made publicly available.