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Child protection and child safety training in early childhood

Access mandatory child protection training and national child safety training.

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Overview

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) staff in Australia must complete child safety training and child protection training.

The free training assists staff to understand the child safety framework and requirements for keeping children safe.

Both child safety training and child protection training are mandated for specific roles under the National Law and National Regulations and must be completed by 27 August 2026.

See the Child Safety and Child Protection Training webpage for specific training requirements that apply in each jurisdiction.

Child protection training – Victoria

Staff and volunteers who work directly with children in ECEC settings in Victoria must complete EC PROTECT.

Nominated supervisors, persons in day-to-day charge of a service, Family Day Care coordinators, staff members who work directly with children and volunteers who work directly with children, including students, will need to complete EC PROTECT by 27 August 2026 and then every 12 months.

EC PROTECT is available on the Protecting children: Mandatory reporting and other obligations webpage.

Staff with a valid certificate demonstrating prior completion of PROTECT between 1 September 2025 and 27 February 2026 will be recognised as having completed the training requirements by the 27 August 2026 deadline.

Staff and volunteers who do not work directly with children will meet their child protection training requirement by completing the national child safety training (foundation modules).

The training is also available for free for other professionals that work with babies and young children, including Maternal Child and Health nurses and other health professionals.

Child safety training – National

Everyone working and volunteering in the ECEC sector, regardless of whether they work directly with children, must also complete national child safety training. This is different to the child protection training.

The national training was developed by the Australian Centre for Child Protection and is available on the Australian Government’s website.

The Australian Government webpage includes more information about the training, how to set up an account to access the training and support available for services.

Contact information

For training support regarding the EC PROTECT Child protection training in Victoria contact ec.protect@education.vic.gov.au.

For all other enquiries contact the Child Safety Division childsafetyreform@education.vic.gov.au.

Early childhood education and care

Updated 26 March 2026

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