Child safety in early childhood education and care: information for families

Information for families to understand what child safety looks like. Includes the measures in place to protect their child at early childhood education and care (ECEC) services.

Steps to support child safety

It is important that all children and families, including those with diverse needs and backgrounds, feel safe at ECEC services.

Parents and carers can take action by learning more and asking their services about child safety in ECEC settings.

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Before enrolling

Visit Choosing an early childhood service for:

questions you can consider asking a service
documentation that should be on display.

While enrolled at a service

Look for and ask your service about the actions they are taking to put children’s safety first.

A child safe service will:

always put children’s safety, rights and best interests first
proactively identify, monitor and mitigate child safety risks
understand and apply child safety laws and requirements
have policies and procedures to safeguard children in physical and online environments
encourage families to raise any concerns
respond appropriately to disclosures and suspicions of harm, and use trauma-informed practices
talk to children about their rights, and how they can raise concerns with adults
teach children about body safety in an age-appropriate way
embed a commitment to child safety throughout the service
involve families and local communities to create a child safe culture.

Ask your service:

for a copy of their Child Safety Wellbeing Policy
to confirm all staff have valid Working with Children Checks
what their child ratios are
how to raise concerns and how they respond to complaints
about their quality rating.

Raising concerns

For advice for families on how to make complaints about an early childhood service, refer to How to make a complaint.

Anyone with concerns about the safety of children in ECEC services should call the Regulatory Authority on 1300 307 415.

Anyone with concerns about an incident or the operation of a service should raise these immediately. This includes any concerns about:

the safety, health or wellbeing of children
staff behaviours and practices.

You have a number of ways to raise these concerns. You can also seek advice from the Regulatory Authority at any time.

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1Speak to the service

Talk to the director/manager or nominated contact directly.
The service should have a clear process for raising concerns and making complaints.
The service should deal with all complaints positively, constructively and professionally.

2Raise with the Approved Provider

If you are not satisfied with the response, at some services you can escalate your complaint with the provider that operates the service.
For example, this might be the company that owns a childcare service, or the local council that runs a kinder.

3Contact the Regulatory Authority

You can contact the Regulatory Authority on 1300 307 415.
You can make a complaint directly to the Regulatory Authority. The Regulatory Authority takes all notifications seriously and investigates.
You can make a report anonymously.

By law, all ECEC services must notify the Regulatory Authority in the following situations:

if there is a serious incident
if there is an incident or allegation of physical or sexual abuse or
any complaint alleging that a serious incident has occurred.

The Regulatory Authority will investigate after these complaints are made.

If you believe an offence has been committed, you should contact Victoria Police.

Early childhood regulation in Victoria

The Regulatory Authority regulates approved early childhood education and care services.

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Victorian Early Childhood Regulatory Authority (VECRA)

In Victoria, all ECEC services are regulated by the Victorian Early Childhood Regulatory Authority (VECRA). VECRA is an independent regulator.

VECRA regulates Victorian early childhood services under the following regulatory schemes:

the National Quality Framework

the Education and Care Services National Law (National Law)
the Education and Care Services National Regulations (National Regulations)
the National Quality Standard

the Victorian Children’s Services regulatory scheme:

the Children’s Services Act 1996, and
the Children’s Services Regulations 2020.

regulation of the Child Safe Standards (CSS) for all early childhood services in Victoria under the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005. Read about the functions and powers of VECRA.

National Quality Framework

Most ECEC services are regulated under the National Quality Framework (NQF) scheme. This includes:

Long day care
Standalone kindergarten services
Family day care
Outside School Hours Care
Vacation Care The NQF is a national regime that operates in all states and territories across Australia.

The quality of early childhood services is measured against 7 quality areas and rated under this system.

Children’s services regulated under Victorian law

A small number of services offer care to children on a non-regular, or ad hoc basis. They are referred to as ‘Children’s services’, and include:

limited hours services (where children attend for a short period of time)
occasional care services
early childhood intervention services
mobile services
school holiday care programs that operate for less than 28 days a year
certain services that formerly received funding under the Commonwealth Government’s Budget Based Funded program or indigenous Advancement Program and were not funded for Child Care Subsidy. Read more at: Children’s services regulated under state law

Child safeguarding and child safety

The Victorian Government has a range of schemes and legal obligations that aim to protect children from the risk of harm, abuse and neglect.

These obligations apply to:

approved providers of early childhood services
service leadership (including nominated supervisors)
educators and staff
volunteers
students on placements.

Below is a list of the initiatives and requirements in place to make early childhood education and care safer for children in Victoria.

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The Child Safe Standards – early childhood services

All early childhood services in Victoria must comply with the Child Safe Standards. QARD is the integrated sector regulator of the Child Safe Standards in the early childhood sector.

Read about how we regulate the Child Safe Standards.

The following authorities work together as co-regulators of child safety:

Quality Assessment and Regulation Division (QARD)(opens in a new window): regulatory authority for early childhood services
Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP)(opens in a new window)
Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT)(opens in a new window): regulatory authority for the teaching profession
Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA)(opens in a new window): regulatory authority for schools

Legal obligations to protect children

Staff working in ECEC services have legal obligations under a range of schemes. These schemes work together to protect children.

The different legal obligations to protect children include:

duty of care obligations
obligations under early childhood legislation
the reportable conduct scheme
criminal offences
the Child Safe Standards.

Mandatory reporting

All early childhood workers, including approved providers and volunteers, are mandatory reporters.

This means that if a mandatory reporter believes a child needs to be protected from physical injury or sexual abuse, that person must make a report to Victoria Police or Child Protection.

Reportable conduct

The Reportable Conduct Scheme requires organisations involving children to notify the Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) of alleged abuse by workers or volunteers.

Approved providers of early childhood services must respond to allegations of child abuse (and other child-related misconduct) made against their workers and volunteers.

Child information sharing scheme

The Child Information Sharing Scheme (CISS) makes it easier for professionals who work with children and families to share information.

The scheme shows these professionals the full picture of the children they work with. It helps them to understand what they can share, and how to protect a family’s privacy.

Read about the Child Information Sharing Scheme.

Improving child safety in Victoria

The Victorian Government is prioritising ways to improve and strengthen child safety in ECEC settings.

More safeguards are being put in place and work is under way to make national systems and laws stronger to keep children safe.

In Victoria, there is now a register of the ECEC workforce, and new restrictions on how personal electronic devices are used in services.

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Key actions to improve child safety

The government is implementing all 22 recommendations of a recent review into child safety in Victoria. This includes:

creating an independent and stronger early childhood services regulator. The regulator will visit services to conduct checks more often
improving systems and checks so people who do the wrong thing can be quickly detected and prevented from working with children again
improving child safety training and supports for ECEC professionals
providing parents and carers with fact-based information about what to be aware of and how to report any concerns. To learn more about the review and the government’s response, refer to Rapid Child Safety Review.

Personal electronic devices ban

Managing and monitoring how images or videos of children are taken, stored and shared is difficult on personal devices. This is why, in most situations, only service-issued devices will be used by ECEC staff.

Services will also have policies and procedures for taking, storing and sharing photos and videos. They will seek your permission to take images and videos of your child.

Learn more about Child safe practices for digital technologies and personal electronic devices.

Updated 27 March 2026

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Child safety in early childhood education and care: information for families

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Steps to support child safety

A child safe service will:

Ask your service:

Raising concerns

Early childhood regulation in Victoria

Child safeguarding and child safety

Improving child safety in Victoria

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Child safety in early childhood education and care: information for families

On this page

Steps to support child safety

A child safe service will:

Ask your service:

Raising concerns

Early childhood regulation in Victoria

Child safeguarding and child safety

Improving child safety in Victoria

Support and resources available

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