Child Protection Training Requirements: New Child Safety Training in Australia
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Child protection training requirements help ensure every child in early childhood education and care feels safe. In 2025, the Australian Government introduced new child protection laws that affect every education and care service across the country, and these changes will continue to roll out in 2026, affecting your qualifications, your legal obligations, and how often you need to refresh your certification.
Child Protection Training Requirements
Under the Education and Care Services National Law, you must complete your child protection training requirements if you are a nominated supervisor or the person responsible when the nominated supervisor is absent. The training course, CHCPRT025 Identify and Report Children and Young People at Risk, must be delivered by an accredited registered training organisation (RTO) and cannot be replaced by in-house training alone. If you completed your Certificate III or Diploma in Early Childhood Education and Care, you have likely already done one of the approved courses and should only be concerned with renewing your child protection training requirements for compliance.
From 27 February 2026, mandatory training expands to include all persons with management or control, nominated supervisors, persons in day-to-day charge, other staff, volunteers and students in the early childhood education and care sector.
What the New Child Safety Training Covers
Child protection training teaches you how to recognise when a child may be at risk and what to do about it. The training is designed to give you practical skills you can use in your daily work with children and families. Its content includes:
Signs of abuse and neglect: Identifying indicators of emotional abuse, physical abuse, child sexual abuse, neglect, domestic and family violence, and child-on-child abuse such as unexplained bruising or injuries, changes in behaviour, fear of certain adults, poor hygiene, or age-inappropriate sexual knowledge.
Mandatory reporting: Any staff members working in childcare can be a mandatory reporter. Training covers when and how to report suspected child abuse to child protection authorities. Each state or territory has its own reporting authority and procedures.
Legal duty of care: The training course explains your legal obligations to take reasonable steps to protect children from harm. This includes responding to disclosures, following child protection policies and procedures, and escalating concerns to appropriate authorities.
Responding and supporting children at risk: The training provides guidance on how to respond when a child discloses abuse to ensure their safety and well-being, and how to document concerns.
Child protection across cultures: Children come from diverse backgrounds and have different needs. Your child protection training requirements help you engage with children who have a disability, who come from culturally and linguistically diverse families, or who may face particular vulnerabilities.
From February 2026 child safety training package will also address topics such as creating a child safe culture, developing child safe standards and policies and procedures, and setting expectations for staff conduct.
Refresher Training Requirements
Your child protection training requirements is not something you can do once and forget about. The recent changes to child protection legislation are a clear example of why your knowledge needs to stay current.
A child protection training certificate does not have a formal expiry date. However, while there are not currently any legal requirements for refresher training, most childcare organisations will expect you to complete a refresher course every 12 to 24 months.
Meet Your Child Safe Requirements
The children in your care depend on you to keep them safe. Child protection training requirements exist because every child deserves educators who can identify and respond to young people at risk of abuse or neglect. Check your training records to confirm you hold an approved child protection course or enrol in a child protection training refresher course.
FAQs
How Do I Know If My Existing Child Protection Training Requirements Are Up-To-Date?
You need to check two things. First, confirm the course code on your statement of attainment matches an approved unit such as CHCPRT025. Second, confirm it was delivered by an RTO. If either is missing, your training may not meet compliance expectations even if you completed it as part of a qualification years ago.
What Happens If My Childcare Service Is Not Compliant?
Non-compliance is a regulatory risk. Approved providers can face fines, restrictions on who can be placed in charge, increased monitoring visits, or a “Working Towards” rating under Quality Area 2. Non-compliance is also recorded on the national register and can be viewed by families and regulators.
Does Child Protection Training Apply to Staff in Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) Services?
Yes. Child protection training requirements apply to all services regulated under the National Quality Framework, including OSHC services and family day cares. All staff and volunteers working in these settings must complete the training within six months of its launch.
