Australia's Child Safety Reforms 2025 & 2026: What Early Childhood Education and Care Services Workers Need to Know About Changes to Child Protection Training
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Australia’s child safety reforms are changing what it means to work in early education and care. If you’re an educator, supervisor, volunteer, or student placement in the sector, the way you’re trained, tracked, and held accountable is about to look very different. With changes already in place and more rolling out through 2026, the timeframe for meeting your new child protection training obligations has already begun.
Child Protection Training
Before these changes, mandatory child safety training for supervisors and family day care educators, and certain parts of Australia. From 27 February 2026, changes to the national law states that child protection training is mandatory for everyone who works in early childhood education and care across Australia, regardless of role or location. This includes centre owners and operators, supervisors, room leaders, educators, support staff, volunteers, and students on placement.
While protecting children from harm has always been a priority for teachers, the scope of the definition of what is harmful has been expanded. You must ensure that children at your service are not subjected to inappropriate conduct which now explicitly includes inappropriate physical contact, grooming, and ill treatment.
The training content has also expanded. Previously, child protection training focused on reporting obligations under but the new national child safety training has been broadened to also cover how to build a child safe culture in your organisation, develop child safe policies and procedures, and set expectations for staff conduct. The child safety reforms means that child protection training centres on children’s rights, harm prevention, and promoting the safety, health, and wellbeing of children.
What This Means For You
The child safety reforms place new obligations on everyone who works with children in early education and care settings. If you are a staff member, volunteer, or student, you must complete the mandatory national child safety training by within six months of the modules’ launch in February 2026. If you are an approved provider, you must enter and maintain workforce information in the new National Early Childhood Worker Register.
The reforms also require all teachers to hold a valid Working with Children Check before they can even start work in an ECEC service. The “no card, no start” requirement will be consistent nationwide after previously being only mandatory in some states and territories.
Early childhood regulatory authorities can now issue infringement notices, direct your employer to place you under supervision, require you to complete additional training, or temporarily suspend you from educating and caring for children.
Build a Child Safe Future
Australia’s child safety reforms make children’s safety, rights and best interests first in every early learning centre. This means new training requirements and new accountabilities rolling out across 2026. Through Skills Training College’s CHCPRT025 child protection course, you can continue to protect the safety and well-being of every child in your care.
FAQs
Do I Need to Upgrade From CHCPRT001 to CHCPRT025?
Yes. CHCPRT025 replaced CHCPRT001 in December 2023. The content from CHCPRT001 is significantly out of date and must be replaced to remain compliant with the new child safety reforms.
How Often Do I Need to Refresh My Child Protection Training?
There is no nationally mandated timeframe for refresher training. However, the recommendation is that you should update your knowledge with refresher training every 1 to 2 years. Some childcare services may have their own recommendations and timelines.
Is My Childcare First Aid Certificate Also Affected by the Child Safety Reforms?
No. HLTAID012 Provide First Aid in an Education and Care Setting is a separate requirement under the National Quality Framework. The renewal guidelines for childcare first aid certificates remain the same; they should be refreshed every three years.
