Looking ahead: What the ECEC sector can expect in 2026

As 2026 begins, early childhood education and care (ECEC) services across Australia are preparing for a year of substantial reform, focused on strengthening child safety and raising the bar on national standards. Following a series of agreements by Education Ministers in 2025, new changes to the National Quality Framework (NQF) and the Education and Care Services National Law will take effect progressively throughout the year. These reforms reflect the shared commitment of educators, families, communities and governments to place child safety and wellbeing at the centre of early learning environments.

From January through to late February 2026, a suite of new obligations and strengthened penalties will be introduced, many of which respond to the expectation that early learning settings are not only places of learning but also of protection, trust and transparency.

From 1 January 2026:

• Amendments to the National Quality Standard (NQS) has seen child safety more explicitly integrated into Quality Areas 2 and 7.

From 2 January 2026:

• Penalties for breaches of National Law will increase threefold.
• Regulatory authorities will have broader power to issue infringement notices and impose penalties.

From 27 February 2026:

• Children’s safety, rights and best interests must become the paramount consideration in all decisions under the NQF.
• New rules will restrict personal electronic devices in services.
• Child protection and child safety training will be expanded and mandated.
• A new offence will be introduced for inappropriate conduct.
• The threshold for misconduct will broaden, allowing regulatory authorities to act earlier.
• The ‘no card, no start’ requirement will become consistent nationwide for Working with Children Checks.
• Ongoing waivers for service premises that compromise supervision will be removed.
• The ability of regulatory authorities to monitor and regulate related providers will expand.
• A National Early Childhood Worker Register will be established.

New Early Childhood Worker Register

From 27 February 2026, approved providers will be required to use the new Early Childhood Worker Register hosted by ACECQA. The secure, national register will hold key information about educators and staff, including identity, qualifications, safety checks, and teaching registration (where applicable). This tool is designed to enhance visibility and risk management across the sector, supporting regulatory authorities to ensure safe staffing across all services.

Mandatory national child protection and safety training

As part of the reforms, child protection and broader child safety training will become mandatory for:

• Persons with management or control of a service
• Nominated supervisors
• Persons in day-to-day charge
• All staff members
• Volunteers and students

The child safety training package is being developed by the Australian Centre for Child Protection and will cover key areas such as:

• Creating a child safe organisational culture
• Child safe policies and expectations for staff conduct
• Children’s rights, harm prevention and wellbeing

Training will be delivered nationally via Geccko, the Department of Education’s online learning platform. All individuals required to complete training must register for their own Geccko account for tracking and compliance purposes.

Support for providers

To ease the transition, the Australian Government will provide wage subsidy grants from 1 July 2026 to assist small to medium providers with backfilling roles while staff complete the required training.

Guidance and resources

ACECQA has committed to ongoing guidance to support services with the changes. Key resources include:

• Guide to the NQF
• Child Safety Guides
• Policy and Procedure Guidelines
• National Child Safety Training
• Geccko Registration

The reforms coming into effect throughout 2026 reflect the sector’s collective commitment to continuous improvement, transparency and above all, the safety and wellbeing of every child. With leadership from ACECQA and national collaboration, the ECEC sector is well-placed to meet these changes and strengthen the culture of care and safety at the heart of early learning.