The 2012 National Quality Framework built the education workforce for early childhood. It never built the operational workforce needed to deliver it.

Qualified educators currently perform infection control cleaning, catering, and administrative functions alongside their core duties, then return to the floor responsible for the learning and safety of children in their care. This creates two compounding hazards: a psychosocial hazard driving burnout and churn, and a biological hazard compromising child safety. As of 27 February 2026, child safety is the paramount duty under Australian law. The current staffing model makes it structurally impossible to satisfy that duty.

This is not a theoretical concern. In February 2026, the NSW Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Early Learning confirmed in writing that educators performing cleaning duties cannot be counted toward ratio compliance, the very floor child safety law depends upon. The same response characterised this as a provider "operational choice." But when no alternative workforce exists, there is no choice. That is the structural gap.

The CCS closes it.

The CCS introduces operational workforce infrastructure to the sector, beginning with cleaning, chosen for its safety-critical function and direct relationship to child health outcomes. It is not a concept. It is a fully built, deployment-ready framework benchmarked against the NQF, one that would require a multi-year, multi-team, multi-million dollar investment to recreate from scratch. It has academic engagement from Macquarie University, commercial backing from AMC Cleaning, and is actively progressing through the parliamentary process via Federal Member Melissa McIntosh.

The CCS was developed independently, without institutional alliance, funding agenda, or stakeholder compromise. Its structure serves one interest: stabilising the sector Australia's workforce participation depends on. Without this infrastructure, whether the CCS or something built to replace it, every other workforce reform in the sector rests on a foundation that cannot hold.

The timing is now. Safe Work Australia has advised that a Model Code of Practice for biological hazards in the workplace, with explicit reference to the ECEC industry, is currently awaiting ministerial approval. When that Code lands, providers will need an implementation pathway. The CCS is the only sector-specific framework in existence that provides one.

Author

Lindsay Smith is the Founder of BLB Childcare Cleaning and author of the Childcare Cleaning Standard (CCS), Australia’s first published cleaning governance standard for ECEC environments. She advocates for professionalised cleaning roles to improve child health, strengthen compliance, and support educator wellbeing across the sector.