What NSW’s latest enforcement register can teach the ECEC sector about strengthening safety and compliance

The NSW Early Learning Commission’s enforcement register for April to June 2026 provides the early childhood education and care sector with an opportunity to reflect on the systems that support children’s safety, wellbeing and participation.

The register records compliance notices, emergency action notices and enforceable undertakings issued during the final quarter of the 2025–26 financial year. It also records one service approval cancellation and one involuntary suspension. The information was extracted from NQAITS on 6 July 2026.

While each matter relates to a particular service and set of circumstances, the combined information highlights several areas that providers, leaders and educators can use to strengthen everyday practice.

Inadequate supervision under section 165 of the National Law appears repeatedly throughout the register.

Supervision is more than meeting educator-to-child ratios. It includes understanding where children are, anticipating potential risks, positioning educators effectively and responding promptly as children move through different environments and experiences.

The register provides an opportunity for services to review whether their supervision plans are:

• specific to the service environment
• understood by all educators
• responsive to transitions and higher-risk periods
• regularly reviewed when circumstances change
• supported by clear communication between team members

Effective supervision is active, intentional and connected to the way children actually use the environment.

Several actions involved Regulation 99, which relates to children leaving the education and care premises.

These matters highlight the importance of carefully reviewing how children move through entrances, exits, gates, shared spaces and outdoor areas. This is particularly relevant for OSHC services operating across school grounds or using multiple access points.

Services may wish to consider whether they have:

• clear arrival and departure procedures
• secure and regularly checked boundaries
• effective transition routines
• accurate attendance records
• clear responsibilities when children move between areas
• documented responses for when a child cannot immediately be located

These checks are most effective when they form part of daily practice rather than being completed only in response to an incident.

Section 167, relating to protecting children from harm and hazards, appears across many of the enforcement actions.

In several cases, it appears alongside concerns involving supervision, staffing, notifications, emergency procedures or responsible-person arrangements. This demonstrates how different parts of a service’s operation are connected.

For example, an emergency action notice issued to Narrabeen North Public School P&C Before & After School Care identified immediate risk alongside matters relating to child safety, notifications and operating without a nominated supervisor.

For services, this reinforces the value of looking beyond individual policies and considering how systems work together. A service’s child-safety approach is strengthened when supervision, risk assessment, staffing, reporting and leadership processes are aligned.

The Q4 register includes a number of emergency action notices issued under section 179.

The matters involved a range of issues, including supervision, medication, responsible-person requirements, unauthorised people on premises, first aid qualifications and educator qualification requirements.

The Commission states that an emergency action notice may be issued where a service is operating in a way that poses, or is likely to pose, an immediate risk to the safety, health or wellbeing of children.

This provides a useful prompt for services to review their own escalation processes. Leaders and educators should feel confident identifying emerging risks, reporting concerns promptly and taking immediate action while longer-term improvements are developed.

The register also includes compliance notices and enforceable undertakings relating to inappropriate discipline and inappropriate conduct under sections 166 and 166A of the National Law.

These matters reinforce the importance of embedding respectful, developmentally appropriate behaviour guidance across the whole service.

This involves more than having a policy in place. It includes:

• thoughtful induction for new educators
• ongoing professional conversations
• consistent expectations across the team
• support for educators managing challenging behaviour
• clear reporting and escalation pathways
• leadership oversight of practice

A strong culture supports educators to respond to children with patience, respect and confidence, while ensuring concerns are addressed early and appropriately.

The register identifies matters involving incident, injury, trauma and illness records, medication records, attendance records, enrolment documentation, educator records and notifications to parents and the regulatory authority.

These requirements are not simply administrative tasks. Accurate records help services understand what has occurred, identify patterns, communicate effectively with families and demonstrate how risks have been managed.

The actions involving Ryde East Out of School Hours Care Centre, for example, included matters relating to policies, notifications and incident records.

Services can use this information to review whether their records are completed accurately, within required timeframes and in a way that supports meaningful reflection and follow-up.

The quarter also included one service approval cancellation after the Commission found that continued operation posed an unacceptable risk to children and/or that conditions of service approval had not been met.

One service approval was also involuntarily suspended from 29 June to 25 September 2026.

At provider level, the register records numerous approval cancellations, most commonly because providers had not operated an education and care service for more than 12 months. Some matters also involved breaches of provider approval conditions.

These actions provide an opportunity for approved providers and governing bodies to consider how they demonstrate oversight. Effective governance is visible when leaders understand the risks affecting their services, receive meaningful information, follow up concerns and ensure improvement actions are completed.

The April–June 2026 enforcement register should not be viewed simply as a record of what went wrong. It can also support constructive conversations across the sector.

Services may use the information to ask:

• Are our supervision arrangements active and site-specific?
• Can educators confidently respond to emerging risks?
• Are our notification and record-keeping processes reliable?
• Are our responsible-person arrangements clear?
• Do our policies reflect what happens in practice?
• Can our leadership team demonstrate effective oversight?
• Are improvement actions monitored through to completion?

Continuous improvement does not require services to wait for an incident or regulatory action. It is strengthened through regular reflection, open communication and a willingness to review whether systems are genuinely working for children, families and educators.

Used constructively, enforcement information can support stronger conversations between providers, leaders and teams. It reinforces that child safety, professional accountability and regulatory compliance are shared responsibilities and that strong services are built through the consistent actions taken every day.

Access the register here.