Queensland ECEC review highlights quality improvements and continuing child safety concerns

Queensland’s 2025–26 regulatory review records a rise in complaints, 792 enforcement actions and recurring breaches involving supervision, protection from harm and inappropriate discipline.

Approximately 91 per cent of rated Queensland early childhood education and care services were Meeting or Exceeding the National Quality Standard (NQS) at 30 June 2026, while the state’s regulatory authority recorded continuing concerns about children’s safety and everyday compliance.

The Early Childhood Regulatory Authority’s 2025–26 financial year summary, published in October, brings together service growth, quality ratings, monitoring, complaints and enforcement data.

The authority received 1,788 direct complaints during the year, a 30 per cent increase on 2024–25, and recorded 792 statutory enforcement actions.

Queensland had 3,366 regulated ECEC services at 30 June 2026, a net increase of 22 services over the year.

Of these, 3,328 operated under the National Quality Framework and 38 under the Education and Care Services Act 2013.

The NQF services comprised:

• 1,959 long day care services
• 817 outside school hours care services
• 466 kindergartens
• 86 family day care services.

Approved centre-based capacity reached 270,019 places. The department’s sector data records a 2.4 per cent annual increase in this capacity.

These figures describe approved places, rather than actual enrolments, attendance or demand.

The report states that 96 per cent of Queensland NQF services held a quality rating, compared with 94 per cent nationally.

Approximately 91 per cent of rated Queensland services were Meeting or Exceeding NQS, including those rated Excellent, compared with 92 per cent nationally.

The department’s June 2026 quality data shows the proportion rated Working Towards fell from 10.9 per cent in June 2025 to 8.7 per cent a year later.

Across individual quality areas, the highest proportions Meeting or Exceeding were in Staffing Arrangements and Collaborative Partnerships with Families and Communities, both at 99 per cent.

Relationships with Children followed at 98 per cent, Physical Environment at 97 per cent and Children’s Health and Safety at 96 per cent. Educational Program and Practice and Governance and Leadership were both at 94 per cent.

The report also states that 80 per cent of reassessments showed sustained or improved quality ratings, compared with 82 per cent nationally.

The review identifies recurring non-compliance involving core responsibilities for children’s safety.

The figures count breaches and should not be interpreted as the number of individual services involved.

The most frequently breached National Regulations concerned safe, clean and well-maintained premises, furniture and equipment; following policies and procedures; emergency and evacuation procedures; health, hygiene and food practices; and children leaving service premises.

For providers and service leaders, these findings point to the importance of checking how safety requirements are implemented throughout the day, alongside reviewing documentation.

The authority conducted 4,141 monitoring visits during 2025–26.

It reported that all approved services received at least one monitoring visit, with this coverage statement based on the number of approved services at 1 July 2025.

The 792 statutory enforcement actions included:

• 514 compliance notices
• 135 compliance directions
• 69 emergency action notices
• 31 prohibition notices
• nine prosecutions initiated.

Other actions included conditions imposed, enforceable undertakings, exclusions, suspension notices and approval cancellations.

The report explains that a recorded breach does not always result in statutory action. Some minor breaches are addressed through immediate corrective action and engagement with providers. The authority nevertheless states that it will take enforcement action where children face unacceptable risk.

Alongside the 1,788 direct complaints, the authority received 13,690 incident and complaint notifications, comprising:

• 10,865 incident notifications
• 2,825 complaint notifications.

Direct complaints are reported separately and are not included in that notification total.

Complaint notifications increased by 27 per cent on the previous year, while incident notifications declined by 10 per cent.

The report attributes the incident decline mainly to unusually high reporting in 2024–25 associated with service closures caused by Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

It also explains that notifications and complaints are assessed and triaged using a risk-based approach. Not every matter identifies non-compliance or requires a full investigation.

The review records progress in overall quality ratings alongside recurring breaches of essential safety requirements.

For service teams, the findings provide a basis for examining supervision, interactions with children, hazard management, reporting processes and whether policies are consistently followed.

Quality ratings and compliance data measure different aspects of service performance. Reading them together provides a fuller picture of Queensland’s ECEC sector and the areas requiring continued attention.