ACA Welcomes Child Safety Reforms, Calls For Practical Implementation Support

1 December 2025 Latest News

The following text is lifted from an ACA Media Release - Sunday 30 November 2025:.

Australian Childcare Alliance welcomes child safety training reforms, calls for practical implementation support

The Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) welcomes today’s confirmation from Federal Education Minister Jason Clare that mandatory safety training for the early childhood education and care workforce will commence from February next year, including up to five early closures annually to facilitate delivery.

The Minister has acknowledged the inconvenience this will cause for families and has confirmed that services will be required to provide advance notice, with centres closing as early as 5pm on scheduled training days.

The ACA recognises that the intent of these reforms is to strengthen child safety across the sector and reflects the seriousness of recent events that have shaken public confidence in early learning settings nationwide.

“These reforms arise from a period of intense scrutiny across the education and care sector,” ACA President Mr Paul Mondo said.

“The safety of children is paramount and training that strengthens workforce capability must be enabled, funded and also ensure that we support our educators, rather than add to their workload.”

The mandatory training forms part of a broader national reform package agreed to by state and territory education ministers in August.

While the ACA supports meaningful safeguards for children, it also emphasises the importance of implementing these reforms in a way that supports educator wellbeing and avoids adding to existing workload pressure and burnout.

Mr Mondo added, “It is essential that implementation is accompanied by practical funding support, reasonable notice periods for families, and flexibility for services to meet these obligations without destabilising operations. This non contact time is recognised in other education settings and we welcome it being incorporated into early education.

"ACA will continue to work closely with governments to ensure the rollout of mandatory training delivers real safety outcomes for children, while remaining workable for the services and educators responsible for caring for them every day."