November 30th, 2025
Latest News
On Sunday morning, 30 November 2025, the Federal Minister for Education (the Hon Jason Clare MP) announced that early education and care services are to close from 5 pm for 5 days across the year, beginning February 2026, for mandatory safety training.
The training will be produced and conducted by the Australian Centre for Child Protection. It was agreed in August 2025 by all nine Education Ministers that "... the national child safety training (is) for all staff, volunteers and students".
Based on what the Federal Government has released to date, their intention is for the training to be paid for either with Child Care Subsidies and from the Federal Department of Education. But many questions have arisen, including:
When can we see the full scope and content of this child safety training? And how will it be different to the annual child protection training?
How long will the training be per day? Will it be more than one hour long?
Will the 5 days be the same 5 days for all services across the nation? Or will it be staggered? And what about different timezones?
With $40 million annually of existing Child Care Subsidy expenditure to pay for closures to complete this mandatory safety training for 200,000 people, is it enough? (eg $40m ÷ 5 days ÷ 200,000 people = $40 per person)
Beyond staff, volunteers and students, who else must attend these trainings?
How will the Federal Government want services to accommodate parents who collect their children late (ie after 5 pm)?
How will the Federal Government expect services to document evidence of training attendance?
How will the Federal Government monitor and measure the effectiveness of the training?
If staff members were on leave or not rostered on that day (including on sick leave), how will that staff be given the training?
Will the training be recorded (to maximise learning after the days/times of training)?
Will these new child safety trainings be embedded into future Certificate III, Diploma and degree qualification training?
If services apply the training, will the NSW Regulatory Authority (to be called the NSW Early Learning Commission) use the broad National Law's section 167 to enforce higher expectations that the training did not articulate?
Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to lodge them below. And in the meantime, ACA NSW will publish updates and answers on this published webpage and also via ACA NSW's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) webpage.
For any further information/clarification, members can contact the ACA NSW team via 1300 556 330 or nsw@childcarealliance.org.au.
PUBLISHED: 30 NOVEMBER 2025
