“There can be nothing more important than the safety of all children in our care. “
Y Australia Policy Statement 2023
At the Y, child safety is our highest priority. Across Australia, thousands of families entrust their children to early learning centres, kindergartens and outside school hours care programs every day. We believe every child, in every service, deserves to feel safe, supported and protected.
To ensure this, The Y is leading national advocacy to strengthen the early childhood education and care (ECEC) safety framework. Our message is clear: a child’s safety should never depend on where a family lives, which service they attend, or who is rostered on that day.
Drawing on decades of experience supporting over 70,000 children each year, we are calling for strong, consistent, nation-wide standards that ensure every child is safe in body, mind and spirit.
Our Vision: A National System That Puts Children First
The Y’s Child Safety Advocacy Position outlines the reforms needed to ensure children’s wellbeing is protected in every early learning environment. We are advocating for a sector where child safety is embedded into culture, training, staffing, and regulation.
From strengthening workforce systems to mandating consistent safety training, we are committed to ensuring the highest level of protection for every child, every day.
Below are the key areas where the Y is advocating for meaningful change.
Stronger national systems for worker oversight:
We need nationally consistent systems that provide real-time visibility and accountability across the early childhood workforce. This is essential to protecting children, improving transparency, and enabling services to make safe, informed staffing decisions.
Better child safety training for ECEC staff:
To keep children safe, every adult in an early childhood service, regardless of role, must have clear, consistent and mandatory training in child safeguarding. National inconsistencies in training requirements are putting children at risk and creating confusion for providers. Training must be embedded into qualifications, kept up to date through regular refreshers, and supported by strong regulatory oversight.
Stronger child safety practices in the sector:
Protecting children requires more than individual training, it must be embedded into the culture, systems, and daily operations of every service.
This includes adequate funding, clear policies, skilled teams, ethical technology use, and robust infrastructure that supports safe practice.
Better regulation of agency staff providers:
All children should receive the same standard of protection, whether their educators are employed directly or through an agency. However, gaps in oversight, information sharing, and compliance expectations for agency staff create unnecessary risk.
National regulation must ensure consistent standards and visibility across the entire ECEC workforce.
Improved regulatory practice:
Stronger laws alone won’t keep children safe. Regulators must have the capability, consistency, and fairness to enforce them effectively.
Services need clear guidance, proportionate responses, and timely decisions. Building trust and stability across the sector starts with well-resourced, collaborative regulators who support continuous improvement, not just compliance.
Our strongest and most urgent recommendations for improving safety in ECEC settings are:
1. Require at least two qualified educators to be present in every room whenever children are in care. A reform that strengthens supervision, protects children, supports educators, and keeps costs fair for families.
2. Stronger, More Consistent Regulators. Strengthen and standardise national regulation to ensure consistent, well-resourced, and enforceable child-safe practice.
3. Mandate Safeguarding Leads in Large Providers. Appoint a dedicated Safeguarding Lead responsible for overseeing compliance, training, and reporting at a governance level.
4. Mandatory, Recurring Child Safety Training . Child-safety training for everystaff member, with refresher training at least every two years, regardless of role or qualification.
5. Stronger Standards for Staffing and Labour-Hire Agencies. Strengthen accountability for staffing agencies to meet the same child-safety and qualification standards as all ECEC providers.
These reforms matter because:
– Children deserve safe, nurturing environments to learn, grow and thrive
– Families need confidence that every service meets the same safety standards
– Educators need support, training and safe conditions to do their work well
– Australia benefits socially and economically from a trusted, high-quality ECEC system
When child safety is strong, the entire sector is stronger.
For the full advocacy position and safety framework, follow the links below:
The Y’s Policy Statement/Child Safety in Early Childhood Education and Care
Every Child, Every Service, Safe: Strengthening Australia’s ECEC Safety Framework
The Y’s Commitment
With more than 420 ECEC services nationwide, The Y continues to lead the way in creating child-safe, child-centred environments. We stand committed to advocating for policy change, building sector capability, and working side-by-side with governments and communities to ensure that every child in every service is safe.
Because at the Y, protecting children is not just a requirement, it is our purpose.
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