From 27 February 2026, two separate training obligations apply across the early childhood education and care sector, and the first hard deadline is 27 August 2026. This is a plain-English guide to who needs to do what, by when, and where the support sits.
The National Child Safety Reform has reshaped the training landscape for every early childhood education and care (ECEC) service in Australia. It is a genuine shift in how the sector approaches safety, moving from a response-focused model toward building a culture of safety that every person in a service shares. The requirements are specific, and the dates matter, so it is worth working through them carefully rather than assuming the general idea is enough.
Two obligations, not one: child safety and child protection
The most common point of confusion is treating this as a single new course. It is not. Two distinct requirements now sit side by side under the Education and Care Services National Law, and most roles must meet both.
Child safety training (Section 162B) is the new, nationally consistent training delivered through the Australian Government's Geccko platform. Child protection training (Section 162A) is the existing requirement, and there is no national course for it: each state and territory specifies which qualification satisfies it. The two work together. Completing one does not discharge the other, except in the specific states that have chosen to recognise the new safety training toward their protection requirement.
| Requirement | What it is |
|---|---|
| Section 162B, Child safety | New national training on the Geccko platform. Applies to everyone working or volunteering in an ECEC service, regardless of direct contact with children. |
| Section 162A, Child protection | Existing requirement, set by each state or territory. Applies to nominated supervisors, persons in day-to-day charge, family day care co-ordinators, and other specified roles. |
Who must complete the national child safety training
The Section 162B training is broad by design. It applies to everyone working or volunteering in a service regulated under the National Quality Framework, whether or not their role involves direct contact with children. That includes:
- Persons with management or control, including parent management committees where they hold that role
- Nominated supervisors and persons in day-to-day charge
- All staff members, including family day care educators
- Regular and semi-regular volunteers
- Students completing a placement as part of an approved ECEC qualification
The definitions are worth noting. Volunteers are those with a regular or semi-regular role in the service, not one-off visitors, and not parents or family members of enrolled children in that capacity. Students means those on a supervised placement for an approved ECEC qualification, which does not include high school students on general work experience. If a person's status is genuinely unclear, most services take the cautious path and train them, since a fully trained team is easier to stand behind than a gap is to explain.
The deadlines: 27 August 2026, then the 14-day rule
There is a six-month transition period to 27 August 2026 for existing staff to complete the Foundation child safety training. After that date, the timeline for new entrants is much tighter.
Anyone employed, engaged or appointed from 14 August 2026 must complete the Foundation training by the earlier of these two points: within 14 days of starting, or before they begin working directly with children. The Foundation training must then be recompleted every two years.
This one is already live, and it is the easiest to miss. In the rush towards the 27th it is natural to think of a single deadline for everybody. Anyone who joined your service on or after 14 August is not on the 27 August deadline at all. They are on a 14-day clock that may already have run, and if they are rostered directly with children before it expires, the training has to be done first. Worth checking your last few starters by name rather than assuming the general date covers them.
Advanced training is a further requirement with its own timing, and ACECQA now gives it as fixed dates rather than a window. If you are in a relevant role before 30 September 2026, you have until 31 March 2027 to complete it. If you start in a relevant role on or after 30 September 2026, you have three months from the date you are employed, engaged or appointed. Advanced training is then recompleted on the same two-year cycle as the foundation modules. Building both sets of dates into your professional development calendar now avoids a scramble later.
Foundation training, at a glance. Six-month transition to 27 August 2026 for existing staff. From 14 August 2026, new starters complete it within 14 days of starting or before working directly with children, whichever is earlier. Recompleted every two years. Delivered free through Geccko.
Geccko is the only platform
To keep the training nationally consistent, it is delivered solely through Geccko, the Australian Government's learning platform for the sector. Training completed anywhere else does not meet the requirement.
One caution worth passing to your team: Geccko is not affiliated with the separate commercial products "JWGecko" or "Gecko Learning." Make sure staff register through the official government portal. Each person should use a personal email address rather than a shared service account, so their completion record stays with them and is easy to verify. After finishing, staff can download a completion certificate from Geccko, and it is sensible for services to collect those certificates as their evidence of compliance.
Keeping training current: the two-year cycle and Regulation 84
The Section 162B child safety training is recompleted every two years. The Section 162A child protection requirement works differently. It does not carry a legislated expiry on the course itself, but Regulation 84 requires approved providers to make sure staff who work with children keep their knowledge of current child protection law up to date. In practice, many services treat a refresher every 12 to 24 months, or whenever the law changes materially, as the sensible way to demonstrate that currency and to support Quality Area 2.
This connects directly to National Quality Standard Element 2.2.3, Child safety and protection, which expects management, educators and staff to be aware of their roles and responsibilities regarding child safety, including the need to identify and respond to every child at risk of abuse or neglect. Training is how a service evidences that awareness is real and current, not just documented once.
State and territory differences to check
Because child protection training under Section 162A is set jurisdiction by jurisdiction, the detail varies. A few examples:
- Victoria: the refreshed PROTECT online eLearning is mandatory under National Law for teachers, educators and staff working directly with children, must be completed by 27 August 2026, and then every 12 months after that. Note the difference in cycles: the national foundation child safety training is recompleted every two years, while Victorian PROTECT is annual. A Victorian service is running both, and completing one does not satisfy the other.
- New South Wales: existing protection requirements are unchanged. Nominated supervisors, persons in day-to-day charge and family day care co-ordinators must hold an approved Government-protocol course, such as CHCPRT025 (Identify and report children and young people at risk) or CHCPRT026. In-house training does not satisfy this.
- Queensland: completion of the new national child safety training is recognised toward the Queensland child protection requirement, which sits alongside the previously approved units.
- Australian Capital Territory: ACT child protection training is mandated for all staff, with a transitional period to 27 August 2026 for new and existing workers, and a two-year currency period.
This is not the full national picture, so always confirm the current requirement with your own regulatory authority before finalising your plan.
The support available for services
The Australian Government has provided help with the operational cost of meeting these requirements for Child Care Subsidy (CCS) approved services, with one firm rule: you cannot claim both a service closure and a wage subsidy for the same training hours.
Service closures. CCS-approved services can close to let staff complete the training and still claim CCS, for up to five hours per calendar year. To limit disruption to families, a closure must not begin before 5:00 pm, and can run until the service would normally close, no later than midnight. For centre-based and outside school hours care services, that five-hour allowance applies per service.
Wage subsidy. A professional development subsidy has been available to help cover wage costs while staff complete the training. It runs in application rounds rather than being open continuously, so check the Department of Education's current status before relying on it, as availability changes between rounds and financial years.
From compliance to culture
The intent behind these reforms is a shift from treating safety as a checklist to building a shared, service-wide culture of it. When everyone in a service, from the governing body to the student on placement, holds the same foundational knowledge, safety becomes a common language rather than a set of separate obligations. The dates and platforms are the mechanics. The point is that a child at risk is more likely to be noticed, and responded to, when every adult in the building has been equipped to do it.
A note on accuracy. This article summarises requirements under the Education and Care Services National Law and National Regulations and the national child safety reforms as they stand at the time of writing. The requirements set out above were last checked against ACECQA and the Australian Government Department of Education on 17 August 2026. Requirements differ by state and territory and can change. Always check the current position with ACECQA and your own regulatory authority, and treat this as general information rather than legal or compliance advice.
Sources
- ACECQA, Child Safety and Child Protection Training. acecqa.gov.au
- Department of Education (Australian Government), National child safety training, and Service closures for national child safety training. education.gov.au
- NSW Department of Education, Child protection training requirements, Government protocol. education.nsw.gov.au
- Queensland Government, Child safety and child protection requirements. earlychildhood.qld.gov.au
- Victorian Early Childhood Regulatory Authority, National Child Safety and Child Protection training. vecra.vic.gov.au
- Education and Care Services National Law, sections 162A and 162B; National Regulations, Regulation 84; National Quality Standard, Element 2.2.3.