This article applies to approved providers of a child care service.

Early Childhood Education and Care (Strengthening Regulation of Early Education) Act 2025 (Cth)

On 3 August 2025, relevant parts of the Early Childhood Education and Care (Strengthening Regulation of Early Education) Act 2025 (Cth) (the Amending Act) amended the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999 (Cth) (the Act).

What’s changed?

To improve safety and quality outcomes for children in Australian child care services, new quality and safety considerations for approved child care providers have been introduced to the Act. In addition, new powers of entry of authorised persons have been introduced to the Act, to enable unannounced child care service visits and spot checks.

Further Information

New quality and safety considerations

It is a condition of the continued approval of an approved provider of a child care service, that the provider continues to satisfy the provider eligibility requirements in section 194C of the Act, and that each approved child care service of the provider continues to satisfy the service eligibility requirements in section 194D of the Act.

Section 194C of the Act now contains a new provider eligibility requirement under which the Department of Education (Department) must be satisfied that approving the provider is appropriate having regard to the quality and safety considerations set out in the new section 194EA. An equivalent requirement has been inserted in the service eligibility rules in section 194D of the Act.

New section 194EA of the Act sets out the quality and safety considerations that the Department must refer to when determining whether a provider or service satisfies the relevant eligibility requirements. These considerations include:

• the provider’s record of demonstrating commitment to, and achievement of, high quality education and care;
• any previous assessment of child care services of the provider (whether or not the provider currently operates, or proposes to operate, the service) done in accordance with the National Quality Standard, including any relevant rating level for the service;
• any notifications of the following by the provider in respect of child care services of the provider (whether or not the provider currently operates, or proposes to operate, the service):
  • serious incidents that have occurred or are occurring;
  • occurrences of circumstances that could have resulted in the occurrence of a serious incident;
• whether the quality and safety of child care services of the provider (whether or not the provider currently operates, or proposes to operate, the service) has improved over time and the extent of any improvement.

(We note that the full suite of quality and safety considerations are set out in section 194EA of the Act).

New powers of entry

With a view to improving safety and quality outcomes for children, newly introduced section 219UCA of the Act strengthens powers of entry of authorised persons (as permitted by the Department), to enable them to conduct unannounced service visits and spot checks at approved child care services.

More specifically, authorised persons appointed by the Department under the Act are now empowered to enter child care service premises to exercise monitoring powers, without the consent of the approved service during operating hours or (if a service is not operated at the premises), during ordinary business hours.

Importantly, approved child care services are required under section 219UCA to provide an authorised person (or any person assisting them), with all reasonable facilities and assistance for the effective exercise of their monitoring powers under the Act. Failure to do so is an offence, incurring a penalty of 60 penalty units (currently $19,800).

What you should do

Organisations that are approved providers of a child care service should familiarize themselves with the new quality and safety considerations set out in section 194EA of the Act and should ensure that the service can satisfy those considerations.

Moreover, organisations should ensure relevant child care staff are made aware of the new powers of entry rights under new section 219UCA of the Act that allow unannounced service visits and spot checks by authorised persons from the Department. In particular, organisations should ensure relevant staff are made aware that failure to provide reasonable facilities and assistance to the authorised personnel amounts to an offence under the Act.