National Child Safety Training for the Education and Care Sector
Every child deserves to feel safe, valued, and supported, wherever they learn and grow.
The National Child Safety Training Project is a landmark national initiative to strengthen child safety across Australia’s education and care sector. Led by the Australian Centre for Child Protection (ACCP) on behalf of the Queensland Department of Education and all state, territory and Australian governments, the project is developing training that will help those working in the education and care sector build safe, inclusive, and responsive environments where children can thrive.
In September 2025, ACCP commenced development of a suite of nationally consistent training courses to strengthen safeguarding practices and promote a shared culture of child safety across the education and care sector. This follows a national scoping project completed by ACCP in July 2025, which identified sector needs, training priorities, and opportunities for training.
The project responds directly to recommendations from the Review of Child Safety Arrangements under the National Quality Framework, which recommended the need for mandatory child safety training as a key strategy in improving the safeguarding of children in education and care contexts.
The Foundations of Child Safety courses, Understanding Child Safety and Understanding and Identifying Child Abuse and Neglect, were released on 27 February 2026 in conjunction with commencement of the new legislation. The Advanced Child Safety courses, Enhancing Safety and Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect and Responding to Safeguarding Concerns were released on July 31, 2026. The final course, Leading and governing child safety, is expected to be available from September 30, 2026.
The training can be accessed here through the GECCKO platform.
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What is the training?
The National Child Safety Training is being designed to ensure that adults working with children in education and care contexts across Australia have a shared foundation of knowledge, skills, and confidence to keep children safe.
The training aims to:
- Establish a national minimum standard of child safety understanding and practice, so that all children, regardless of where they live or the type of care they attend, have equal access to safe, supportive environments.
- Promote environments that support children’s wellbeing and development, emphasising genuine, respectful interactions and the valuing of children’s and families’ voices.
- Strengthen preventative practices within services by supporting the creation of conditions that reduce the likelihood of harm occurring, while increasing the likelihood that any concerns or incidents are identified early and responded to appropriately.
- Build capacity across the sector to identify and respond to potential risks or concerns in a timely, appropriate, and child-centered way.
Together, these aims contribute to a national culture of child safety, where safeguarding is embedded in everyday practice, relationships, and decision-making across the education and care sector.
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Who is this training for?
From 27 February 2026, all persons with management or control, nominated supervisors, persons in day-to-day charge, staff members and volunteers, including students are mandated to completion child safety training under the National Law.
The industry-specific training package will support educators, volunteers (including students), other frontline workers, managers, and leaders to understand their responsibilities, recognise and respond to risks of harm, and create environments where children are safe, supported, and able to thrive.
The Foundations of Child Safety courses, Understanding Child Safety and Understanding and Identifying Child Abuse and Neglect, were released on 27 February 2026 in conjunction with commencement of the new legislation, marking an important milestone for the sector.
Development of the Advanced Child Safety courses, Enhancing Safety and Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect and Responding to Safeguarding Concerns is now progressing and due for release later in 2026.
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What is ACCP providing?
ACCP is responsible for designing and developing the National Child Safety Training package, drawing on the latest research, best practice, and extensive consultation with the education and care sector and child safety experts.
The training can be accessed here through the GECCKO platform.
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ACCP Child Safety Training Development Team
The National Child Safety Training was developed by a multidisciplinary team at the Australian Centre for Child Protection, in partnership with the Queensland Government.
The design team brought together extensive expertise in child protection practice, clinical psychology, education, research and organisational leadership. Collectively, the team has many years of experience working with infants, children, young people and families across government, non-government and private sectors. Their expertise spans preventing and responding to child abuse and neglect, child sexual abuse, harmful sexual behaviours, trauma, child development, parenting and family support, as well as strengthening child safety across education, institutional and community settings.
The team also brought extensive experience in creating and sustaining child safe organisations. This includes expertise in organisational leadership, governance, workforce capability, safeguarding systems, legislative and regulatory requirements, and supporting organisations to embed and maintain child safe practices.
The training was further informed by Professor Leah Bromfield's internationally recognised research and advisory work arising from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and her ongoing leadership in child protection reform. Professor Bromfield also brought her knowledge and expertise presiding over several inquiries, strategic reviews and oversight bodies, including her role as Commissioner of the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government's Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings.
Alongside this subject matter expertise, the team has extensive experience in designing and delivering evidence-informed training in partnership with governments, professional bodies and industry. Their experience spans higher education, adult learning, and professional learning for the child facing sectors. This combination of educational expertise and frontline practice helped ensure the training is evidence-informed, practical and relevant to the realities of working with children and families.
All team members have worked directly with children and families and most continue to combine academic roles with professional practice. This close connection between research, teaching and practice helped ensure the training reflects current evidence, professional responsibilities and the everyday realities of creating and maintaining child safe organisations.
Child Safety Training Development Team
- Amanda Paton, Deputy Director, Practice (Project Lead)
- Sian Burgess, Senior Project Manager and Lecturer (Project Manager)
- Jacqueline Le Mesurier, Lecturer
- Holly Pearce, Research Associate
- Emily Russell, Lecturer
- Sarah Shihata, Research Associate
- Danielle Perfect, Research Associate
- Amber Alexander, Lecturer
- Phoebe Edgeworth, Lecturer
- Professor Leah Bromfield, Director and Chair of Child Protection
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Stay Informed
The National Child Safety Training Project is a large, collaborative national initiative. As development progresses, we’ll share updates on consultation activities, training design, and rollout timelines.
To stay updated, you can follow the ACCP on LinkedIn, subscribe to our ACCP Inform quarterly newsletter or check this page for regular updates.
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Project Updates
31 July, 2026: The Advanced Child Safety courses, Enhancing Safety and Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect and Responding to Safeguarding Concerns have been released. The final course, Leading and governing child safety, is expected to be available from September 30, 2026.
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01 April 2026: Development of the Advanced Child Safety courses is now underway. As part of this next phase, we invite staff and those connected to the education and care sector to participate in consultation sessions from 28 April to 4 May. Register your interest to join a workshop here.
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23 March 2026: The Foundations of Child Safety training was successfully released on 27 February, with strong uptake across the education and care sector. The accompanying Community of Practice documents are now available to support ongoing reflection and application in practice. Access them here
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26 November 2025: The National Child Safety Training Project is heading into Round 2 of consultations (9 - 12 December 2025) and we would love for ECEC workforce members to get involved.
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20 October 2025: The consultation survey is now closed. Thank you to all those who took the time to contribute. Your insights and questions will help shape the development of the inaugural National Child Safety Training.
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9 October 2025: We have completed the first round of ECEC sector consultations for educators, teachers and volunteers, as well as those in management roles within the sector. The results of these online workshops will help our team tailor the content and design of the National Child Safety Training to what is needed on the ground.
Anyone working and volunteering in the ECEC sector can still contribute to consultations through our survey, open until October 17, 2025.
Next, we will draw on the outcomes of these consultations as we move into development of the National Child Safe Training Package. As this progresses, the ACCP will hold further consultations on the Draft Foundation Course later this year.
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Further Information
For all inquiries about the National Child Safety Training, please contact childprotection@adelaide.edu.au
