Under the National Law and Regulations, the approved provider must notify the NSW Regulatory Authority of any:

• Change to information about approved provider

• Change to information about education and care service
  

• Incidents and Complaints, including:

• serious incidents

• circumstances at the service which pose a risk to the health, safety or wellbeing of children

• any incident or allegation that physical or sexual abuse of a child or children has occurred or is occurring while the child or children are being educated and cared for by the service
  

A handy table describing all notification types and timeframes for notifying the NSW Regulatory Authority can be accessed on the ACECQA website. Further information is provided on ACECQA’s ‘Reporting requirements about children’ page.

Under the National Law and Regulations, the approved provider must notify parents of changes to the service operation and incidents involving the child enrolled at the service.

The National Law and Regulations also require Family Day Care (FDC) educators to report certain information to their approved provider.

Refer to the ACECQA website on all notification types and timeframes for notifying parents and FDC approved providers.

Long day care, Family day care, Preschool and Outside School Hours Care

These services must notify the NSW Regulatory Authority of prescribed incidents, allegations and complaints. You can do this via the National Quality Agenda IT System (acecqa.gov.au).

Mobile, Occasional care, Multifunctional Aboriginal Children’s Services (MACS)

These services must notify the NSW Regulatory Authority of prescribed incidents, allegations and complaints. You can do this using the notification forms on our Approvals process page.

All notifications must:

• be made within the prescribed timeframe for the notification type
• be made regardless of whether or not the parent, family or carer has requested further action or information about the incident or complaint
• contain consistent and accurate information e.g. time of incident and the names of people involved.

It is important that services submit the notification within the required timeframe and more information can be added later.

• The service ID number - if the service has more than one location/centre, ensure the service ID number corresponds with the service where the incident occurred.
• The full names of all people who were involved (eg staff, parents and children).
• A clear description what happened, including any reasons if they are known eg a child slipped over because there was water on the floor from a water play activity.
• The outcome of the incident e.g. injuries.
• Details of any first aid or other medical treatment, and the outcome of that treatment.
• The time, date and location of the incident.
• Information about supervision and Educator-to-child ratios at the time of the incident.
• Whether notifications have been made to parents/families/carers.
• Whether notifications have been made to other government agencies eg NSW Department of Family and Community Services or the NSW Ombudsman. Include a reference number if available.
• Information about any internal investigation intended to be undertaken or already in progress.
• Supporting documentation such as an incident report, photographs of an injury or location or a medical report.
• Risk mitigation measures that are/will be taken by the service to prevent a similar incident happening again, or what methods are already in place to prevent this.

• The service ID number - if the service has more than one location/centre, ensure the service ID number corresponds with the service where the complaint was made against.
• The full names of all people (e.g. staff, parents and children) who were involved.
• Contact details of the person making the complaint, if available.
• A clear description of the complaint.
• Information about any internal investigation intended to be undertaken or already in progress.
• Supporting documents e.g. a copy of the complaint if made by letter or email.

In NSW, all notifications are assessed by a Triage Unit to ensure they are actioned appropriately by the Regulatory Authority. Full and accurate information helps to ensure the right response can be made and action taken quickly to ensure the health, safety and well-being of children.

The response to a notification will depend on the circumstances of each matter. Examples of a response to a notification are:

• A service visit by an Authorised Officer.
• A formal investigation into a possible breach of the National Law and Regulation.
• Information shared with another government agency or NSW Police to protect a child or children from risk of harm.
• No further action where there is no evidence of a breach of the law and no risk to children, and where the service’s response to the incident or complaint is appropriate and sufficient.