Services must keep clear and up-to-date records that demonstrate compliance with child-safe recruitment and ongoing child-safe employment obligations.

Robust child safe recruitment, screening, induction and employment processes are critical to keeping children safe. They also support attracting and retaining suitable and skilled staff who understand and uphold their important role.

The Children (Education and Care Services National Law Application) Amendment Act 2025 has legislated more than 30 reforms amending how the National Law and Regulations apply in NSW to strengthen the safety and wellbeing of children in early childhood education and care (ECEC).

Among these are new requirements under Regulation 168 of the Education and Care Services National Regulations (NSW) that make it mandatory for services to outline clear child-safe recruitment and employment practices in their staffing policies and procedures.

These requirements commenced 24 April 2026. The guidance below outlines what providers and services must do to implement these changes and ensure the recruitment and employment practices are child safe.

New provisions under the National Law (NSW) also require educators and other staff members of an ECEC service to notify their approved provider if they receive a negative notice. Educators and early childhood teachers must notify their approved provider if there is a change to their teacher accreditation or registration. This provision is now law and must be complied with.

Meeting your requirements

Review and update your staffing policies and procedures

Approved providers must review and update their staffing policies and procedures to ensure they are in line with:

• Regulation 168(2)(i)

• child-safe recruitment and employment requirements under Regulations 168(2)(i)(ia) and (ib)

• Sections 174AA and 174AB of the National Law (NSW) relating to negative notices

• the paramountcy principle

• other relevant frameworks, including the National Quality Framework (NQF) and the Children’s Guardian Act 2019, including the Child Safe Scheme.

Staffing policies and procedures must include a clear commitment to child-safe recruitment and ongoing child-safe employment and are required to make explicit reference to the safety and wellbeing of every child in ECEC as the service’s paramount priority. This should be reflected in the service’s code of conduct. Read the NSW Office of the Children's Guardian's guidance on understanding and developing a child safe code of conduct.

Approved providers are required to take every reasonable step to ensure staff follow their service's policies and procedures under regulation 170. Service leaders and staff must embed these practices across all aspects of service operations.

Implement child safe recruitment practices

Staffing policies and procedures must outline how your service embeds child safe practice into recruitment and onboarding, including how it conducts reasonable enquiries to verify a person’s suitability before employment or engagement.

Staffing policy and procedures must also outline how you will implement ongoing child-safe employment practices in your service and continually monitor the suitability of staff to work with children.

The NSW Early Learning Commission has developed a Child Safe Recruitment, Induction and Training sample policy to assist approved providers and leaders in embedding child safe recruitment practices within service policies and procedures. Services are encouraged to use this sample policy and the accompanying toolkit, which include a child safe recruitment checklist and templates for child safe interviews and referee checks.

These resources are designed to inform and strengthen recruitment, procedures and staff screening practices, ensuring they align with child safe principles and requirements under NSW regulations. The resources are designed to be amended to suit a service’s specific context and should be regularly reflected on and reviewed. The sample policy and toolkit will be updated as relevant legislative changes occur.

There are 8 steps which should be followed to ensure services undertake child safe recruitment:

1. Role description – include child safe criteria in your role or position description.
2. Job advertisement – include a commitment to your organisation being child safe.
3. Shortlisting – review applications for evidence of understanding and commitment to child safety
4. Interviews – include scenario-based questions to assess a candidate's integrity, attitudes towards children and knowledge of and commitment to child safety
5. Referee checks – collect at least 2 verbal reference checks from previous employers, including the most recent, to verify the applicant’s work history and experience, and confirm their conduct, integrity and suitability to work with children. Reference checks should include specific enquiries about:
   • any reportable allegations, prior allegations or concerns related to child safety or misconduct
   • if the person has displayed any concerning or inappropriate behaviour
6. Background checks – undertake robust employment screening. This should include but not be limited to:
   • Verifying a persons identify
   • verifying qualifications (including early childhood education and first aid), assessing their legitimacy by carefully reviewing certificates and transcripts. Check for spelling errors, consistency, Registered Training Organisation (RTO) validation and ensuring the qualification is ACECQA-approved. Check the National Training Register to ensure the RTO was operating at the time of issue and not subject to any actions by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA).
   • ensuring staff (including volunteers, students and other staff) have a verified WWCC through the NSW Office of the Children’s Guardian.
   • verifying through the National Quality Agenda IT System (NQA ITS) if an individual is a prohibited person or suspended.
   • requesting declarations from the individual about their suitability and any current restrictions, including enforceable undertakings, suspension notices, supervision notices or training orders. This may include using ACECQA’s Prohibition Notice Declaration form and Compliance history form, which are available on ACECQA's Sample forms and templates page.
   • requesting a National Police Check (i.e. a national criminal history check) as an additional screening measure to complement the legislated WWCC and verifying it. While the WWCC specifically assesses a person’s suitability to work with children by identifying child-related offences and relevant misconduct, a National Police Check provides a broader overview of an individual’s criminal history, including offences not related to children. This broader visibility can assist employers in identifying convictions, that may be relevant to recruitment decisions and overall workplace safety.
7. Child safe inductions – provide a structured induction process that includes training, comprehensive briefing on policies and procedures, and orientation to service specific environments and contexts.

8. Ongoing child safe employment practice – ensure staff complete mandatory training, provide ongoing supervision and complete regular checks to ensure all staff remain suitable to work with children. Ensure staff maintain up-to-date knowledge of child protection law and their obligations under these laws.

Please review the Child Safe Recruitment, Training and Sample Policy and Child Safe Recruitment Checklist and other resources linked at the bottom of the page for more details on child safe recruitment practice.

Working with Children Checks

Employers have legal obligations around working with children. It is against the law to engage anyone who is 18 years or above in child-related work without a current Working with Children Check (WWCC) clearance, unless they are exempt from requiring one under the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012.

A WWCC is an assessment of a person’s ability to work safely with children based on any known incidents that indicate the person poses a risk of harm to children. It involves a National Police Check (criminal history record check) and a review of any findings of misconduct under the Reportable Conduct Scheme.

WWCC requirements for family day care services

For family day care (FDC) services, the approved provider must also ensure FDC assistants and all people aged 18 years or over who reside at an FDC residence (regulation 163) have a current and verified WWCC clearance. Keep accurate records to ensure you continue to meet your obligations.

Staff, volunteers or students under the age of 18

Individuals under 18 years old are exempt from holding a WWCC. This means there is no restriction on engaging a staff member, volunteer or student who is under 18 years old in a service.

Under the Education and Care Services National Regulations, educators under the age of 18 must not work alone at a service and must be adequately supervised by an educator over the age of 18 at all times (regulation 120). Persons in day-to-day charge, nominated supervisors and family day care educators and assistants must be at least 18 years old (regulation 117B, 117C and 119).

Additional child safe strategies to consider if engaging someone under 18 might include:

• providing clear expectations about staff interactions with children
• review of onboarding and induction processes, and providing additional training and guidance for new staff as required
• organisations should undertake a police check if needed (a guardian is required to sign on behalf of the person under 18).

Maintain accurate records

Services must keep clear and up-to-date records that demonstrate compliance with child-safe recruitment and ongoing child-safe employment obligations. This includes maintaining:

• staff records that document each employee’s WWCC details, verification dates and any updates or changes to their status
• evidence of reasonable enquiries made before and during employment, such as confirmation that staff are not subject to a prohibition notice and a record of referee checks conducted
• documentation of actions taken if any concerns or notifications arise regarding a staff member’s suitability. This should be reflected in your service’s register for child protection concerns, soon to be required under Regulation 168(2)(h)
• regular review and updates of staffing and recruitment policies and procedures to ensure they remain current, reflect the latest legislative requirements, reflect service needs and feedback, and promote best practice in child-safe employment
• documentation of any policy or procedure reviews and changes to maintain accountability and transparency.

Provide written notice of negative notices

Ensure educators and staff at your service are aware of and understand their legislative obligations under Section 174AA of the National Law (NSW) to provide written notice if they receive a negative notice or if there has been a change to their accreditation or registration. This expectation should be communicated to all new staff during the onboarding and induction process and regularly reinforced with existing staff.

Approved providers must notify the NSW Early Learning Commission if they become aware that an educator or staff member at their service has received a negative notice or a change to their accreditation or registration. This notification must be submitted via email to information@earlylearningcommission.nsw.gov.au within 24 hours of becoming aware of the event.

Follow your service’s child safety procedures and keep a record of the actions taken in response to a negative notice or change to a staff member’s accreditation or registration.

Penalties apply under section 188A where false or misleading information is provided to an approved provider, service or recruitment agency in relation to a relevant notice. This includes suspension notices, supervision notices and prohibition notices.

More information and resources