New nationally developed training will equip early childhood educators and leaders with advanced skills to strengthen child safeguarding and create safer education and care environments.
Early childhood educators and service leaders across Queensland can now access advanced child safety training designed to strengthen safeguarding practices and build safer education and care environments.
The Advanced Child Safety Training builds on foundation training already completed by more than 70,000 early childhood staff and volunteers. The new courses are designed to help educators identify, respond to and prevent child safety risks while supporting a consistent approach to child safeguarding across the sector.
The training will be mandatory for people with management or control of education and care services, nominated supervisors, people in day-to-day charge, and educators who work directly with children.
The rollout forms part of broader child protection reforms in Queensland, including the introduction of the Reportable Conduct Scheme and the establishment of the Queensland Protection Commission, which is expected to commence operations in February 2027. The Commission will include a child safeguarding intelligence hub to strengthen information sharing between key agencies and support organisational responses to allegations of abuse, misconduct and neglect.
Queensland Minister for Education John-Paul Langbroek said the advanced training would help ensure educators were well equipped to recognise and respond to child safety concerns.
“Advanced training will ensure staff are better prepared to identify, respond to, and prevent child safety risks,” Mr Langbroek said.
“This is what families and the community expect to maintain the highest standards of child safe practice in education and care services.”
He thanked the early childhood sector for its ongoing commitment to child safety and acknowledged its support for the new training.
The courses were developed in partnership with the Australian Centre for Child Protection at the University of Adelaide.
Professor Leah Bromfield, Director of the Australian Centre for Child Protection, said the training represented an important step towards embedding a stronger child-safe culture across the education and care sector.
“With the launch of advanced training, we are taking another important step towards building a genuinely child-safe culture across the education and care sector. This is not optional – it is a shared responsibility nationally,” Professor Bromfield said.
She said the courses were informed by research, cultural knowledge, frontline expertise and the lived experiences of survivors of child abuse.
Australian Childcare Alliance Queensland President Majella Fitzsimmons said the new training would provide practical support for educators and leaders working across early childhood education and care.
“The sector welcomes training that is practical, accessible and relevant to the responsibilities people hold,” Ms Fitzsimmons said.
“Having free, nationally consistent training available online means services can access high-quality professional learning and support their teams to build confidence in this critical area.”
The self-paced online training is available through the Australian Government Department of Education website.