Quality Education and Care NT

From 27 February 2026, all staff, volunteers, and students in early childhood education and care (ECEC) must complete mandatory national child safety training.

The training is being developed by the Queensland Government and the Australian Centre for Child Protection. It will be available on Geccko, the Australian Government Department of Education’s online learning platform for the ECEC sector. Training is free.

There will be Foundation and Advanced training modules. The Foundation training will be available from 27 February 2026. Advanced modules will be available in July 2026.

ECEC providers can access the following to support their staff to complete the training:

• Child Care Subsidy approved providers may close services early to support staff to complete the training.
• Small to medium providers may access wage subsidy grants. More information to come.

This is a National Child Safety Reform initiative. All Education Ministers agreed to new mandatory child safety training at a special purpose meeting in August 2025.

Find out more and register for Geccko, go to the Australian Government’s Department of Education website.

Action required

All ECEC staff, volunteers, and students need a Geccko account to access and complete the training.

To ensure personal training completions can be tracked and reported correctly, all users must have an individual account using a personal email. Generic or shared emails are not permitted.

Providers should encourage staff to register early.

How to register

Registering for Geccko is easy. Visit the Geccko registration page and follow the prompts to create your account.

If you already have your own Geccko account, log in and update your details. If you use a shared Geccko account, you must re-register using a personal email address.

Find out more and get step-by-step support for Geccko, go to the Australian Government’s Department of Education website.

Test new training in Geccko

Geccko are looking for volunteers to help test new training.

They’re looking for people who:

• have experience in early education settings
• are willing to test platform features (no technical expertise required)
• can join short sessions (1-2 hours) in December, January and February.

If you would like to get involved, email geccko@education.gov.au.

Thank you for your commitment to child safety.

Initial regulatory changes to strengthen child safety will commence in education and care services under the NQF from 1 September 2025.

This email is intended to provide you an update on where to find further details about these changes and provide details on recent communications that have occurred across the sector.

The following changes to the National Regulations will come into effect as of 1 September 2025, these changes are to enhance child safety in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector. It is expected that approved providers will ensure all services are ready to implement these changes effective on that same day.

The changes relate to:

• Digital technology and online environments: approved providers need to make sure services have a policy and procedure about the safe use of digital technologies and online environments. The policy should consider restricting the use of personal mobile phones or digital devices capable of taking images or videos while working directly with children in centre-based services.
  • Approved providers and their services should adopt the National Model Code when developing the required safe use of digital technologies and online environments policy and procedure.
  • Approved providers should consider the restrictions on personal mobile devices documented within the National Model Code so that only service-issued electronic devices are used when taking images or videos of children. It is an expectation that personal devices are not used when you are actively providing education and care.
• Notification timeframes: approved providers must notify the regulatory authority of allegations or incidents of physical and sexual abuse within 24 hours (down from 7 days).
• Vaping: services need to be free from vaping substances and vaping devices

For practical guidance and support to meet the changes read the information sheet provided by ACECQA and see also the Child Safety info page.

You may also like to review the Department of Education and Training policy and procedure that has been developed by the Department for use at all Department operated early childhood education and care settings, including preschools. These documents may provide guidance on the development of your own policies and procures and provide consideration to if you wish to include a device register, or exemption process. This information is intended to be provided as a sample, and not required to be used by any service that is not operated by the Department of Education and Training directly.

You may have also heard about further changes to strengthen safety and quality in ECEC. At the Education Ministers Meeting on 22 August, the Australian Government, in coordinated action with all states and territories, announced it will invest up to $189 million to strengthen safety and quality in ECEC settings. This includes the above-mentioned banning or restricted use of personal mobile phones or digital devices capable of taking images or videos whilst working directly with children.

It was agreed that all jurisdictions, including the NT will be actively regulating these restrictions. QECNT will do this by communicating with you when visiting, or when we call you. We will ask to see your new ‘safe use of digital technologies and online environments’ policy and procedure and discuss with you how you are ensuring safe use of technology, including the restrictions on taking images of children with personal devices and utilising service issued devices only.

We understand that context is important in all legislative changes including these, and we are happy to answer any question your may have.

Please contact the team to speak to an authorised officer on 8999 3561 or email Qualityecnt.det@education.nt.gov.au.

QECNT’s current assessment and rating policy states partial re-assessment should assess a minimum of four quality areas and take place after 6 months after the previously published assessment and rating and no later than 3 years after a previous full assessment and rating. This position is consistent with other jurisdictions, including New South Wales and Queensland and ensures a risk-based approach. The partial reassessment and re-rating tab provides more information on this.

As of 1 April 2025, 234 approved services were operational in the NT. Nationally, 91% of services held a quality rating of ‘Meeting’ the NQS or above however, only 77% met this same standard in the NT.

Of the services that hold a rating of ‘Working Towards’ the NQS or lower, a large portion of these have been assessed and rated less than two years ago and are only working towards in two or less quality areas. To improve the NT assessment ratings against the NQS, QECNT has committed to offering services with one or two quality areas working towards, the option for a partial reassessment and to be re-rated during the period of 1 July 2025 to 31 December 2025.

The criteria for a service to be offered a targeted partial A&R is:

• Previously assessed and rated less than 2 years ago
• Working towards in only one or two quality areas

This approach provides the approved provider an opportunity to be re-assessed in a shorter time frame than resourcing and scheduling would usually allow, and an opportunity to demonstrate if they are now meeting the NQS.

To reflect QECNT’s commitment to ensuring services are operating with children’s health, safety and wellbeing at the forefront, all services will have quality area two (children’s health and safety) reassessed and re-rated, regardless of whether they are Working Towards or Meeting, in addition to one or two quality areas that are currently Working Towards.

A notice period is not required, however in most cases the approved provider will be contacted up to 5 days before to confirm the visit date and request the service’s quality improvement plan (QIP).

This partial reassessment will, in most instances, be conducted with a one-day visit to the service and will consist of observations, discussions and sighting of documentation.

QECNT will continue both the regular partial reassessment and re-rating and full assessment and rating schedule concurrently to this project, ensuring quality ratings are reflective of the quality provided to children.

On 1 January 2012, regulation of long day care, family day care, 3 year old kindergarten, preschools and outside school hours care services under the Education and Care Services (National Uniform Legislation) Act 2011 and the Education and Care Services National Regulations commenced in the NT.

QECNT continues to work with service providers to increase their knowledge and understanding of the regulatory requirements and support continuous improvement.

QECNT works closely with the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), the organisation responsible for ensuring the NQF is applied consistently across Australia.

The National Quality Framework (NQF) is a unified, national regulatory and quality assurance system for early childhood and school age education and care services. It was established in 2012 and applies to most long day care, family day care, kindergarten, preschool and outside schools hours care services.

This system:

• works to provide children with the best start in life
• promotes best practice, raises quality and drives continuous improvement in education and care services
• streamlines the administration and regulation of education and care services
• ensures services meet the needs of families
• provides parents with information about the quality of the services their children attend.

In 2024 and 2025, Quality Education and Care NT (QECNT) commenced ensuring all NT services are visited every year.

QECNT will once again be visiting every service in 2026.

Each service will receive at a minimum a compliance and monitoring visit or assessment and rating (A&R) (this could be a full or partial A&R).

Services may receive a range of other visits pending circumstances, such as additional monitoring, education, investigations, and complaints.

In 2026, QECNT will be conducting more unannounced visits. QECNT have the powers to visit a service at any time the service is in operation, and we know historically that visiting unannounced often provides a clearer indication of the quality and care that the children are receiving every day. If an authorised officer visits your service and you are not able to provide time to share documents or have a discussion, we will arrange this with you after the visit to ensure no impact to your service operations during our visit.

In line with the National Quality Framework (NQF) – all services should be operating in accordance with the regulations at all times, and it is vital that services in the NT provide quality care that meets the NQF at all times, not just when you know that QECNT are paying a visit.

QECNT have been provided information relating to the closure of a number of registered training organisations (RTO’s) These RTO’s and relevant closures are made by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) and relate to the validity of the qualifications. QECNT do not regulate qualifications directly, see the details on the ASQA webpage for more information, go to the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) website.

Now is the time for approved providers and services to ensure your educator’s qualifications are valid and on the ACECQA website.

Quality Education and Care NT (QECNT), as the Regulatory Authority in the Northern Territory, is responsible for the administration of the National Quality Framework (NQF), which includes monitoring education and care services compliance with the Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010 and Education and Care Services National Regulations.

When non-compliance is identified, the Regulatory Authority will take appropriate enforcement action to address the risk to the health and safety of children and to mitigate the risk of the non-compliance reoccurring.

Enforcement actions may be published when non-compliance is particularly serious or high risk, or where there has been a pattern of repeated non-compliance.

Pursuant to section 270 of the National Law and regulation 227 of the National Regulations, the Regulatory Authority may publish information about enforcement actions taken under the National Law including:

• a prosecution for an offence leading to a conviction or finding of guilt or a plea of guilt
• the acceptance by the Regulatory Authority of an enforceable undertaking
• the giving of a compliance notice
• the suspension or cancellation of a provider approval or service approval
• an amendment made to a provider approval or service approval for purposes of enforcement
• the giving of an emergency action notice under section 179 of the Law.

Where a person is eligible to apply for an internal or external review of an enforcement action, information may be published after the end of the period for requesting a review, if no request for a review is made.

Information that the department chooses to publish is not a comprehensive list of all serious enforcement action taken and certain enforcement actions cannot be published including infringement notices, compliance directions, direction to exclude inappropriate persons from service premises, notice to suspend education and care by family day care educator and prohibition notices.

Families should also request to see a service’s record of compliance when choosing an early childhood education and care service for their child.

Our QECNT - Regulation framework PDF (527.2 KB) details our approach to compliance and enforcement and the regulatory tools we use to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of children in education and care services.

All state and territory governments including the NT agreed to publish information about enforcement actions on ACECQA’s family focused website, Starting Blocks.

From 1 January 2026, you can see the enforcement actions published by QECNT and all state and territory regulators on Starting Blocks. This includes enforcement action for the last two years, and the most recent visit to the service.

Find out more about the types of action, or see enforcement actions on the Starting Blocks website.

The following resources provide valuable information to services, educators and authorised officers in understanding and implementing the National Quality Standard.

QECNT policies provide advice and information to authorised officers, providers, services, educators, parents and the wider community on the principles and standards that QECNT adhere to in implementing the National Quality Framework in the Northern Territory.

For further information or clarification, please contact Quality Education and Care Northern Territory on 08 8999 3561 or qualityecnt.det@nt.gov.au.

• QECNT Policy: Australian privacy principles privacy policy DOCX (661.8 KB)
  QECNT Policy: Australian privacy principles privacy policy PDF (734.0 KB)
• QECNT Assessment and rating - policy DOCX (680.4 KB)
  QECNT Assessment and rating - policy PDF (315.3 KB)
• QECNT Assessment and rating procedures DOCX (658.6 KB)
  QECNT Assessment and rating procedures PDF (291.7 KB)
• First tier review - policy and guidelines DOCX (666.9 KB)
  First tier review - policy and guidelines PDF (333.6 KB)
• QECNT - Regulation framework PDF (527.2 KB)
• QECNT Complaints - Information sheet PDF (570.8 KB)
• QECNT Waiver - Policy and guidelines PDF (356.5 KB)
• QECNT Waivers - Information sheet PDF (133.5 KB)