Enforcement action taken by Regulatory Authority

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.

If you would like further information on what guides our decision to publish an enforcement action, please read the QECNT Published enforcement action -  policy and procedure PDF (306.7 KB).

Register of enforcement action DOCX (64.0 KB)
See enforcement action taken by QECNT, published in accordance with the National Law.

There are currently no published enforcement actions taken by the Regulatory Authority.