Rapid Child Safety Review 2025

• Purpose of the Rapid Child Safety Review

  On 2 July 2025, the Victorian Government announced an urgent review into child safety in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings.

• Executive summary

  This Review was commissioned to rapidly advise the Victorian Government on what needs to change in the ECEC system to protect very young children from sexual abuse.

• Part 1: Governments to take greater responsibility for running the ECEC system

  Part 1, Chapter 1 calls for governments to take greater responsibility and rethink the national early childhood education and care system.

• Chapter 1: Rethink the national ECEC system

  This chapter recommends making the safety, rights and best interests of children the paramount consideration for decision making in ECEC services and a fundamental rethink of the system by governments.

• Part 2: Preventing predators entering the ECEC system

  Part 2 looks at the various ways the ECEC system can make sure predators do not enter the ECEC system.

• Chapter 2: Establish a new National Early Childhood Worker Register 

  Chapter 2: Establish a new National Early Childhood Worker Register 

• Chapter 3: Ensure best practice screening and recruitment

  The best way to protect children from abuse and harm is to prevent an unsuitable person from entering an ECEC service. This chapter makes recommendations to require best practice in recruitment, screening and induction, including through rigorous and proactive reference checks.

• Chapter 4: Overhaul the Working with Children Check and Reportable Conduct schemes in a single entity with a new risk function

  This chapter outlines major reforms to the Working with Children Check, an improved Reportable Conduct Scheme and the establishment of a new Shared Intelligence and Risk Assessment Capability.

• Part 3: Quickly identifying and excluding predators within the ECEC system

  Part 3 describes reforms that will help to identify predators within the ECEC system quickly and ensure they can be excluded.

• Chapter 5: Most rigorous inspection regime in the nation

  This chapter recommends making the ECEC Regulator independent, increasing the intensity of its unannounced visits to services to at least annually, ensuring it has contemporary risk assessment capability and tools, and a change to National Law to increase the penalties it can apply to services that do the wrong thing.

• Chapter 6: Improve the centre environment

  This chapter recommends staffing arrangements be reviewed to improve the number of qualified eyes on children, improve lines of sight in ECEC services through physical changes, and a national trial of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV).

• Chapter 7: Strengthen transparency and parents’ right to know

  This chapter recommends that quality and compliance information about ECEC services be made more accessible to parents. It also recommends improving resources on child sexual abuse prevention and clearer processes for parents who wish to report a complaint or concern.

• Chapter 8: Support the workforce

  This chapter recommends addressing poor quality Registered Training Organisations, making child safety training mandatory for all people involved in the provision of early childhood education and care and that there be investment in quality improvement programs. Workers should also be supported to raise concerns about child safety.

• Appendix 1: Terms of reference

  The Victorian Government will undertake a rapid review to identify the immediate actions that can be taken to improve the safety of children in early childhood education and care settings. The review will provide their report to the Victorian Government no later than 15 August 2025. The review will be led by a two-person panel comprising Mr Jay Weatherill AO and Ms Pam White PSM. Mr Jay Weatherill AO will chair the review.

• Appendix 2: Overview of the early childhood education and care system in Victoria

  This appendix provides background on key aspects of the ECEC system in Victoria.

• Appendix 3: The regulatory framework

  This appendix outlines the regulatory framework that applies to ECEC services

Updated 22 September 2025