Victorian Early Childhood Legislation Amendment Bill

The Early Childhood Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 is currently before the Victorian Parliament. Amongst a number of things the Bill amends the Education and Care Services National Law to implement the recommendations arising from the 2019 National Quality Framework Review and some additional minor policy decisions by the Education Ministers Meeting. In particular, the amendments seek to:

• expand the meaning of a person with management or control of an education and care service;

• clarify that a Regulatory Authority may administer tests or questions for the purposes of assessing a person's fitness and propriety;

• to provide for suspension or cancellation of provider approval in certain circumstances where the provider approval has been cancelled or refused under the A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999 (Cth);

• remove service waivers and temporary waivers in relation to compliance with an element of the National Quality Standard;

• change the notification process for the transfer of a service approval;

• clarify the requirements for display of information in relation to family day care services;

• make changes to the condition requiring employment or engagement of a minimum number of family day care co-ordinators;

• extend the duration of the highest rating for an education and care service;

• extend the requirement under the National Law for child protection training to family day care co-ordinators; and

• increase the maximum penalties for various offences against the Education and Care Services National Law.

Other jurisdictions will undoubtedly make the same changes to their versions of the National Law. The Bill also amends the Children's Services Act 1996 (Vic) to maintain alignment with the Education and Care Services National Law.

A summary of all the changes included in the Bill can be found in the Explanatory Memorandum. The whole Act will come into effect by 1 October 2023 at the latest but some provisions come into effect earlier (see clause 2 of the Bill for commencement information).