More visits and more action to protect children in early childhood services

The Victorian Early Childhood Regulatory Authority (VECRA) is visiting and inspecting more early childhood education and care services than ever before, ensuring we’re well placed to protect the safety, rights and best interests of children.

The National Quality Framework (NQF) Snapshot released this week includes visit and inspection data for the first time. Over the first 6 months of 2026, VECRA has undertaken 2,791 visits to Victorian services – many of which were unannounced and in response to community complaints. This compares to 2,703 visits during the same period last year.

With more authorised officers coming on board within the next few months, VECRA will be even better placed to undertake more visits and inspections as it looks to increase the number of unannounced visits to one per service per year.

VECRA is also increasing the frequency of Assessment and Rating visits, during which authorised officers assess the quality of the education and care provided.

This week’s release of the latest NQF Snapshot shows that as well as more visits, there is a significant increase in the number of enforcement actions taken by VECRA compared to the same period last year.

From 1 January to 30 June 2026, VECRA took 2,414 enforcement actions against approved providers, services and educators. This compares to 1,736 actions for the first 6 months of 2025.

This data also highlights that over the last 6 months, VECRA carried out 532 regulatory actions, compared to just 32 over the same time period a year ago.

VECRA’s enforcement actions also prevent potentially unsuitable educators from working with children, with 21 prohibition orders or suspension directions over the first 6 months of 2026.

VECRA is working closely with other regulators and law enforcement agencies, including the Social Services Regulator, the Victorian Institute of Teaching and Victoria Police to share intelligence and coordinate action.

More information is available on VECRA’s website, vecra.vic.gov.au, including more data and detail about enforcement action taken. This includes when VECRA has suspended services from operating and issued emergency action notices.

VECRA continues to encourage people to report serious incidents and instances of unacceptable behaviour towards children, as well as any other concerns, to their service directly or through VECRA’s easy-to-use online complaint form. This includes complaints and concerns from educators who play a key role in ensuring those who put children at risk are stopped at the earliest opportunity.

The Rapid Child Safety Review, established in response to allegations of child sexual abuse in early childhood education and care settings, recommended VECRA increase transparency about its enforcement and compliance actions.

VECRA will continue to improve the transparency of published information about its enforcement and compliance actions so parents and carers have the information they need when they are choosing an early childhood education and care service for their child.

Quotes attributable to Wendy Steendam, Early Childhood Regulator:

“We know that the vast majority of Victoria’s early childhood education and care services continue to provide high quality education and care, and this is shown by 96.2% of services meeting the National Quality Standard or better.”

“Thanks to new resources and powers which have been made available to VECRA, we’re visiting and assessing more services than ever before.”

“VECRA will continue to work constructively with service providers and educators to ensure safe and high quality education and care for all children. However, we will not tolerate service providers or educators who fail to prioritise the safety, rights and best interests of children.”

Further background

On 1 January 2026, VECRA commenced operations as Victoria's new independent early childhood regulator.

A key recommendation from the 2025 Rapid Child Safety Review was to establish a new independent regulator to oversee safety, quality, and compliance in early childhood services across Victoria.

Media contact: vecra.media@education.vic.gov.au