Child safety in Victoria’s early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector has been in the spotlight for many years, but reached a crisis point in July 2025 after two men were charged with over 200 offences relating to abuse against children in ECEC centres in Melbourne’s west. 

The Victorian Government commissioned a rapid review of the state’s child safety laws, including worker screening and information-sharing provisions, and foreshadowed an overhaul of the sector. Victoria, along with other federal, state and territory governments, have since worked together to address vulnerabilities within the sector that were in evidence long before the rapid review again. A coordinated legislative and regulatory response is now being enacted on a national level. 

As part of this response, four Victorian Acts were passed between August and December 2025 addressing worker screening vulnerabilities and introducing more substantive reforms – including a new independent early childhood regulatory authority, a register of early childhood workers and the removal of worker screening from the Department of Education to an independent regulator. 

This paper summarises the events and discussions that have resulted in these reforms, including the series of reports since 2015 that have highlighted sector failings across several states. It outlines the key issues identified in these reports that have compounded the need for reform, including the complexity of regulation in the sector and the need for improved information-sharing, before providing a brief summary of the new legislation and stakeholder responses to the reforms.