Role of the Regulatory Authority

The Department of Education is the Regulatory Authority for early childhood services in Victoria under the following regulatory schemes:

the National Quality Framework
- the Education and Care Services National Law(opens in a new window) (National Law)
- the Education and Care Services National Regulations(opens in a new window) (National Regulations)
- the National Quality Standard
the Victorian Children’s Services regulatory scheme:
- the Children’s Services Act 1996(opens in a new window) and
- the Children’s Services Regulations 2020(opens in a new window).
regulation of the Child Safe Standards (CSS) for all early childhood services in Victoria under the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005.

The Secretary of the department delegates the functions and powers of the Regulatory Authority to the Quality Assessment and Regulation Division (QARD) to administer and enforce the law and regulations.

QARD undertakes the full range of functions and powers provided to the Regulatory Authority under all three schemes to promote the safety, health and well-being of children attending early childhood services in Victoria.

Role of the Child Safe Standards regulator

QARD is the integrated sector regulator of the Child Safe Standards (CSS) for all early childhood services in Victoria.

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Ministerial Statement of Expectations

The Ministerial Statement of Expectations sets out the expectations of QARD as the regulator of early childhood services to support children attending education and care and children’s services by:

promoting their safety, health and well-being
improving their educational and developmental outcomes.

Regulatory policies

The QARD Regulatory Framework explains how we undertake our regulatory functions, including driving continuous quality improvement in education and care services:

Our Monitoring and Assessing Compliance and Quality policy explains how we monitor the compliance with legislation in early childhood services.

The QARD Investigation Guidelines (DOCX, 365KB) explain our approach to investigating breaches of the National Law, National Regulations, CS Act and CS Regulations.

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