HR, safety and compliance for early childhood education and care

From the first full pay period on or after 1 March 2026, the Fair Work Commission replaced the award’s previous classification structure of 36 minimum pay rates with a new, simplified eight-level system, following a finding that the award had historically undervalued its largely female workforce. Minimum rates are increasing in stages, with further adjustments on 30 June each year through to 2028 or 2029. Providers need to correctly translate every existing employee into the new structure based on their actual qualifications and duties, and recheck any Worker Retention Payment top-ups whenever the underlying award rate changes, so combined pay doesn’t fall below the required threshold. 

Ratios and qualification mix requirements under the Education and Care Services National Law apply continuously, not just during core hours, which makes rostering one of the highest-risk areas for compliance failure. foundU’s rostering software is built to match educators to rooms based on qualifications and ratio requirements, not just availability, and flags gaps before a shift starts. Alongside this, our HR advisors help you build documented processes for tracking qualifications, Working with Children Checks and first aid certifications so nothing lapses unnoticed. 

Under work health and safety laws, ECE providers must identify and manage both physical and psychosocial hazards, including manual handling risks from lifting and physical care tasks, incident and injury management involving children, and the psychosocial risks associated with high-responsibility, emotionally demanding work. Having a policy folder or an Employee Assistance Program in place is not the same as an active risk management system – the legal obligation is to identify hazards, assess the risk, implement controls and review them regularly. 

It depends on your growth plans, but it’s becoming more relevant. As more ECE providers consolidate into multi-site groups or pursue government-funded and corporate partnership arrangements, ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 45001 (safety management) increasingly demonstrate to funders, corporate partners and regulators that your systems are independently verified rather than self-assessed. It’s not yet a blanket requirement across the sector, but providers pursuing scale or public funding are seeing it requested more often. 

Yes. foundU combines rostering, timesheets and payroll in one platform, with Children’s Services Award interpretation built in and kept current as the award’s classification structure and rates change. It rosters educators against ratio and qualification requirements in real time, captures Working with Children Check and qualification expiry dates with automatic alerts, and processes Single Touch Payroll (STP2) compliant pay runs directly from approved timesheets – removing the manual handoffs where underpayment and ratio breaches typically occur.