For all services, both persons in day-to-day charge and all nominated supervisors must complete an approved child protection course.

The ACT's 354 National Quality Framework-approved early childhood services reported more than 500 serious incidents last financial year, translating to an average of almost 150 serious incidents per 100 National Quality Framework-approved services - well above the national average of 99.3.

Illawarra child care provider Big Fat Smile has been fined $24,000 fine, plus costs, after a sleeping three-year-old boy was left undiscovered at a Wollongong centre for almost an hour after closing time.

Three Perth women have had their child care supervisor accreditation cancelled, and one faced a criminal charge after a six-year-old autistic boy was smacked and had soap put in his mouth.

There has been a product safety recall from Product Safety Australia for the Jumbo Wooden Xylophone and Big W Girls Bomber Jacket.

Thousands of children across Australia may be at risk after a loophole for dodgy childcare centre operators to buy businesses without a safety audit.

There has been a product safety recall from Product Safety Australia regarding the Cotton On Kids— Baby Summer Bundler Sleeping Bag, purchased between 1 October 2017 - 8 December 2017.

There has been a product safety recall from Product Safety Australia for the VTech Baby Pack & Go Travel Mobile and VTech Baby Shake and Sing Elephant Rattle

From the 01 Oct, a new National Regulation will be put in place that will give Educators the right to overrule parents requests for their child's sleep arrangements to reduce the risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).  

As part of a $53 million Mental Health in Education program, announced by the Turnbull government, three-year-olds in childcare and students from preschool and kindergarten upwards will be taught about suicide awareness and mental health.

Early Childhood Australia CEO Sam Page said helping to develop resilient children who were aware of their emotions and mental health could have a real impact in preventing them from being at risk of suicide later on in life.

“If we teach all children how to name their emotions, how to feel sad and how to recover from that ... then we are more likely to have reduced instances of depression and that in turn will reduce the number of children trying to suicide,” Ms Page said.

While the word “suicide” won’t be used directly with three-year-olds, discussions around feelings of “not wanting to be here” or “wanting to die” could be addressed in the right context.

Health Minister Greg Hunt will announce teachers from childcare through to Year 12 will be provided additional mental health and suicide training in their university degrees or VET education.

Those already teaching will undergo additional online and face-to-face training to better improve the discussion with children around the issue.

The program will be run by Beyond Blue in partnership with Early Childhood Australia and Headspace.

It will begin early next year with two-thirds of all schools to be involved — 2000 Early Learning Services and 6000 schools — by June 2019.

Reference:
Rudd, Matilda (2017), Three Year Olds Discuss Suicide Awareness, Daily Mail Australia