Recruitment, Retention and Beyond
Wednesday, 11 February 2026 | 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Recruitment and retention are only part of the staffing journey. Under the 2026 updates to the Education and Care Services National Law and Regulations, services are now required to demonstrate stronger child-safe recruitment practices, enhanced suitability checks, and ongoing oversight of educator conduct.
Without clear processes, robust screening, and confident, compliant decision-making, even well-intentioned employment practices can expose services to serious legal, regulatory, and safeguarding risks.
This seminar takes you beyond recruitment and equips you with the knowledge, tools, and confidence to manage the full employment lifecycle in line with contemporary child safety requirements-from hiring through to retention, performance management, and probation decisions.
We’ll explore:
• assessing candidates using structured, defensible recruitment processes that prioritise child safety, ethical conduct, regulatory compliance and professional integrity
• Conducting effective reference checks and validating qualifications, registrations, and work history, in line with 2026 requirements for verification, documentation, and record keeping
• Implementing strengthened pre-employment screening and disclosure processes, including working with children checks, identity verification, and suitability declarations to support safety, transparency, to support informed decision-making
• Establishing clear expectations from commencement, including task and roll responsibilities (job descriptions), codes of conduct, child safe standards, reporting obligations, and behavioural boundaries
• Managing performance and probation under the updated regulatory framework, including early intervention, documentation, and making lawful, confident decisions when an employee does not meet suitability or child safety expectations
• Ongoing compliance and continuous monitoring, including supervision, re-checking requirements, incident reporting obligations, and responding to conduct that may impact a person’s suitability to work with children
• Practical retention strategies that enhance wellbeing, accountability, and professional growth, while maintaining a strong child-centred culture
And, what if you got it wrong and how to fix it.
Designed for leaders who want to strengthen their governance and leadership practice, this focused session provides clear, practical guidance and documentary examples grounded in real-world scenarios and aligned with the 2026 National Law, Regulations, Child Safe Standards, and ACECQA expectations.
Available to both members and non-members. Resources will be distributed via email following the seminar. Speaking notes of the session won't be distributed.
