Perfect for Global hand washing day on 15 October 2026
By BEST Childcare Consulting
A child’s hand reaches for ours for so many reasons—for reassurance, for help climbing a step, to show us something exciting they have discovered, or simply to hold ours when they are uncertain. Those same little hands spend their days exploring the world around them: digging in sand, creating with paint, touching toys, cuddling friends, eating, wiping noses, investigating nature and discovering everything childhood has to offer.
Keeping those hands clean may seem like one of the simplest routines in early childhood education and care, but it is also one of the most important. Every time an educator helps a baby wash their hands, reminds a toddler to use soap, supports a preschool child to understand how germs spread or models good hygiene themselves, they are doing more than teaching a healthy habit. They are helping protect a child.
This Global Handwashing Day, 15 October 2026, BEST encourages early childhood education and care services to look at hand hygiene through a broader lens: hand hygiene is child safety.
Global Handwashing Day 2026 – Be a Handwashing Hero!
In early childhood education and care, our Handwashing Heroes are everywhere. They are the babies beginning to participate in familiar hygiene routines, the toddlers proudly learning to wash and dry their own hands, the preschool children beginning to understand why soap and water matter, and the school-age children who can investigate, question and advocate for healthy practices. They are also the educators, cooks, cleaners, leaders and families who create environments where good hygiene happens consistently—not just on Global Handwashing Day, but every day.
Hand Hygiene Is a Child-Safety Practice
Early childhood environments are wonderfully social places. Children play closely together, share equipment and resources, explore sensory experiences, eat together and interact physically with educators and other children. Babies and toddlers may mouth objects, children may need assistance with toileting, nappy changing and nose wiping, and educators move between caring, cleaning, food handling and educational responsibilities throughout the day.
These normal and important experiences of childhood also create opportunities for infectious organisms to move between people, hands, food, equipment and surfaces. Effective hand hygiene helps interrupt this transmission.
The NHMRC’s Staying healthy: Preventing infectious diseases in early childhood education and care services – 6th edition identifies regular hand hygiene by educators, other staff and children as one of its five key practice recommendations. The National Quality Standard makes the connection equally clear. Element 2.1.2 – Health practices and procedures requires effective illness and injury management and hygiene practices to be promoted and implemented.
Hand hygiene therefore needs to be understood as much more than a routine children complete before lunch. It is a fundamental infection-prevention practice and an important part of how early childhood services protect children from preventable harm.
Good Hand Hygiene Requires Good Systems
It is easy to tell children to “go and wash your hands”, but high-quality hygiene practice requires much more than giving children an instruction. Services need environments, routines, educator knowledge and supervision arrangements that make safe practice possible.
Consider whether handwashing facilities are accessible to all children, whether soap and appropriate hand-drying facilities are consistently available, and whether educators understand the appropriate times for their own hand hygiene. Observe whether children are adequately supervised and supported during handwashing, particularly when several children need to use the bathroom or sink simultaneously.
Services should also consider what happens during nappy changing, toileting, food preparation, nose wiping, first aid, cleaning and messy play. Casual and relief educators need to understand the service’s expectations just as clearly as permanent educators, and hygiene practices need to remain consistent during busy transitions and periods of competing demands.
Perhaps one of the most useful questions a service can ask is: Would the hygiene practices we observe at 10:00 am on a quiet morning still be evident at 4:30 pm on a busy afternoon?
Child-safe practice needs to work when a service is busy, not only when everything is going according to plan.
Handwashing and Supervision
Handwashing itself can create supervision challenges. Imagine several toddlers preparing for lunch. Some are waiting at the sink, one needs help with the tap, another has finished washing and begins walking away, another needs toileting assistance, and children are already moving towards the table.
The educator is not simply supervising handwashing. They are simultaneously managing hygiene, movement, children’s individual needs, transitions and adequate supervision. Services should therefore critically consider how the location of sinks, educator positioning, group size, routines and transitions influence both infection control and children’s safety.
A good hygiene procedure must work within the realities of the service environment. Effective hygiene and effective supervision should support one another rather than compete for educators’ attention.
Creating Handwashing Heroes Through the Educational Program
Global Handwashing Day does not need to become another themed day where every room completes the same craft activity. Children at different developmental stages experience hygiene very differently, and the educational program can reflect this.
Babies – Building Safe, Familiar Routines
For babies, Global Handwashing Day can focus on secure relationships, sensory learning and predictable routines. Educators can use simple songs while helping babies wash their hands, narrate what is happening—“water on your hands”, “now we use soap”—and allow babies to safely experience the sensations of water, bubbles and drying.
Photos of familiar educators and children completing hygiene routines could also be displayed near changing and washing areas. The goal is not to teach babies facts about germs, but to establish positive and responsive experiences in which hygiene becomes a familiar part of being cared for. Over time, babies begin to recognise routines and participate in them in developmentally appropriate ways.
Toddlers – “I Can Wash My Hands!”
Toddlers are developing independence rapidly, making handwashing an excellent opportunity to support agency and self-help skills. Educators can introduce simple visual handwashing sequences, practise turning taps on and off, use songs to encourage sufficient washing time and talk about the important times we need to wash our hands.
Children can gradually become familiar with the simple sequence Wet – Soap – Rub – Rinse – Dry. Rather than educators automatically completing every step for them, toddlers can be supported to do what they are developmentally capable of doing themselves. This transforms an everyday hygiene routine into learning about independence, health and caring for ourselves and others.
3-Year Kindy – Where Do Germs Go?
Three-year-old children are ready to begin exploring the why behind handwashing. Educators can introduce age-appropriate conversations about germs and how they can move from our hands to toys, food, surfaces and other people.
Children might experiment with glitter or another safe visual material to demonstrate how easily something on our hands can transfer between people and objects. They could create handwashing posters, sequence photographs of the handwashing process, investigate soap and bubbles or discuss the different times during the day when handwashing is important.
Questions such as “Why do you think we use soap?” can provide a valuable starting point. Rather than immediately giving children the answer, educators can listen to their theories, document their thinking and use their responses to guide further investigation.
4-Year Kindy – Becoming Handwashing Investigators
Older preschool children can move beyond following the handwashing routine to investigating and evaluating it. Invite children to become Handwashing Heroes and investigate their own service. Are the sinks easy to reach? Can everyone access the soap? Where are the handwashing signs? Do younger children understand them? When do we need to wash our hands, and what could make handwashing easier?
Children might photograph the steps and create their own visual instructions, design signs for bathrooms and eating areas, conduct simple experiments about soap and water, or develop a Handwashing Hero campaign to share with younger children. This gives children genuine opportunities for agency and participation, and their observations may even identify improvements adults have overlooked.
OSHC – From Learners to Health Advocates
School-age children can explore hygiene at a much deeper level. They might investigate how infectious diseases spread, research the science of soap, examine myths about germs or develop their own health-promotion campaign.
Children could survey their peers about handwashing knowledge, audit handwashing facilities, create posters or digital resources, design simple experiments or develop health messages for families. Older children could also explore the idea of collective responsibility by considering whether keeping everyone healthy is only about washing our own hands, or whether we all have a responsibility to help protect one another.
This brings together children’s voice, agency, science, health, wellbeing and citizenship in a meaningful project rather than simply repeating handwashing instructions they have heard many times before.
QIP write up
QA1 – Educational Program and Practice
Embedded Practice: Hand hygiene had been embedded within the educational program as an everyday health, wellbeing and self-help practice rather than being limited to routine care moments. Educators had intentionally adapted learning opportunities according to children’s ages, abilities and understanding and had consistently supported children’s growing independence and knowledge of hygiene.
Critical Reflection: Educators had critically reflected on whether hygiene routines were being treated primarily as adult-directed tasks or as meaningful opportunities for children’s learning and agency. This reflection had resulted in greater intentional teaching about why handwashing was important and increased opportunities for children to participate in evaluating their own hygiene environments.
Meaningful Engagement with Families and/or the Community: Children’s questions, ideas and observations had influenced the direction of the program. Families had been invited to share hygiene practices used at home, helping educators strengthen continuity between children’s home and service environments.
QA2 – Children’s Health and Safety
Embedded Practice: Effective hand hygiene and infection-prevention practices had been consistently implemented throughout the service in accordance with recognised health guidance. Children had been supported and supervised to practise effective hand hygiene, while educators had consistently modelled appropriate practices across toileting, nappy changing, food handling, cleaning and everyday care routines.
Critical Reflection: The service had reviewed its hygiene practices against current recognised guidance, including the NHMRC Staying healthy – 6th edition. Educators had observed practices during different periods of the day and identified potential cross-contamination risks, inconsistencies and challenges occurring during busy routines. Improvements had subsequently been implemented and reviewed.
Meaningful Engagement with Families and/or the Community: Families had been provided with current information about hand hygiene and infection prevention and invited to contribute feedback regarding children’s individual health needs and home practices. Children’s perspectives had also informed changes to handwashing environments and routines.
QA3 – Physical Environment
Embedded Practice: Handwashing environments had been maintained so children could safely and independently access appropriate facilities, soap and hygienic hand-drying options. Hygiene resources had been routinely monitored and replenished as part of everyday service practice.
Critical Reflection: Educators had examined whether the location, height, accessibility and organisation of handwashing facilities supported children’s independence, inclusion, hygiene and adequate supervision. Identified environmental barriers had been addressed where practicable.
Meaningful Engagement with Families and/or the Community: Children had participated in reviewing their handwashing environments and had contributed ideas about signage, accessibility and organisation. Family feedback regarding individual children’s accessibility or support requirements had informed environmental decisions.
QA4 – Staffing Arrangements
Embedded Practice: Educators, including casual and relief educators, had understood their responsibilities for maintaining hygiene and supervising children during handwashing and other personal-care routines. Team communication had supported consistent practice during busy periods and transitions.
Critical Reflection: The team had considered how staffing arrangements, educator positioning, competing responsibilities and transitions affected the consistency of hand hygiene and supervision. Practices had been adjusted where gaps or unnecessary risks were identified.
Meaningful Engagement with Families and/or the Community: Educator feedback and professional knowledge had been actively sought when reviewing routines, and staff had collaboratively identified practical changes that supported effective infection control and children’s safety. Relevant advice from recognised health authorities had also informed practice.
QA5 – Relationships with Children
Embedded Practice: Educators had approached hygiene routines respectfully and had supported children’s dignity, autonomy and growing independence. Children had been encouraged and guided to develop positive hygiene practices rather than being shamed or frightened about germs or illness.
Critical Reflection: Educators had reflected on the language used when discussing germs, illness and cleanliness and considered whether their approaches supported children’s confidence and understanding without creating unnecessary fear or anxiety.
Meaningful Engagement with Families and/or the Community: Children’s voices had been actively sought when reviewing handwashing routines. Their ideas had influenced resources, routines and learning experiences, reinforcing that children were active participants in decisions affecting their health and wellbeing.
QA6 – Collaborative Partnerships with Families and Communities
Embedded Practice: Current health and hygiene information had been regularly shared with families, and communication about infectious illness and hygiene expectations had formed part of the service’s ongoing partnership with families.
Critical Reflection: The service had reflected on whether health information was accessible, understandable, culturally responsive and useful to its particular community rather than simply distributing generic information.
Meaningful Engagement with Families and/or the Community: Families had been invited to contribute knowledge, questions and feedback about hygiene practices. Where appropriate, information from recognised health organisations and community health professionals had been incorporated into service communication and decision-making.
QA7 – Governance and Leadership
Embedded Practice: The service’s policies, procedures, induction processes, staff expectations and monitoring systems had consistently supported effective hygiene and infection prevention. Leaders had ensured educators understood not only the procedures they were expected to follow but also why those practices were important for children’s health and safety.
Critical Reflection: Service leaders had used Global Handwashing Day as an opportunity to review hygiene procedures, educator knowledge, environmental arrangements and alignment with current recognised guidance. Identified improvements had been documented, implemented and subsequently evaluated.
Meaningful Engagement with Families and/or the Community: Educators, children and families had been provided with meaningful opportunities to contribute to the review of hygiene practices. Their feedback had informed service decisions and continuous quality improvement rather than engagement being limited to simply providing information.
Keeping Hand Hygiene Embedded Throughout the Year
The most important part of Global Handwashing Day may be what happens on 16 October—and throughout the rest of the year. For hand hygiene to become genuinely embedded, it needs to remain visible within everyday service practice rather than disappearing when the displays and activities from Global Handwashing Day are packed away.
Continue children’s conversations and investigations and revisit them as their understanding develops. Include hand hygiene and infection-prevention expectations in staff induction and orientation so that new, casual and relief educators understand service practice. Regularly check handwashing environments, soap, drying facilities and accessibility, and observe what actually happens during busy periods rather than only when routines are running smoothly.
Services can also revisit hygiene and infection-control procedures when recognised health guidance changes, use outbreaks, incidents and identified cross-contamination risks as opportunities for critical reflection, and periodically ask children what they understand about keeping themselves and others healthy. Reliable information can continue to be shared with families, and hygiene can remain part of ongoing self-assessment and quality improvement.
Most importantly, leaders can continue asking a deceptively simple question: “Is what our policy says actually what happens in practice?”
When the answer is consistently yes, hygiene has moved beyond being a written procedure and become part of the service’s culture of child safety.
Official Links and Resources
Global Handwashing Partnership – Global Handwashing Day
The official Global Handwashing Day website provides campaign information and resources for “Be a Handwashing Hero!”, which it confirms is the multi-year Global Handwashing Day theme.
Global Handwashing Day – Be a Handwashing Hero!
NHMRC – Staying healthy: Preventing infectious diseases in early childhood education and care services – 6th edition
This is the current Australian best-practice resource for preventing and reducing the spread of infectious diseases in education and care services. The online version is particularly useful because NHMRC states it will be kept up to date.
NHMRC – Staying healthy guidelines, 6th edition
ACECQA – Quality Area 2: Children’s Health and Safety
The official ACECQA Quality Area 2 page covers children’s health, safety and protection, including Element 2.1.2 – Health practices and procedures.
ACECQA – Quality Area 2: Children’s Health and Safety
ACECQA – Element 2.1.2: Health Practices and Procedures
Rather than linking readers to the generic front page of the Guide to the NQF, I recommend linking to ACECQA’s National Quality Standard section of the Guide. It contains the detailed guidance for the NQS elements and reflective questions.
ACECQA – National Quality Standard and Element Guidance
ACECQA – Exceeding the NQS
I would change your previous link here too. ACECQA’s current Exceeding the NQS series page specifically explains the Exceeding rating and directs services to supporting resources and case studies.
ACECQA – Exceeding the NQS Series
ACECQA – Demonstrating and Assessing Exceeding NQS
I would actually add this 2026 ACECQA information sheet to the article. It is especially relevant to your QIP section because it directly confirms the three Exceeding themes: practice is embedded in service operations, informed by critical reflection, and shaped by meaningful engagement with families and/or the community.
ACECQA – Demonstrating and Assessing Exceeding NQS Information Sheet
BEST Childcare Consulting
At BEST Childcare Consulting, we believe quality improvement is strongest when it becomes part of what services genuinely do every day. We support early childhood education and care services to strengthen practice, critically reflect, build educator knowledge and turn regulatory and quality requirements into practical approaches that work in real childcare environments.
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