Do Childcare Centres Need to Consider Psychosocial Safety?
Absolutely — and it’s now both a legal obligation and a marker of high-quality care.
Psychosocial safety refers to creating a workplace and learning environment that protects everyone’s mental, emotional, and social wellbeing. It ensures educators, children, and families feel respected, supported, and free from bullying, overwork, or emotional harm.
Under the Work Health and Safety (General) Regulations 2022 (WA) and WorkSafe WA’s Code of Practice: Psychosocial Hazards in the Workplace, all early childhood education and care (ECEC) services must identify, assess, and manage psychosocial risks. These requirements sit alongside your obligations under the Education and Care Services National Law and Regulations.
A psychosocially safe service isn’t just compliant — it’s calm, consistent, and connected. When educators feel valued and supported, children thrive in emotionally secure environments that foster learning and belonging.
Tag Archives: Childcare compliance
We know how busy life can be in an early childhood service — educators balancing room routines, directors juggling paperwork, and everyone wanting to focus on what matters most: educating and caring for children and being a strong community partner. BEST articles are created with that reality in mind. Each article honours national theme weeks and their important messages, while matching them with child-led programming so children’s interests remain at the centre of learning. This approach helps services know they are truly delivering a rich educational program that nurtures values, supports identity, and grows future global citizens.
To make this easy, BEST provides everything in one place — background information, activity ideas, links to trusted resources, QIP write-up examples, and reflection prompts. Our goal is to save educators and leaders time, build confidence, and bridge the gap between ideas and evidence. Articles are released a few weeks in advance on our website and Facebook page so teams can prepare, gather resources, and create provocations that encourage deep exploration. We then follow up with reminders closer to the date and share inspiration across Facebook and Instagram throughout the week to keep engagement high.
By planning ahead and embedding these themes into everyday practice, services can create programming that is purposeful, well-resourced, and supports exceeding-level practice. BEST’s consistent language and focus on cultural integrity, critical reflection, and community partnerships help ensure your documentation is strong, your practice is inclusive, and your service is supported to be the very best it can be.
The Child Care Subsidy (CCS) is the primary form of government assistance to help families cover the cost of childcare. Services must be approved by Services Australia and comply with federal law to receive and administer CCS payments.


