On Friday 20 February, Commonwealth, State and Territory Education Ministers agreed to increase fees charged to early childhood education and care providers to contribute to the costs of regulation.
Education Ministers have been clear that child safety is paramount, and that effective regulation is critical to monitoring how early childhood education and care providers deliver safe and high-quality services for families.
In recent months, major reforms in early childhood have strengthened the National Law, given regulators more powers, and made it harder for bad actors to put children at risk.
At the same time, the Victorian Government has invested $137 million in its response to the Rapid Child Safety Review, and established the Victorian Early Childhood Regulatory Authority (VECRA) on 1 January 2026 with additional Authorised Officers to increase the number and frequency of compliance visits.
For the 2026-2027 financial year, for services in Victoria and NSW, fees will increase by indexation (CPI) and will have an additional increase of:
- 3.3-fold for all sessional kindergartens regardless of provider size
- 3.3-fold for services operated by small not-for-profit providers
- 5.5-fold for services operated by small for-profit providers
- 7.7-fold for services operated by large not-for-profit providers
- 11-fold for services operated by large for-profit providers.
The increase reflects a more appropriate contribution to rising operating and regulatory costs, including increased compliance visits and enforcement action by VECRA.
Annual service fees will increase by 10 percent and CPI for all other jurisdictions except Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, in which fees will increase by CPI only.
Providers are reminded to update their details on NQA ITS ahead of invoices being issued.
More details will be provided as soon as possible, and providers will be given time to pay.
Updated