Staffing ratios in early childhood education and care services need to be improved to ensure there are more staff to educate and supervise children, writes Andrew Taylor.
“Workforce shortages are not separate from staffing conditions – they are a product of them”
Dr Tammy Williams, University of New England Early Childhood Education lecturer
Reports of child abuse and mistreatment in mainly for-profit early childhood services have rocked the sector, prompting state and federal governments to implement new safety measures.
These reforms include banning personal devices such as phones and smart watches in services, a national trial of closed-circuit television, mandatory child safety training and the introduction of the National Early Childhood Worker Register.
But the number of staff required to supervise children remains an area of desperately needed reform.
Staffing ratios under the National Quality Framework generally require one teacher or educator for every four children under two and one teacher or educator for every five two-to-three-year-olds.
For children aged three to five, the staffing ratio required in NSW, Tasmania and Western Australia is 1:10. In Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory, South Australia and Victoria, it is 1:11.
Supervision gaps
University of New England early childhood education lecturer Dr Tammy Williams says staffing ratios need to be improved to ensure there are more staff to educate and supervise children.
Williams interviewed early childhood education and care staff as part of her PhD research.
“Their descriptions of how staffing ratios are enacted in everyday settings explain the complexities in real practice that may influence the consistency of safety and supervision,” she says.
“Ratios measure staffing numbers per child, not whether supervision is continuous and responsive. This allows services to comply on paper while supervision gaps sometimes remain.”
Regulations require services to maintain minimum ratios to ensure children are adequately supervised, and only staff working directly with children count toward these ratios.
“However, minimum ratios do not account for supervision being disrupted by ongoing demands such as documenting children’s learning, providing behavioural support, cleaning and routine care,” Williams says.
Despite serious child safety breaches, politicians have failed to reform minimum staffing ratios.
“Policy logic in early childhood education and care means that risk is managed through increasing surveillance, regulation and administrative tasks, rather than through increasing human resources,” Williams says.
‘Under the roof’ in the spotlight
The staff Williams interviewed raised concerns about the practice known as ‘under the roof’.
This refers to a method of calculating the staff-to-child ratio by counting the number of staff across the entire centre rather than those working directly with children in specific rooms.
Staff may be counted when they are working in the office or cleaning elsewhere in the service, Williams and University of New England Associate Professor Marg Rogers wrote in The Conversation.
“Other staff, such as chefs, might also be included in the official count, even though this isn’t permitted.”
IEU members also report that staff and children are moved around rooms within centres to comply with staffing ratios.
Data from the Productivity Commission shows 658 staffing waivers were issued in NSW in 2024, 677 in 2023 and 514 in 2022. In Queensland, 320 staffing waivers were issued in 2024, compared to 448 in 2023 and 441 in 2022.
IEUA NSW/ACT Branch Secretary Carol Matthews says children attending services with staffing waivers are at greater risk of serious harm.
The reduction in the proportion of staff who have qualifications also directly impacts the safety of children.
“When there aren’t enough staff, children aren’t properly supervised, and that’s when safety breaches occur,” Matthews says. “Serious safety incidents are often the result of inadequate supervision and that is a direct consequence of understaffing.”
Unpaid labour
A 2025 study led by University of Sydney education lecturer Erin Harper found early childhood teachers and educators spent less than 30 per cent of their day, or under 2.5 hours, in undistracted and uninterrupted time with children.
“Research has shown, because supervision cannot stop, the required planning, documentation and compliance work shifts into seven-to-nine hours of unpaid labour each week,” Williams says.
“This overload produces chronic stress and burnout. Burnout then drives educators to leave the sector, worsening workforce shortages and further intensifying workload for those who remain.”
Williams says reforming staffing ratios will help to build a sustainable, high-quality workforce in the sector.
“Workforce shortages are not separate from staffing conditions – they are a product of them,” she says. “High workloads, unpaid labour and sustained stress drive attrition.”
More staff needed
Williams says teachers and educators counted in staffing ratios must be available to supervise rather than engage in competing tasks. Otherwise, ratios overstate supervision.
Regulators should assess whether staffing arrangements are effective under real operating conditions such as staff breaks, unplanned staff absences, mixed-age groupings and children requiring one-to-one support.
Yet current funding models assume staff can absorb daily compliance duties alongside supervision, education and care on minimum ratios.
The Productivity Commission report, A path to universal early childhood education and care, suggested a 1:3 ratio for babies, a 1:4 ratio for toddlers, and a 1:8 ratio for children aged three to five to better support children’s development, wellbeing and safety.
Williams says there also needs to be a “floater” – a staff member who covers breaks and staff shortages.
However, staffing ratios assume neurotypical development, which Williams says no longer reflects practice, as many services enrol increasingly large numbers of children who are developmentally vulnerable or not toilet-trained.
“This increases the demands on supervision and care well beyond what current ratios allow,” she says.
Williams says improving ratios – for example, from 1:10 to 1:8 for children aged three to five – would better support safe, inclusive care while reducing overload, burnout and attrition among staff.
The IEU has consistently called for staff-to-child ratios to be reviewed; for example, to ensure that one adult is never left alone with a group of children.
Williams says adequate supervision depends on shared visibility and the capacity for immediate response.
“Lone supervision often fails to meet this standard in real-world operating conditions with infants, toddlers and children,” she says.
“Workforce shortages are not separate from staffing conditions – they are a product of them.”
Published in the June 2026 edition of Bedrock.
