Reforms to stop employers gaming the rules about staffing ratios are a crucial step towards improving child safety.
The term “under the roof” is commonly used in early childhood education and care (ECEC) to describe a method of calculating the staff‑to‑child ratio to meet regulatory requirements.
Regulations require services to maintain minimum ratios to ensure children are adequately supervised, and only staff working directly with children count toward these ratios.
Distorting staffing ratios
However, some services stretch those regulatory ratios by counting the number of staff across the entire building – that is, “under the roof” – rather than those working directly with children in specific rooms.
This practice distorts the ratios, creating a significant mismatch between what happens in practice and how the numbers appear on paper.
The practice poses real safety risks for children, which are reflected in the growing number of serious incidents in the sector.
For employees, this results in a heavier workload that can lead to burnout due to understaffing and increased psychological strain on their mental and emotional capacity.
These factors contribute to many teachers and educators leaving the sector, which adds pressure to a sector already facing a staffing crisis.
Progress towards child safety
As part of national child safety reforms, the federal government adopted the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority’s (ACECQA) recommendation to ban the “under the roof” practice.
This reform is part of a suite of changes that have been expedited across the sector to improve child safety.
Other reforms include the introduction of the National Early Childhood Worker Register and mandatory child safety training.
The union welcomes these reforms as we have long campaigned for more stringent safeguards for child safety in ECEC.
There also needs to be a greater focus on prevention, including new staffing ratios that reflect the increasing number of children with additional needs. No staff member should be alone with a child or group of children.
Our members work tirelessly to instil a culture of transparency and continuous improvement in the best interests of children and to ensure a safer working environment.
In the coming weeks and months, ACECQA will begin releasing advice and guidelines after the changes are made to the regulations.
The implementation of these reforms is critical to achieving meaningful changes in practice.
However, the union’s position is that any new compliance requirements must be properly funded and must not place additional pressure on staff.
The union will continue to advocate to ensure that members’ rights are protected.
If you know a colleague who is not yet a member of the union, encourage them to join today.
This update is part of the March 2026 EXEC Extra enewsletter. Stay across all our updates for early childhood teachers on our ECEC page or via our Facebook community group for members only.
