ECRU Sector Support

April 2026

Further to recent meetings and communications we are now able to advise that the transition to ‘applied’ legislation will occur on 1 May 2026. 

The legislation will keep many of WA’s established regulations including for swimming pools in Family Day Care, educator qualifications in Outside School Hours Care and the extension of various provisions to ‘family members’ as well as parents.

The legislation for keeping these WA-specific provisions under ‘applied’ legislation has only very recently been finalised and is to be published on the WA legislation website on 30 April 2026.

To assist the sector with the transition, there are two Tables attached to this email:

• The first Table provides information on some renumbering of sections and regulations that will occur as part of the transition.   
• The second Table provides an overview of those sections and regulations that were part of the 2019 NQF Review that were implemented in other jurisdictions in 2023 and will come into force in WA on 1 May 2026.

As at 1 May 2026 the Child Safety amendments to the National Law and National Regulations made in December 2025/early 2026 will not apply in WA. 

Before the Child Safety amendments can commence applying in WA, there is a process requiring these amendments to be tabled in Parliament and a period of time allowed for Parliament to decide whether to disallow them.  In saying this, it should be added that Communities has no reason to expect that they would be disallowed – just that this is ‘checks and balances’ legislative process under a national scheme.

The earliest the Child Safety amendments can be tabled in the WA Parliament is 5 May 2026.  More information will be provided once the timelines become clearer. Communities will convene a webinar on the Child Safety amendments closer to commencement time.  In the meantime, all sector participants are encouraged to comply with the requirements in advance of them commencing to support the purpose of child safety that the amendments are designed for.

For your reference, a copy of the recent ECRU In Focus sets out information on the move to ‘applied’ legislation.

Communities is preparing updates to the Communities website to provide more detail information on the operation of the ‘applied’ legislation.

If you have any queries during the transition then please email eclir@communities.wa.gov.au

Table of section and regulation numbering changes as they will ‘apply’ in Western Australia on 1 May 2026

In the process of transitioning to ‘applied’ legislation, some numberings of provisions have changed but without changing the substance.  These are set out in the Table below.  The majority of changes relate to re-positioning WA’s Family Day Care swimming pools regulations 373A to 373G to different places in the National Regulations.

Table of 2019 NQF Review provisions that will become ‘applied’ legislation in Western Australia (WA) on 1 May 2026

By applying the National Law and National Regulations in WA, the outstanding 2019 NQF Review amendments that have not yet been implemented in the WA Law and WA Regulations will come into operation in WA.  These will mostly be National Law provisions because the majority of the 2019 NQF Review amendments were regulations changes and these have already been implemented in the WA Regulations. 

The Table below sets out the changes from the 2019 NQF Review that will commence operation in WA on 1 May 2026.

Note: The Table does not include ‘Premises Approval in Principle’ provisions as the scheme does not apply in WA.