What’s changed

• Aug 2025Victoria’s Rapid Child Safety Review made 22 recommendations to strengthen safety in early childhood education and care. The Victorian Government accepted all 22.
• Sep 2025Victorian services were required to update their child-safety and digital-device policies, including how children’s images are taken, stored and managed.
• Feb 2026National child-safety requirements strengthened rules around personal devices and the use of service-issued devices for taking images of children.
• Feb 2026Victoria’s Reportable Conduct Scheme moved to the Social Services Regulator.
• 2026Victoria’s new early childhood regulator began operating, Working with Children Check safeguards were strengthened, and national child-safety training was introduced for early childhood staff.

How photo week fits into a child-safe centre

Educators follow the centre’s child-safety procedures every day. Photo week brings a visiting photography team into the service and involves taking and managing children’s images, so it’s helpful to make sure everyone understands the arrangements before photo day.

A useful question to ask is:

What checks and child-safe procedures are in place for photo week?

A photographer should be able to explain who will attend, how they’ll work with your team, and how children’s images are handled. You should feel comfortable asking for those details before the visit.

At Magic Photography, our checks, insurance, team procedures and image-handling processes are already in place. We’re happy to provide the information your centre needs and talk through any questions, so everything is clear well before photo day.

What good looks like

Early Learning Photographers Australia (ELPA) provides standards for its members, including a current Working with Children Check, public liability insurance of at least $10 million, and clear practices for handling children’s images. Members also commit to ELPA’s Child Safe Photography Framework and Code of Conduct.

Magic Photography helped establish ELPA, and our directors remain involved in its work. This checklist draws on ELPA’s standards and the child-safety changes above. You can use it to review any photography provider, including the one you already work with.

Want photo week sorted? Contact Magic Photography. We can share our documentation, answer your questions and work with your team to make the process safe, organised and straightforward.

Use the checklist below to review each point, or download the one-page version for your compliance folder.

Sources: Victorian Government, Rapid Child Safety Review (vic.gov.au/rapid-child-safety-review); ACECQA, National Model Code and the 27 February 2026 changes to the National Law and Regulations (acecqa.gov.au). This is general information, not legal advice.