A new bill concerning the Victorian education system passed in February 2025 and made amendments to the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Act).1
The Act aims to strengthen compliance and enforcement powers of the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA). It seeks to make it more difficult for unregistered or non-compliant schools to escape scrutiny or consequences of non-compliance.
The changes demonstrate that the VRQA wants to have the ability to keep other bodies including the Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP), the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) and the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) informed of developments, including in relation to to staff conduct.
In March this year, the VRQA released a statement about its regulatory focus for 2025, namely that:
A further announcement outlined an agreement with the FWO called an ‘Exchange of Letters’ whereby each body will inform the other of compliance investigations to increase their regulatory oversight.
Key Takeaway: Coupled with the increased powers in the Act, schools and other education providers can be in no doubt that the VRQA will be focussed on child safety, health and wellbeing as its top priority, from Board line of sight to the day-to-day operations. This includes a focus in relation to employee investigations.
Some of the reforms were enacted on the passing of the bill in February and therefore it is important to be mindful of these now. The following two reforms have already been enacted:
In practical effect, this will remove the show cause process involved in the cancellation of the registration of education providers that have ceased to operate. It will also allow the VRQA to share information with a prescribed person or body such as the VIT, CCYP or FWO without receiving express written request from education providers to do so.
This may occur in the process of assessing whether prescribed minimum standards have been met.
Along with the changes already enacted, the Act will implement changes that provide the VRQA with more investigative powers that will come into effect on 1 October 2025. These powers relate to:
In effect, this will allow the VRQA to issue a notice for an education provider to provide any documents that it believes are reasonably necessary.
The changes will grant the VRQA greater authority to proactively disclose information to relevant bodies such as the CCYP without awaiting a written request. It may also request information from such bodies to assist in compliance assessment.
They will also empower the VRQA to issues notices to comply to schools it believes are operating without registration. Non-compliance with these notices can lead to civil penalties outlined below.
It will increase the maximum penalty units for operating an unregistered school or school boarding premises from 10 penalty units to 120 penalty units for an individual and 600 units for a body corporate.
The new reform Act applies to schools and school boarding premises that the VRQA has reasonable cause to believe are required to be regulated from operating without registration or approval. From October 1, the VRQA will have the capacity to require such providers to produce information or documents that are relevant to the health, safety and wellbeing of students. This aligns with the specified regulatory focus of compliance with Ministerial Order 1359.
The Act has been introduced to provide the VRQA with more streamlined methods to assess whether education providers are meeting minimum required standards. The Act provides the VRQA with the power to require education providers to supply relevant documents.
It will allow the VRQA to:
Schools and Education providers may consider doing the following to prepare for the upcoming legislative changes in October.
Contact our Education and Training team for tailored advice on how the Reform Act may impact to your organisation. We can also help to review and develop policies as well as review third party arrangement contracts.
Please contact us for more detailed and tailored help.
Subscribe to our email updates and receive our articles directly in your inbox.