Children, and particularly very young children, are vulnerable members of the community, and their rights and best interests are paramount.

Our priority is to ensure the safety, health and wellbeing of children attending education and care services in NSW.

The department uses a risk-based approach to inform all planning and decision-making. When assessing the level of risk posed by an applicant, we look at:

• General risk: including our understanding of particular groups (such as service types and entity types) within the early childhood education sector; and
• Specific risk: including information we hold on individual applicants or existing providers.

By using a risk-based approach, we:

• decrease regulatory burden to the sector, and
• ensure our actions and processes are proportionate to the risks posed to children.

The determination of the risk level of an applicant or existing provider impacts the way the department monitors and regulates and can impact the approvals process, including whether or not the applicant will need to attend an online assessment session or interview.

The department's risk-based approach also includes random sampling, whereby any applicant or existing provider may be selected at random to attend an online assessment session even if they are considered low risk.

A risk-based approach allows the department to make best use of our resources by targeting higher risk applicants while still monitoring applicants or existing providers we have assessed as low risk. It also allows us to measure and improve on the accuracy of our risk profiling practices.

An applicant or existing provider's level of risk can change over time. This might be due to compliance with relevant legislation or changes to the level of risk posed by a particular group in the sector. This means the department may at any time change the way it monitors and regulates services and providers.