Australian childcare centres must meet cleaning duties set out in Regulation 103 of the Education and Care Services National Regulations, plus daily hygiene practices from the NHMRC’s Staying Healthy guidance. In practice that means daily cleaning of high-touch surfaces, a documented cleaning schedule, a current chemical register with Safety Data Sheets, and clear procedures for body-fluid spills. This article breaks each of those into an audit-ready checklist, with links to the official sources assessors expect you to know.
TL;DR:
- Most childcare centres must keep detailed, up-to-date cleaning schedules and documented procedures to meet assessment expectations.
- Daily cleaning of high-touch surfaces, floors, and hygiene zones is essential, with specific routines for nappy change, toilets, kitchen, and sandpits.
- Chemical safety requires a current hazardous-chemical register, proper storage, and accessible Safety Data Sheets for all products.
- Staff must be trained and records kept of hygiene procedures, PPE use, and immunizations, with clear roles for educators and contractors.
- Professional cleaning support offers a practical way to maintain compliance without overburdening staff or risking documentation lapses.
Table of Contents
- Childcare cleaning requirements Australia centres must meet under the NQF
- Daily cleaning schedule for childcare centres in Australia
- High-risk zones: nappy change, toilets, kitchens and sandpits
- Chemical safety and Safety Data Sheets in childcare cleaning
- Documentation and record-keeping assessors expect to see
- Staff responsibilities and infection-control training
- What audit day actually looks like on the ground
- Why “clean enough” and “compliant” aren’t the same thing
- Getting audit-ready without adding to your own workload
- Sources
- FAQ
Childcare cleaning requirements Australia centres must meet under the NQF
Regulation 103 is the legal anchor. It requires that “premises, furniture and equipment” be safe, clean and in good repair, and assessors treat that phrase literally, not as a vibe check. Sitting alongside it are Regulation 106 (laundry and hygiene facilities), Regulation 168 (policies and procedures a service must have and follow), and Regulation 88 (incident and infectious-disease notification).
ACECQA maps cleanliness to Quality Area 3 of the National Quality Standard, the section covering the physical environment. Its guidance on infectious diseases spells out what a service’s written procedures should contain, and ties cleaning obligations directly back to Regulations 103 and 106.
During an assessment visit, expect an authorised officer to check:
- Whether surfaces, toys and equipment are visibly clean and undamaged, not just “tidy”
- Whether a written cleaning schedule exists and matches what’s actually happening on the floor
- Whether nappy-change and toilet areas show a documented hygiene routine
- Whether chemicals are labelled, stored safely and logged in a register
- Whether staff can explain the cleaning procedure, not just point to a folder
Daily cleaning schedule for childcare centres in Australia
Cleaning standards for childcare are built around one working principle from the NHMRC: frequently touched surfaces need cleaning at least once a day, sometimes more depending on age group and season. Below is the rhythm most compliant centres run to.
- Every day — door handles, light switches, table tops, food-contact surfaces, taps, and toys that go in mouths.
- Every day — nappy-change surfaces and toilet areas, cleaned and disinfected between uses, not just at closing.
- Daily to weekly — floors vacuumed daily; carpets and mats steam-cleaned roughly every six months.
- Weekly — bedding, cot linen and dress-up clothes laundered on a set roster, not “when someone remembers”.
- Periodic — deep cleans of kitchens, storerooms and outdoor equipment, scheduled rather than reactive.
The detergent-versus-disinfectant question trips up a lot of centres. Detergent and water remove dirt and organic matter; disinfectant kills pathogens, but only works properly once the surface is already clean. For blood, vomit, faeces, urine, mucus, saliva or breastmilk, the sequence matters: clean first, then disinfect.
Pro Tip: Keep a laminated one-page version of your cleaning schedule pinned near the sink in each room. Assessors often ask staff to explain the routine on the spot, and a visible reference beats a nervous guess every time.
A documented checklist for daily and periodic tasks makes this easier to run consistently across multiple rooms and shifts.
High-risk zones: nappy change, toilets, kitchens and sandpits
Four zones cause most of the compliance headaches, and they’re the same four an assessor will walk to first.
Nappy-change areas need a single-use paper cover changed for every child, gloves worn during the change, and an immediate clean-then-disinfect if there’s any contamination. Hand hygiene follows every single change, for both child and educator.
Toilets get cleaned at least daily, with paper towel or an equivalent drying method available, since shared cloth towels spread germs between children. Younger children need supervision during toileting and handwashing, not just a reminder to do it.
Kitchens and food-contact surfaces need separate boards and utensils for raw and ready-to-eat food, correct fridge temperatures, and a clear reheating protocol for bottles and food, since bottle warming is a common cross-contamination point when staff are rushed.
Sandpits need a documented maintenance routine, covering when to rake, when to replace sand, and how outdoor equipment gets cleaned between uses. Assessors ask for the paper trail here more often than for the sand itself.
Chemical safety and Safety Data Sheets in childcare cleaning
Every cleaning chemical on site belongs in a hazardous-chemical register, and that register needs to sit somewhere staff can actually find it during a shift, not locked in an office drawer.
- Keep a current Safety Data Sheet for every product, checked against the manufacturer’s latest version
- Confirm GHS labelling on every container, including any chemical decanted into a spray bottle
- Store chemicals in a locked cupboard or space physically separated from children’s areas
- Supply gloves and, where the SDS calls for it, eye protection for staff handling concentrates
Documentation and record-keeping assessors expect to see
Regulations 168 to 172 require services to keep written policies and procedures available and followed, not just filed somewhere for the sake of it.
- Cleaning schedule — dated, room-by-room, reviewed at least twice a year.
- SDS folder — physical or digital, matched to current stock on site.
- Infectious-disease and exclusion policy — referencing recommended exclusion periods.
- Illness and incident register — logged as events happen, not reconstructed later.
Store these where staff on shift can pull them without waiting on a manager, and version each document with a date so an assessor can see it’s a living record. Cleaning schedules work best when they’re built around your existing rosters and program times, so cleaning doesn’t collide with nap time or outdoor play. A template for documenting these procedures can save hours of setup.
Staff responsibilities and infection-control training
Cleaning is a shared job split two ways: educators handle the daily infection-control tasks woven into the program, and contractors or dedicated cleaning staff handle scheduled deep cleans. Your policy documents should say explicitly who does what.
- Induction records showing new staff were briefed on hygiene procedures
- PPE training records, covering glove use and correct disposal
- Refresher training logged annually, not assumed to have “stuck” from year one
- A clear reference to immunisation expectations and staff exclusion periods for illness
Pro Tip: Don’t rely on verbal handovers for cleaning duties between shifts. A signed daily checklist closes the gap that assessors flag most often, which is inconsistent nappy-change routines between different educators.
What audit day actually looks like on the ground
Most audit failures aren’t a missed clean, they’re a missing document: an outdated SDS, no sandpit log, or a nappy-change routine that varies by educator. On assessment day, brief every room leader on where the cleaning schedule lives and what “clean and in good repair” covers under Regulation 103, so nobody’s improvising an answer.
Professional cleaners can carry a lot of this load: keeping SDS folders current, running the six-monthly carpet steam clean, and doing scheduled deep cleans that free educators to focus on the program instead of the mop bucket…
Why “clean enough” and “compliant” aren’t the same thing
The gap most centres fall into isn’t dirt, it’s documentation. A room can look spotless and still fail an assessment because nobody can produce a dated cleaning schedule or point to who’s responsible for the sandpit log. Regulation 103 doesn’t just ask you to clean, it asks you to prove you clean, consistently, on a documented cycle.
Conventional advice tends to focus heavily on frequency (clean this daily, that weekly) and skims past the paperwork side, which is exactly where real audits stumble. My honest read on the evidence: centres that treat their cleaning schedule as a working document, reviewed and dated like a rostering sheet, pass assessments more comfortably than centres chasing a spotless-looking room on inspection morning.
If you’re prioritising one thing first, make it the nappy-change and toilet routine. It’s the zone NHMRC guidance details most specifically, and it’s the one educators are most likely to run inconsistently between shifts. Get that documented and rehearsed, then build the rest of the schedule around it.
— Jonathan
Getting audit-ready without adding to your own workload
A practical alternative to juggling compliance paperwork on top of running a centre is professional cleaning support. Flexible, after-hours scheduled cleans, help keeping the chemical register and SDS folder current, and deep cleans timed around programs rather than staff’s spare time are available services.
When you’re comparing quotes for childcare cleaning, ask for proof of insurance, references from other centres, a written scope of work, and whether the provider requires a lock-in contract, since that last one determines how easily you can adjust the arrangement as your centre’s needs change. Some providers work on no-lock-in terms so managers aren’t stuck with a schedule that stops fitting their rooms.
If your centre is due for assessment or you simply want a second set of eyes on your current cleaning routine, get a tailored quote through the childcare cleaning service page and start with a walkthrough of your highest-risk zones.
Sources
Keep these bookmarked: the NHMRC Staying Healthy guidelines for cleaning method and exclusion periods, ACECQA’s infectious diseases guidance for policy structure, and the Guide to the National Quality Framework for Quality Area 3 expectations.
- Education and Care Services National Regulations (NSW consolidated) — Regulation 103
- Staying healthy: Preventing infectious diseases in early childhood education and care services — NHMRC
- Dealing with infectious diseases — ACECQA (2026)
FAQ
What are the recommended cleaning guidelines for daycares?
The NHMRC’s Staying Healthy guidance recommends daily cleaning of frequently touched surfaces, daily vacuuming with steam cleaning of carpets roughly every six months, and disinfection after any body-fluid spill. Regulation 103 backs this with a legal requirement that premises and equipment stay safe, clean and in good repair.
What is Regulation 77 in childcare?
Regulation 103 covers premises cleanliness and sets key hygiene requirements along with Regulation 106 (laundry and hygiene facilities), which together form the broader hygiene framework under the National Regulations.
Do you need a licence to clean in Australia?
No general licence is required to perform commercial or childcare cleaning in Australia, though cleaners handling certain chemicals should follow WHS training and SDS requirements. Childcare centres remain responsible for verifying any contracted cleaner, including a provider like 360 Cleaning Solutions, understands the service’s chemical register and hygiene procedures.
What are the requirements to work in childcare cleaning?
There’s no specific childcare cleaning qualification mandated by the National Regulations, but staff and contractors need working with children checks where applicable and training in the service’s infection-control procedures. Centres should keep induction and refresher training records on file, since assessors ask for evidence, not just an assurance, that staff know the routine.
How often should nappy-change areas be cleaned?
Nappy-change surfaces need cleaning and disinfection after every single use, not on a fixed daily schedule. The Staying Healthy guidelines set out the full sequence: single-use paper cover, gloves, clean then disinfect, followed by hand hygiene for both child and educator.