No regulation prescribes a supervision plan by name. The duty is section 165 of the National Law: the approved provider, the nominated supervisor and a family day care educator must each ensure children are adequately supervised at all times (penalty $34,200 for an individual). Section 167 adds every reasonable precaution against harm and hazard, regulation 115 requires the premises to be designed and maintained to facilitate supervision, regulation 84B(e) requires the sleep and rest policy to set the method and frequency of checks, and Element 2.2.1 of the NQS assesses supervision on the day. A written supervision plan is how a service shows it has thought about each space and each part of the day; regulators and assessors ask for one, and its absence is a routine Working Towards finding. Being in ratio is not the same as supervising: regulation 123 sets a minimum number, section 165 sets the standard.
Adequate supervision is the compliance duty that produces the most serious incidents, the most enforcement and the most Working Towards ratings. This page sets out what the Law and Regulations require, what adequate has been taken to mean, what a supervision plan contains, a plan structure you can copy, and the situations where supervision most often fails.
The Law does not define it. The Guide to the NQF and the regulators’ guidance describe adequate supervision as educators knowing where each child is, what they are doing and what risks are present, and being positioned to intervene. The practice elements regulators look for are usually described as active supervision:
Adequate is judged against the circumstances: the number, ages and abilities of the children, the activity, the space and its hazards, and the educators’ experience. Two educators in ratio can be inadequate supervision if both are at the craft table with twelve children spread across an outdoor area.
One plan for the service, with a section for each indoor space, each outdoor space and each part of the day that changes how children are spread out. For each:
| Section | Content |
|---|---|
| Space and layout | A simple plan of the area showing fixed hazards (water, gates, climbing equipment, kitchen, stairs), blind spots and the standing or sitting positions educators use to cover them. |
| Educator positions | Where each educator is for the normal number of children and the minimum number, and who moves when a child goes to the bathroom or a parent arrives. |
| Transitions | How children move indoors to outdoors, to meals, to sleep and to pick-up: who leads, who counts, who follows, when the count is recorded. |
| Headcounts | When counts happen (at least at every transition, after excursions, at handovers), who does them and where they are recorded. |
| High-risk times | Opening and closing when numbers are low and rooms are combined, nap time, nappy changes and toileting, arrivals and departures, visitors and contractors on site. |
| Sleep and rest | Checking method and frequency from the regulation 84B policy, who is in the sleep room, how the check is documented. |
| Children needing closer supervision | How individual needs (medical conditions, behaviour plans, orientation of new children) change positioning without naming the child in the displayed plan. |
| Breaks and relief | How an educator leaves the floor without a gap: relief arrives before the educator leaves; what the state short-absence provision (if any) allows. See regulation 122. |
| Review | Dated, reviewed when the layout or the group changes and after any incident or near miss, with the review recorded. |
Display the plan in each room so relief educators can follow it. Keep the detailed version with the health and safety policy. Walk new and casual staff through it at induction, and record that you did.
Not by that name. Section 165 of the National Law requires children to be adequately supervised at all times, regulation 115 requires premises designed to facilitate supervision, and regulation 84B requires the sleep and rest policy to set the checking method and frequency. A written plan is the accepted way of showing how the service meets those duties, and assessors under Element 2.2.1 and authorised officers ask for one.
The Law does not define it. Regulator guidance describes it as educators knowing where every child is, what they are doing and what the risks are, and being positioned to respond, judged against the number, ages and abilities of the children, the activity and the space. Meeting the regulation 123 ratio is a minimum, not proof of adequate supervision.
No. Regulation 123 sets the minimum number of educators; section 165 requires adequate supervision at all times. A room can be in ratio and still breach section 165, for example when the counted educators are engaged in documentation or clustered away from a hazard.
The Regulations do not set a frequency. Practice expected by regulators is a count at every transition (indoors to outdoors, before and after meals and sleep, before leaving and on returning from an excursion, at each handover of responsibility) and regular counts in between, with counts recorded where the plan says.
Regulation 84B(e) requires the sleep and rest policy to set the method and frequency of checking the safety, health and wellbeing of children during sleep and rest and how it is documented, informed by the annual risk assessment under regulation 84C. The supervision plan repeats the method and frequency and names who is in the sleep room.
Describe the room, the children and where the educators were. WIDEN Law answers against sections 165 and 167, regulations 115, 122 and 123 and Element 2.2.1, with the source cited.
14-day free trial, no card →This page is a research summary, not legal or compliance advice. Element and regulation wording is reproduced from the current reprint of the National Regulations; confirm the position with your regulatory authority before relying on it for a compliance decision.