30 July 2026 · 4 min read · First Aid Training Dandenong
Early childhood services in Victoria operate under the national Education and Care Services law, with the state's Department of Education acting as the regulator that assesses and rates services. First aid is one of the non-negotiables it checks, and the requirement is specific about both what qualification is held and who is present.
Whenever children are in care, the service must have immediately available: an educator with an ACECQA-approved first aid qualification, one with approved anaphylaxis management training, and one with approved emergency asthma management training. One suitably qualified person can wear all three hats — but that person has to actually be on the floor, not on leave or off-site, which is why services train broadly rather than minimally.
HLTAID012 — Provide First Aid in an Education and Care Setting is written for exactly this environment and appears on ACECQA's approved list for all three requirements. Alongside adult first aid it covers infant and child CPR, adrenaline auto-injectors, inhalers and spacers, febrile convulsions, and the record-keeping and notification duties that apply after an incident in a service. Hold a current HLTAID012 and the first aid line of your assessment visit is a tick.
In family day care the educator must personally hold the qualifications — there is no colleague down the hall. For outside-school-hours care, the in-attendance rule applies during every session, including excursions, so coordinators typically need several qualified staff to cover rosters and off-site activities.
The certificate renews every 3 years, with the CPR component refreshed every 12 months. Both dates get checked. Services around Dandenong often block-book their team's annual CPR refresh in one hit — it's 90 minutes per educator and keeps every file compliant at once.
Our HLTAID012 Childcare First Aid course ($115) runs at Walker Street, Dandenong — short online component first, 3.5-hour practical, certificate the same day. Studying early childhood education? Get it done before placement; most providers require it on day one. Just need the annual CPR refresh? HLTAID009 is $45.
Daily morning and afternoon sessions at our Dandenong venue. Book online and attend as soon as tomorrow.
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