Early Childhood Australia (ECA) have developed a Code of Ethics for early childhood professionals. It is widely accepted as the industry benchmark.

Designed especially for early childhood education and care environments and based on the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990) the ECA Code of Ethics reflects current pedagogical research and practice, providing a framework for reflection about the ethical responsibilities of early childhood professionals who work with or on behalf of children and families in early childhood settings.

The ECA Code of Ethics is a set of statements about appropriate and expected behaviour of early childhood professionals in relation to:

• Children
• Profession
• Colleagues
• Families
• Community and Society

As an aspirational document, it does provide a basis for critical reflection, a guide for professional behaviour, and principles to inform individual and collective decision-making.

The ECA Code of Ethics has also been translated into the following languages Chinese, Arabic and Hindi.