Reviewed and updated June 2025
Along with curriculum and ethics, work safety and inclusion, there’s another core topic most professional educators learn: how to wash and dry their hands correctly and how to teach children to do the same.
Gastrointestinal (gastro) and respiratory infections (colds and flu) of children attending early learning or OSHC spaces are frustratingly common.
Wherever human beings gather together, there’s a risk of contagion. When you add in a high level of physical contact (including toileting) and lower immunity among young children who haven’t yet been exposed to every common germ, you can expect to see an even higher rate of transmission.
As one of the ‘bibles’ of this sector, Staying Healthy, explains, good handwashing practices are the single most important thing you can do to reduce exposure to many infectious illnesses for yourself, your colleagues, the children and their families.
Handwashing in the NQF
Handwashing is a fundamental means of supporting the aims of the National Quality Framework, particularly Element 2.1.2. You can also read in the need for good handwashing practices in Regulation 88 and Regulation 168(2)(c) of the Education and Care Services National Regulations.
In fact, the regulations say that if an approved provider doesn’t take ‘reasonable steps’ to ‘prevent the spread of … infectious disease’ after an outbreak, they face a penalty of $2,200, and another penalty applies if providers fail to have appropriate policies and procedures in place to prevent infectious diseases – of course, this includes the critical act of washing and drying hands.
Apart from the penalties, there’s an awareness day coming up to remind us all how important this is. With Global Handwashing Day approaching in October, it’s a good time to think about how handwashing works in your service or office.
Have you found a balance around the sustainability around water use and drying options, for example?
Do you have a song or transition habit for the children’s handwashing that reinforces the practice?
Do you make it easy for families to be your partners so that handwashing practices at your service are mirrored at home?
What works?
Dutch researchers who took on this topic in early childhood centres found that explicit instructions and prompts for adults (more so than the children) were best practice. Their research showed when visible, practical interventions were developed to target educators’ compliance with hand washing, they worked.
The interventions included free refills of paper towels, soap, alcohol-based hand sanitiser and hand cream for six months.
The educators were also given more individual training, an information booklet, and team training to work out how they could further improve. The research showed that children’s handwashing habits also improved in the services being studied.
When to wash
There are several credible resources to help you form or update your service’s policy and practices. Apart from Staying Healthy, the Australian Government’s Health Direct website has a good overview for anyone (not just people working with children) on when you need to wash your.
We’ve combined that list with other reputable sources to create this summary:
- on arriving and leaving your service
- when your hands are visibly dirty
- after going to the toilet
- after helping a child go to the toilet, or changing a nappy
- after contact with a sick child or colleague
- after engaging in messy or sensory play activities (e.g. water, sand, clay, paint)
- after handling rubbish, household or garden chemicals, or anything that could be contaminated
- before you prepare or eat food or handle a baby’s bottle
- after touching raw meat
- after wiping/blowing your nose or sneezing
- after patting an animal
- after cleaning up or touching sores, a wound/cut, blood, vomit or other body fluids or faeces
- after removing gloves
- before and after giving medication
- after playing outside
- before holding or feeding infants and very young children
How to wash
There are 5 key steps to good handwashing:
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Wet hands with clean, running water.
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Apply soap and lather well.
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Rub hands together for at least 20 seconds, covering all surfaces including between fingers and under nails.
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Rinse thoroughly under running water.
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Dry hands completely using a clean towel or paper towel.
The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare's hand hygeine for children and carers overview is a great reference. Download it here.
The key to good handwashing is time – around 20 seconds is the current recommendation, which is about the time it takes to sing two rounds of the Happy Birthday To You song.
The kinds of soap you use might vary according to special needs in your service for skin sensitivities or for the physical set up in your bathrooms and kitchens.
Is sanitiser a good option?
A 2021 study conducted by researchers at Bond University1 compared the effectiveness of hand hygiene using alcohol-based hand sanitiser to soap and water for preventing the transmission of acute respiratory infections (ARIs) in community settings.
The study found that both methods are effective in reducing the risk of ARIs when used properly. However, the evidence suggested that soap and water might be more effective in practice, particularly because it physically removes pathogens (micro-organisms such as bacteria) from the skin, whereas hand sanitiser may not eliminate all types of germs, especially when hands are visibly dirty or greasy.
Additionally, the Australian Academy of Science notes that while alcohol-based hand sanitisers are useful when soap and water are not available, they are less effective at removing certain types of germs and do not remove dirt and chemicals from hands. Therefore, washing with soap and water is generally recommended as the first line of defence for hand hygiene.
How to dry
Paper towels are generally considered best practice for drying hands in early childhood education settings due to hygiene, compliance, and practicality. Unlike cloth towels, paper towels are single-use and disposable, which helps prevent the spread of germs by removing them from the environment after each use. Shared cloth towels, on the other hand, can harbour bacteria and increase the risk of cross-contamination unless they are changed and washed after every single use, a process that is rarely practical in busy services.
Health authorities such as NSW Health, WorkSafe WA, and the Staying Healthy guidelines all recommend paper towels or electric hand dryers as suitable options.
Sustainability balancing act
However, paper towels come at an environmental cost. That’s why it’s not uncommon to see handwashing practices reflected in a service’s sustainability policy. For example, one CELA's member's policy states:
“…where relevant, review policies and procedures within the service to find more sustainable outcomes, eg using hand dryers or washers instead of paper towel to dry hands.”
Balancing sanitation with sustainability can be challenging. As with many areas of professional practice, where evidence supports a range of options, the best approach may simply be the one that fits your service and community context most effectively.
Research refrences:
1. Hoffmann, T., Bakhit, M., Krzyzaniak, N., Del Mar, C., Scott, A. M., & Glasziou, P. (2021). Soap versus sanitiser for preventing the transmission of acute respiratory infections in the community: A systematic review with meta-analysis and dose–response analysis. BMJ Open, 11(8), e046175. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046175