Mobile phones will be banned, CCTV rolled out, and a national worker register established under an overhaul of the nation’s childcare sector.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare and Early Childhood Education Minister Jess Walsh announced the initiatives following a meeting with their state and territory counterparts this morning.

Under the crackdown, all workers will be banned from using mobile phones in childcare centres from September.

The government will also provide $189 million in funding for a trial of CCTV, to be rolled out in October and November, as part of an assessment of its role in the industry, and has agreed with the states and territories to establish a national register for workers.

The register will include a wide array of data ranging from contact details to which workers are under investigation or banned from the industry.

“Over time, we want to build all that information so we can see employment history and the information needed to identify red flags to tell if someone is moving quickly from centre to centre to centre,” Clare said.

All employees, ranging from new employees to chief executives of major operators, will also be required to undertake newly established national mandatory child safety training.

The reforms follow a series of alarming abuse allegations made against two separate childcare workers, Joshua Dale Brown and David William James, last month.

Brown, 26, was charged with 70 offences allegedly committed while working at childcare centres in Melbourne, while James, also 26, is facing 13 charges over offences allegedly committed at out-of-school-hours care services in Sydney.

Clare said today’s announcement wasn’t a silver bullet to fix all weaknesses in the childcare system, but still an important step forward.

“Is it everything we need to do? No, of course it is not,” he said.

“But it is the next thing we must do…

“The awful truth is this work will never end because there will always be bad people who try to poke holes in the system and find vulnerabilities.”