Is your organisation child safe, according to the Child Safe Organisations Act 2024 (QLD)?

First Steps – preparing for Child Safe Standards QLD

The Child Safe Organisations Act 2024 (the Act) was introduced in October 2024. Oversight will be provided by the Queensland Family and Child Commission (QFCC).

The Act mandates 10 child safe standards (CSS) and the Universal Principal (cultural safety). The standards reflect the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.

The main purpose of the Act, and in particular, the CSS and Universal Principle (UP) is to –

• Protect children from all forms of harm and
• Promote safety, wellbeing and best interest of children in an organisation

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Child Safe Standards and Universal Principle

1. Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture.
2. Children are informed about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.
3. Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.
4. Equity is upheld and diverse needs respected in policy and practice.
5. People working with children are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing in practice.
6. Processes to respond to complaints and concerns are child focused.
7. Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children safe through ongoing education and training.
8. Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing and minimise the opportunity for children to be harmed.
9. Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is regularly reviewed and improved.
10. Policies and procedures document how the organisation is safe for children.

Universal Principle – a child safe entity must provide an environment that promotes and upholds the right to cultural safety of children who are Aboriginal persons or Torres Strait Islander persons

NB – this is the version of CSS 6 as shown in the QLD legislation not as currently displayed on the QFCC website which lists the wording of the NSW legislation.

Key points to understand about the Act –

• ‘Worker’ refers to an employee, volunteer, contractor, subcontractor, consultant, and trainee. (All adults are responsible for creating safe spaces)
• ‘Child’ is a person under the age of 18.
• The CSS and Universal Principle require organisations to maintain a culture that supports child wellbeing and cultural safety, with an emphasis on engaging children and families to achieve this.[1]
• The child safe standards require consideration of how to protect a child from all forms of harm caused by an adult or another child.[2]

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The QFCC requirement to evidence compliance is –

1. Reflect and consider how the CSS and Universal Principle apply
2. Determine what needs to be reviewed, reinforced, changed, developed, or implemented to improve the safety, wellbeing and cultural safety of children
3. Ensure a culture of continuous improvement to respond to challenges or new situations and continue to hold children’s safety as a core priority [3]

The QFCC have provided specific guidance regarding how schools will be required to evidence compliance with the standards.

The mapping exercise suggested in this post will allow you to have identified likely evidence and identify potential opportunities for improvement (gaps).

1 – Reflect and consider how CSS and UP apply in your organisation

The mapping template (click here for free access to the mapping template) can help you to understand the requirements and can provide a useful structure to collect and present your evidence. The mapping template is provided as a word document so that you can use it in a way that will work in your organisation. You are welcome to remove the SO Children logo.

The map template follows the flow of information shown in the diagram below. In some places you will find the word ‘school’ as an example but the structure applies to any organisation providing services to children.

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The ‘expectations’ and ‘success measures’ in the table have been taken from the National Principles and the materials provided online by other jurisdictions. I provide this map to you in the hope that it helps you to get started in identifying what you have and what you might need to create (gaps).

Some of the CSSs are more experiential than documents or strategies can fully evidence however the expectations and success measure indicators may be demonstrated through reporting mechanisms like a school survey. For example, evidence may be collected through responses to statements like

• ‘I feel safe at school’
• ‘I feel safe to tell an adult’
• ‘The school grounds are safe places’
• ‘I’m confident my children are safe at school’

The document ‘CSS Success Measure – say / do’ provides more examples of statements of success.

If you’d like more examples of what to look for in your organisation, the Victorian Department of Education created a useful resource for their schools. https://www.vic.gov.au/child-safe-standards-schools-guidance (Victoria has 11 standards as their first standard relates to cultural safety.) The link will take you to a tile for each standard. Click on the tile and you’ll see practical examples of how to implement that standard and these may help you to identify what you already have and perhaps some gaps.

This resource from NSW is also useful. https://ocg.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-12/g_CSS_GuidetotheStandards.pdf

A fabulous resource for listening to the voice of First Nations children is ‘Listening and Learning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people and their families’ aspirations within Education Queensland’.

Step 2 – Review, reinforce, change – current materials and strategies

Once you have identified current resources and potential gaps, the next step is to review the materials through the CSS lens. Here are some CSS lenses to consider when reviewing materials and strategies to make judgement about whether they do address the CSSs.

Child voice – How does your organisation listen to children? How is a child’s voice represented in the materials? Is there a child friendly, age-appropriate version of materials that impact children or provide assistance for children? (CSS 2)

Cultural safety – How does your organisation respect and support cultural safety? (All standards) For more information about how this might work, consider these resources and investigate co-design and shared decision making.

Equity – How is equity considered and implemented in policy, procedures, practice and culture? (CSS 4)

Gaps

Go back to your materials and identify which of the strategies in CSS 1 and 2 are telling or listening strategies. I know. This idea shocks most organisations as they realise they can demonstrate the ‘tell’ far more easily than the ‘listen’. But think about it more holistically.

What happens in your school to encourage students to feel heard, believed and supported? That’s what it is really asking.

What happens in your school to encourage families and communities to get involved in sports events, parades, ceremonies, volunteering, or just feel confident to approach a teacher or staff member with a concern?

Remember why this legislation is in place. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse identified protective factors including when

• children felt heard, believed and involved in decisions that affected them
• parents, families and communities were involved in the institution, aware of how they operated and were involved in decisions and encouraged to be involved

Step 3 – Continuous improvement

You can identify a priority list and make a plan to progress your school’s continuous improvement toward meeting the standards. The QFCC only requires that you have reflected on your current practice and you have a continuous improvement plan (according to the information available at this time).

In order to answer CSS 9 your organisation should have a procedure for reviewing policies and procedures. This should be supported by a timeline or schedule document so that all policies and procedures and related support tools are clearly version controlled and scheduled for review, preferably with a responsible role assigned.

I hope you find this brief overview and the mapping tool useful.

I’d love to help your organisation prepare. We can run a workshop with the leadership team and delegated parties or work with your student protection or compliance team. Complete the contact form and we can have a discussion about your situation and a how we can assist.

Yvette

[1] QFCC Frequently Asked Questions accessed 03/04/2025 https://www.qfcc.qld.gov.au/childsafe/FAQ

[2] Ibid

[3] Queensland Family and Child Commission Child Safe Standards: Child Safe Organisations accessed 20/3/2025 https://www.qfcc.qld.gov.au/childsafe/standards