What is the Child Safe Organisations system
Queensland’s Child Safe Organisations system works to protect children from harm when they interact with businesses and organisations.
The system was introduced by the Child Safe Organisations Act 2024, creating legal obligations for businesses and organisations that provides services and spaces specifically for children. The system comprises two elements that work together to keep children safe:
- Child Safe Standards to be met by all organisations providing services or spaces specifically for children
- a Reportable Conduct Scheme for certain organisations.
The Standards aim to create environments that prioritise the safety and wellbeing of children, and the Reportable Conduct Scheme requires organisations to report and investigate allegations of child abuse or misconduct by their staff and volunteers.
How does it keep children safe?
The Child Safe Organisations system is about child safeguarding – the actions people and organisations take to protect children from all kinds of harm. This includes physical, emotional, sexual and cultural harm.
Effective child safeguarding involves:
- making sure every decision is based on what is best for children
- proactively preventing harm, rather than responding only when harm occurs
- having clear policies and processes so everyone knows what they need to do to keep children safe
- quick and proper responses if harm occurs
- everyone taking responsibility to keep children safe
- making sure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people feel culturally safe, which means genuinely welcome, safe, included, valued and respected.
When organisations safeguard children well, they create environments where harm doesn't occur. This is what the Child Safe Organisations system aims to achieve.
Child Safe Organisations Act 2024
The Child Safe Organisations Act 2024 (Qld) (the Act) was passed by Queensland Parliament in September 2024 and came into effect from 1 October 2025.
The Child Safe Standards were implemented in a phased approach, with sectors coming on board between October 2025 and April 2026.
The Reportable Conduct Scheme comes into effect on 1 July 2026.
The Act makes the Queensland Family and Child Commission responsible for monitoring implementation of the system.
Who needs to comply?
The Act applies to organisations that provide services or spaces specifically for children. It applies to volunteer and community groups through to large, established organisations, including child protection, youth justice, health, disability, education, and early childhood education and care.
Around 40,000 organisations across Queensland need to comply. Find out more:
- Who needs to comply with the Child Safe Standards?
- Who needs to comply with the Reportable Conduct Scheme?
What do organisations need to do? Organisations should be working now to implement their obligations.
Find resources to help you with implementation at Child Safe Standards – resources for businesses and organisations and the Reportable Conduct Scheme – resources for businesses and organisations.
How will this be enforced?
We are responsible for monitoring and reporting on the operation of the Child Safe Organisations system. Businesses and organisations can be audited and there are penalties for non-compliance. You can find out about our approach, powers and functions:
If you have concerns about an organisation not meeting the Child Safe Standards you can Contact us or call us on (07) 3900 6000.
Why Child Safe Organisations?
The Child Safe Organisations system was recommended by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Royal Commission) in 2017.
The Royal Commission heard from thousands of Australians about their experiences as victim-survivors of abuse. The stories they shared about the abuse they were subjected to within a wide range of institutions, from religious and educational settings to the military, led to significant changes in how we understand child sexual abuse, who perpetrates it, and how.
The Royal Commission emphasised that members of the public, children, young people, parents, carers, families and communities should be confident that organisations working with children provide safe environments. Its final report proposed 10 National Principles to provide guidance to organisations about how to achieve effective safeguarding. You can read more about the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on their website, including their recommendations and final report.
The 10 National Principles were endorsed by all states and territories in 2019 and since then have been, or are in the process of being, adopted into state-based child safeguarding legislation. Queensland’s Child Safe Organisations Act is a direct result of this.