If you believe your child is in immediate danger or a life-threatening situation, call emergency services on triple zero – 000.
Under our legislation, we don’t investigate individual children’s and families’ circumstances. If you suspect a child in Queensland is experiencing harm or neglect, please contact the Department of Child Safety, Seniors and Disability Services.

Resources and training

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Congratulations on taking steps to help Queensland become more child safe.

This page has links to training and resources that will help you embed the Child Safe Standards and the Universal Principle into your organisation’s policies and practices so that you can meet your obligations under the Child Safe Organisations Act 2024.  

Whether you are just beginning or have already made significant progress to becoming child safe, these resources can help you identify what you are doing well and highlight action needed to embed children’s safety and wellbeing into your policies, practices and culture.

More resources for the implementation of the Reportable Conduct Scheme will become available later this year.

Guidelines and Self-Assessment Tool

The Guidelines for Implementing the Universal Principle and Child Safe Standards in Queensland helps you to understand:

  • the 10 Child Safe Standards and the Universal Principle 
  • how these work in practice
  • how your policies and processes should look once you have implemented them
  • the documents and actions you need to demonstrate compliance with the new laws.

Every organisation will be at a different stage of its journey to becoming child safe. The Self-Assessment Tool for Implementing the Universal Principle and Child Safe Standards in Queensland will help you to evaluate your level of readiness and develop an action plan to strengthen your practice. This tool is for your use and organisations are not required to submit it to us for review or as part of any compliance activity.

If you are having any difficulty accessing these files, please contact us.

Shareable resources

Help us spread the word by sharing these resources with your networks.

We welcome your support in promoting these resources among your networks so that we reach as many Queensland organisations as possible. You can find shareable resources for your communications channels below.

Guidelines and Self Assessment Tool - shareable toolkit

 

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Foundation Documents

Organisations that develop and embed Foundation Documents will be well-positioned to be compliant with the Universal Principle and Child Safe Standards. Foundation Documents are core policy/procedural resources that must be in place before further progress can be made in implementing the Universal Principle and Child Safe Standards. 

  • charter of commitment has been developed by the AHRC for the National Principles as a tool to support organisations create their own version.
  • The AHRC has developed a templateoutlining what an organisation’s Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy should contain.
  • The NSW Office of the Children’s Guardian has created a handbook to understand and develop a child safe policy
  • The AHRC has provided an example Code of Conduct to be used for Child Safe Organisations.
  • The NSW Office of the Children’s Guardian has developed both a guide and an editable template that reflects the AHRC resource

Learning and training

Child Safe Standards

These resources are general guides to the child safe principles, including some from other jurisdictions. 

Please note: Tasmania is the only other jurisdiction that has stipulated a Universal Principle for cultural safety which needs to be embedded across the 10 Child Safe Standards. This is the same as the approach adopted in Queensland.

Victoria has 11 principles, including one that is specifically about cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people.

Universal Principle

In implementing and complying with the child safe standards, 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.

As we develop our approach with communities and organisations, we know that in a culturally safe environment:

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people define and measure cultural safety
  • Individuals develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes to recognise and address biases and stereotypes 
  • Organisations and systems are transformed so they work better for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

These resources will give you guidance on how cultural safety works with the 10 standards. 

 

More about the 10 Child Safe Standards

In addition to the information in the guides above, please find below some more specific resources that may be helpful for each of the standards.  This is not an exhaustive list of the resources that are available but are a useful starting point.

There are some practices and activities that many organisations are already doing that will meet the standards. Some of these will be relevant across several standards. For example the development of a Child and Youth Wellbeing Policy could cover several requirements. 

Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture.

 

Children are informed about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.

 

Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.

 

Equity is upheld and diverse needs respected in policy and practice.

 

People working with children are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing in practice.

 

Processes to respond to complaints of child abuse are child focused.

 

  • The NSW Office of the Children’s Guardian Secretariat has created a video outlining Standard 6. (While NSW and Queensland’s Standards have some differences, there are applicable messages.) 
  • The Victorian Children’s Commission provides an overview of the types of actions and documents an organisation would have in place to achieve this standard.
  • The National Office of Child Safety has produced a complaints handling guide and resources to support organisations to build their capacity in creating child safe cultures and handling complaints involving children. 
  • The  Western Australian Commissioner for Children and Young People has developed guidelines to support organisations to strengthen processes for children and young people to make complaints.
  • The Western Australian Commissioner for Children and Young People provides videos, posters and brochures on making a complaint. Translated resources are also available.

Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children safe through ongoing education and training.

 

Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing and minimise the opportunity for children to be harmed.

 

Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is regularly reviewed and improved.

 

Policies and procedures document how the organisation is safe for children.

 

 

Further Learning

Additional training

Children’s development and wellbeing

Other Australian jurisdictions

There are other jurisdictions that have implemented child safe standards and reportable conduct schemes and have produced resources to support organisations. 

Find links below, but please note that there are some differences in how cultural safety is addressed, how reportable conduct schemes operate and the obligations placed on organisations regarding how they implement the standards.

Last updated
1 May 2025