Resources for businesses and organisations

Our resources support businesses and organisations throughout their journey to becoming child safe. Whether you are just beginning or have already made significant progress, our resources can help you identify what you are doing well and highlight action needed to prioritise children’s safety and wellbeing into your policies, practices and culture.

Implementing the Standards will look different for each organisation depending on their sector, size and scale, and the kind of work they do with children. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and implementation will depend on organisations’ circumstances and how they interact with children; however, organisations that are child safe will actively prioritise and promote children’s safety, manage risks, and respond to concerns quickly and effectively.

Reportable Conduct Scheme

If your business or organisation also needs to comply with the Reportable Conduct Scheme you can view our resources to assist you with implementing the scheme in your organisation.

Reportable Conduct Scheme resources

Webinar: Introduction to Child Safe Organisations

In this 50-minute, on-demand presentation, we walk you through Queensland's new Child Safe Organisations Act.

We explore what the Act means in practice, including the Child Safe Standards, the Universal Principle, and the Reportable Conduct Scheme and how they work together to prioritise children’s safety.

Guidelines and Self-Assessment Tool

These resources have been developed to help you implement the Standards and the Universal Principle in your business or organisation. The way you implement them will be determined on your organisation’s circumstances and operations, so these resources are not prescriptive or intended to operate as a one-size-fits-all checklist. They highlight areas and actions you can consider as your work through your implementation. Not all actions included in the documents will apply to your operations; use the information to guide your thinking and actions about how you can better prioritise the safety of children.

Using the guidelines alongside our Self-Assessment Tool helps you determine where these may or may not apply to you, but you should always be considering how your actions can elevate your focus on the safety of children.

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Quick Reference Guide to implementing the Child Safe Standards in Queensland

Our Quick Reference Guide provides easy-to-understand information about the Child Safe Standards to help businesses and organisations implement and apply them in practice.

Quick reference guide for the Child Safe Standards (pdf, 1.18 MB)

Cover for Detailed guidelines for implementing the Child Safe Standards

Detailed implementation guidelines for Child Safe Standards

These detailed guidelines are designed help everyone, who works with children or provides spaces for them, to understand their role and how they can contribute to keeping children safe. They include practical advice, examples, and minimum requirements to help build a strong culture of safety and wellbeing.

Detailed implementation guidelines for the Child Safe Standards (pdf, 2.9 MB)

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Child Safe Standards Self-Assessment Tool

This Self-Assessment Tool is for any organisation working with children. It supports staff, managers and directors to consider child safeguarding within their organisation.

Self-assessment tool for the Child Safe Standards (docx, 3.21 MB)

Scenario discussion guide

This guide has been developed to support organisations implement the Child Safe Standards in their practice. It includes 12 scenarios and a discussion guide for use in learning activities and will be useful for group settings.

Implementing the Child Safe Standards - Scenario discussion guide

This scenario discussion guide will help you to understand the Child Safe Organisations Act, reflect on your organisation’s practices, and identify the actions you need to take to better protect children from harm.

Child Safe Standards Scenario Discussion guide (pptx, 10.87 MB)

Training and online learning

Australian Human Rights Commission Learning Hub contains training resources to increase your understanding of the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations (on which Queensland’s Child Safe Standards are based) and help you consider how organisations can approach implementation.
National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) offers free, online professional development workshops to help organisations become child safe and implement the national principles.

Key documents

There are some key documents you may need as part of your work to become child safe.

This is not an exhaustive list, and you may need to take other actions to implement the Child Safe Standards. As with all aspects of implementation, there is no one-size-fits-all approach – the steps you will need to take will depend on the individual circumstances relevant to your business or organisation.

These documents provide a good foundation for you to build on.

- explains how you prioritise the safety of children and young people and will not tolerate child abuse and harm
- affirms your commitment to listen to children within your organisation
- is communicated to everyone involved with your organisation and/or displayed for public access in your physical and online environments.
A Charter of commitment has been developed by the Australian Human Rights Commission for the National Principles, which is one example of a public statement.
- sets out how you prioritise the safety and wellbeing of children and take action to prevent harm
- details how you have updated your policies and practices to reflect the Child Safe Standards and Universal Principle
- defines acceptable and unacceptable interactions with children, relating to staff members, volunteers, other children and anyone who comes into contact with children while involved with your business or organisation
- is publicly available or can be made available on request.
The Australian Human Rights Commission has developed a template of a child safety and wellbeing policy should contain. This is an example to guide you.
- sets out expectations for employees’ and volunteers’ behaviour around children and for protecting the safety of children
- details acceptable and unacceptable behaviours with children
- explains professional boundaries, ethical behaviour, expected standards of behaviour, and acceptable and unacceptable interactions
- explains how your business or organisation will respond to breaches of your Code of Conduct
- is publicly available or can be made available on request.
The AHRC has provided an example Code of Conduct that can be used.

The NSW Office of the Children’s Guardian has developed a guide that may also help.
- is linked to a Code of Conduct
- describes your complaints process in an accessible way that can be understood by everyone involved with your business or organisation, including children
- is publicly available and promoted to everyone who interacts with your business or organisation
- includes procedures for keeping families and carers informed and provides guidance on how to do this while complying with obligations regarding confidentiality and privacy
- sets out approaches for dealing with different types of complaints including concerns, suspicions, disclosures and allegations of harm and breaches of the Code of Conduct
- sets out actions to be taken when the complaint is about a worker
- sets out the support and assistance provided to people who make a complaint
- refers to relevant regulatory requirements applicable to the business or organisation
- requires that all staff and volunteers cooperate with relevant external authorities, including police.
- focuses on preventing child harm
- identifies, assesses and takes steps to minimise the opportunity for children to be harmed
- considers increased risk with specific roles and activities that involve children with heightened vulnerability, for example, children with a disability
- is outlined in policies and procedures and included in training for staff and volunteers
- contains procedures for review.
Organisations that develop and actively use these documents will be well-positioned to be compliant with the Child Safe Standards and Universal Principle.
- a Charter of commitment has been developed by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) for the National Principles as a tool to support organisations create their own version
- the AHRC has developed a template outlining 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 a guide that may also help
- the NSW Office of the Children’s Guardian has produced a set of templates and samples.

Last reviewed date: 8 Apr 2026

Last updated date: 8 Apr 2026

Resources for businesses and organisations