Getting started

If your business or organisation works with children in Queensland, or provides services or spaces for them, you need to comply with Queensland’s Child Safe Standards.

Not sure where to start? Here are a few steps to get you moving.

Step 1: Familiarise yourself with the Child Safe Standards

There are 10 Child Safe Standards as well as the Universal Principle of cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Read about them on the webpages below or find them all in our Quick Reference Guide.

Step 2: Familiarise yourself with your responsibilities;

Implementation of the Standards will look different depending on your business or organisation, and your role in it

• for leaders
• for staff and volunteers
• for sole traders, small businesses and volunteer community groups.

You might also find it helpful to watch our on-demand webinar, Introduction to Child Safe Organisations, for an understanding of the Child Safe Organisations system and how it all works together to keep children safe.

Step 3: Start to make changes

The next step is to get started. Remember that every business and organisation will be at a different stage in its journey to becoming child safe—and that’s OK. How you implement the Child Safe Standards is intended to be flexible and tailored to the specifics of your organisation and how you interact with children.

• look at our detailed Guidelines for implementation for more ideas, including starting points for conversations within your business or organisation to help build collective understanding and bring everyone along on your journey.  We also have a Quick Reference Guide, which is ideal for small businesses, sole traders, and community and volunteer groups.
• use our scenario discussion guide to explore the Standards in learning activities with your team, volunteers or board. The toolkit walks you through the Standards by using scenarios and discussion points, showing how they work in practice.
• complete our Self-Assessment Tool to see where you are on your journey to becoming child safe. This will help you develop an action plan to guide your journey.

Step 4: Make sure your key documents are in place and up to date

Consider whether the policies and procedures you have in place adequately prevent harm to children. The below list is not exhaustive, and you may need other documents or resources, depending on how your organisation interacts with children.

These documents will be a good foundation for you to build on:

• public commitment statement to children’s safety and wellbeing
• child safety and wellbeing policy
• code of conduct for workers and volunteers
• complaint handling policy
• child and youth risk management plan.

You can find more information about each of these documents on our Resources for businesses and organisations webpage.

Ensure your staff and volunteers hold a current Blue Card (Queensland’s Working With Children Check) if they need one. Each person’s Blue Card has to be linked to your organisation through the Blue Card system. Find out who needs a card, and what your organisation needs to do, on the Blue Card Services website.

If your organisation works with children with disability (including but not exclusive to NDIS providers), staff and volunteers may also require a disability worker screening card, also known as a Yellow Card. You can find information about this on the Disability Worker Screening website.

Ensuring your staff and volunteers have a Blue Card is one aspect to being a child safe organisation, but it’s not the only way to protect children from harm.

Step 5: Keep track and keep going

Use this webpage to help you keep track of these introductory steps and which ones you still need to take.

Set a plan or schedule to regularly review your policies and practices and evaluate whether they need improvement or further consultation.