Date published: 1 July 2026
- The scheme strengthens child safeguarding by requiring organisations working with children and young people to identify, report and investigate concerns about worker conduct that may pose a risk to children.
- The scheme applies to an estimated 10,000 organisations across Queensland that care for, supervise or exercise authority over children, including early childhood education and care, government departments and services including schools and hospitals, religious bodies, services for children with disability, and those working in youth justice and child protection.
- The scheme connects information across organisations, regulators and sectors, providing a critical reporting pathway for matters that might not reach criminal thresholds and helping identify behaviour that could indicate a risk to children early.
The commencement of the scheme comes amid growing recognition that child abuse is widespread and that warning signs have too often remained fragmented across systems, resulting in missed opportunities to identify risks and protect children earlier.
One in four Queensland children have experienced, or will experience, child abuse unless something changes.
Queensland is the latest jurisdiction to introduce a Reportable Conduct Scheme, which was a recommendation of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse final report in 2017.
The scheme requires organisations to have systems in place to prevent reportable conduct, support the reporting of concerns, and investigate allegations about worker conduct in a timely and child-centred way.
It also requires these incidents to be reported to the Queensland Family and Child Commission, which regulates the scheme and receives information in a centralised system to help identify patterns and emerging risks.
Outcomes from these investigations can be shared between the Commission, police, Blue Card Services, other regulators and other organisations, creating a more connected safeguarding system that can identify emerging risks, recognise patterns of concerning behaviour and strengthen protection for children—without having to wait for harm to occur or for concerns to meet thresholds for police intervention.
Quotes attributable to Queensland Family and Child Commission Principal Commissioner Luke Twyford:
- "Every child should be safe no matter where they are, and every parent and carer should have confidence that concerns about their child's safety will be taken seriously and acted on.
- "As our children spend more and more time in organisational settings, we need to have the strongest safeguards in place that protect them from harm. This is what Queensland’s Reportable Conduct Scheme is all about.
- "We’ve spent the last few months helping organisations get ready for the scheme’s commencement – through producing implementation guidelines and speaking to thousands of workers through roundtables, conferences and webinars right across this state. W e know that most people working with children are already driven by a commitment to their wellbeing. This is about giving them, as well as children and their families, a pathway to raise concerns when something doesn’t feel right, and the confidence to know that those concerns will be dealt with.
- "The safest communities are not those that respond after a child has been harmed. They are those that identify risks early and prevent harm from occurring in the first place. The Reportable Conduct Scheme is an important step towards building that stronger safeguarding system for Queensland.
- "The Reportable Conduct Scheme strengthens safeguarding by ensuring concerns about worker conduct can be identified and investigated even when they do not meet the criminal threshold. This means early warning signs are less likely to be missed and children are better protected."
Background:
There are fines for non-compliance with the Reportable Conduct Scheme. Information on who needs to comply with the scheme, what it requires organisations to do, and what constitutes reportable conduct, is available on the Queensland Family and Child Commission website at www.qfcc.qld.gov.au/childsafe/reportable-conduct-scheme.
For media information contact:
Media team | Queensland Family and Child Commission
Phone: 0423 565 108
Email: media@qfcc.qld.gov.au