Under the Child Safe Organisations Act 2024 (the Act), the Queensland Family and Child Commission (the Commission) is responsible for monitoring and reporting on the operation of the Child Safe Organisations system.
The best outcomes for children and young people occur when organisations understand their responsibilities, have capacity to meet them, and are held accountable when risk or harm isn’t dealt with appropriately. Our focus will be on working cooperatively with organisations to support their compliance, particularly in the early stages of implementation, as part of a graduated model of regulation. This will allow us to escalate interventions where necessary and take decisive action where children’s safety is compromised.
Our approach will include:
- Raising awareness – through public campaigns and producing guidance material and tools for organisations
- Building capability – working with organisations to embed good practice, offering training and evidence of what works
- Monitoring and assessing organisational compliance – including directing organisations to conduct a self-assessment, and monitoring reportable conduct investigations
- Enforcing compliance where there are breaches or risks to children’s safety – by issuing compliance notices, taking over reportable conduct investigations, or reporting organisations to a sector regulator
- Sharing intelligence proactively to protect children from risk – including with Blue Card services, Queensland and Australian Federal Police, and other regulators.
Implementation responsibilities
Oversight body:
- become a Child Safe Organisation
- raise awareness in Queensland of Child Safe Organisations System
- collaborate with sector leads on implementation
- equip and empower the sector to create child safe cultures
- quality assure resources
- connect organisations with their relevant sector lead
- oversee information sharing, monitoring and reporting mechanisms.
Regulators and Governing and Funding bodies:
- become a Child Safe Organisation (where relevant)
- align child safe legislative requirements within existing governance and quality frameworks
- prepare and provide resources appropriate for their sector and consult with the Commission
- ensure their sector is implementing requirements
- work with peak and representative bodies and child safe entities to implement requirements
- report implementation progress to the Commission as oversight body
- work with the Commission on establishing information sharing, monitoring and reporting mechanisms
- engage children and families in their work.
Peak and representative bodies:
- become a Child Safe Organisation (where relevant)
- prepare and provide resources appropriate for their sector and consult with sector leads
- consult with organisations on needs and seek support from sector leads and the Commission
- contribute to collaboration on insights, lessons learned and child safe practices from child safe implementation
- enable organisations to implement requirements
- engage children and families in their work.
*Representative bodies cover groups such as committees, reference groups, networks, associations, memberships and such, that aren’t considered ‘peak’ but hold significant influence.
Queensland organisations:
- become a Child Safe Organisation
- build a culture of safety and wellbeing for all children
- provide input to development of sector specific resources through existing governance, peak and representative bodies
- work with sector leads and enablers to implement requirements
- contribute to collaboration on insights, lessons learned and child safe practices from child safe implementation
- seek support from sector leads and enablers where needed
- engage children and families in their work.
Last updated
17 July 2025
