Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Please seek independent legal counsel to understand your specific obligations.
A Practical Guide to Queensland’s New Child Safe Standards
If your organisation works with children or young people in Queensland, significant legally-backed changes are on the horizon. As part of the Child Safe Organisations Act 2024 (Qld), ten Child Safe Standards – along with a Universal Principle for cultural safety – will become mandatory for in-scope organisations starting 1 October 2025. A phased rollout means all relevant organisations must comply with the Standards by April 2026. This affects around 40,000 organisations across the state, from small community groups and sole traders to large institutions like hospitals, schools and churches. These reforms stem from recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and align with National Principles endorsed in 2019. This guide outlines what the Standards are, when your sector must comply, and how you can prepare effectively.
What Are the 10 Child Safe Standards?
The 10 Child Safe Standards create a legal and cultural framework for keeping children safe. They must be embedded across every part of an organisation’s operations – from leadership and governance to staff conduct and service delivery. In practice, this means fostering a child-safe culture at all levels, not just having policies on paper. Below is a brief overview of each Standard (as defined in the Act):
Leadership, Governance & Culture: Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in your organisation’s leadership, governance and everyday practice.
Child Participation: Children are informed about their rights, are included in decisions affecting them, and are taken seriously when they speak up.
Family & Community Engagement: Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.
Equity & Inclusion: Equity is upheld and diverse needs are respected in policy and practice, ensuring the rights of all children (especially those from diverse backgrounds) are protected.
Staff & Volunteer Suitability: People working with children are suitable and supported – implement safe recruitment, screening, and support processes for all staff and volunteers.
Child-Centred Complaints: Processes to respond to concerns or complaints are child-focused, making it safe and straightforward for children to raise issues.
Training & Education: Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children safe through regular training and education.
Safe Environments: Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing and minimize the opportunity for harm. (This includes managing risks in spaces, online platforms, and activities.)
Ongoing Review & Improvement: Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is regularly reviewed and improved. In other words, organisations must continually assess and strengthen their child-safe practices.
Documented Policies & Procedures: Policies and procedures document how the organisation is safe for children. Clear, accessible documentation is required to show how you meet all the above standards in practice.
The Universal Principle: Cultural Safety for First Nations Children
Alongside the ten standards, all organisations must implement the Universal Principle, which requires providing a culturally safe environment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families. In a culturally safe organisation, First Nations children and families feel welcome, safe, valued, included and respected. This means recognising and honoring cultural identities, and involving First Nations peoples in policy design and decision-making. The Universal Principle is not optional – it is a core part of the legislation, carrying equal importance to the other Standards. Organisations need to embed this principle into each of the 10 Standards (for example, by ensuring policies and training address cultural safety and by consulting with Indigenous communities). The requirement to uphold cultural safety applies from the same start dates as the Standards themselves.
When Do the Child Safe Standards Become Law?
The new obligations take effect under a phased rollout, with different sectors required to comply by different dates. You must be ready to demonstrate compliance from the date applicable to your sector – including having your child safety policies documented, staff training completed (with evidence), child-friendly complaint systems in place, risk management plans (risk registers) updated, and culturally safe practices embedded. The timeline for mandatory compliance is as follows:
Phase 1 – by 1 October 2025: High-priority sectors must comply first. This includes child protection services, services for children with a disability (e.g. NDIS providers), justice and detention services, and government organizations (such as public sector agencies, police, and local councils). These organisations will lead the way in implementing the Standards.
Phase 2 – by 1 January 2026: The next group of sectors must comply, including health services (hospitals, health providers), education services (state and non-state schools, TAFEs, universities, child care and early childhood services), accommodation and residential services (e.g. housing services, boarding schools, camps), and community services. Essentially, by the start of 2026, most health, education, early childhood, and community sector organisations working with kids need to be child-safe compliant.
Phase 3 – by 1 April 2026: Remaining sectors come into line by this date. This includes commercial services for children (e.g. businesses providing play gyms, entertainment, or classes for kids), transport services specifically for children (such as school transportation providers or driving instructors for youth), religious bodies (churches and faith-based groups that work with children), and other services or activities provided primarily for children (such as sports clubs, youth groups, tutoring services). By April 2026, all in-scope organisations in Queensland must be fully compliant with the Child Safe Standards.
Practical Steps to Prepare
Every organisation will start from a different place in their child safety journey. Here are five practical steps to begin preparing for compliance:
Conduct a Gap Analysis: Compare your current child safety practices against the 10 Standards to identify gaps. Use a self-assessment tool or checklist (such as the one provided by the QFCC) to evaluate where you meet requirements and where improvements are needed. This “gap analysis” will highlight priority areas to focus on.
Create and Update Policies: Develop clear, tailored policies and procedures that address each Standard. At a minimum, your documentation should include a Child Safety & Wellbeing Policy, a Staff Code of Conduct, a Child-Focused Complaints Handling Procedure, a Risk Management Plan for child safety, and a Cultural Safety Strategy. Ensure these documents are easily accessible and understood by your team. (Templates or examples can be a helpful starting point, but be sure to customise them to fit your organisation’s specific context, sector, and size – generic one-size-fits-all policies will not be sufficient.)
Train Staff and Volunteers: Provide regular, role-specific training on child safety for all team members, including new and existing staff and volunteers. Training should cover the Standards, the Universal Principle, and your organisation’s policies (e.g. code of conduct and reporting procedures). It’s important to include cultural competency training to fulfill the Universal Principle. Track all training sessions and refresh this training at least annually. Using interactive workshops, real-world scenarios, or bringing in child-safety experts can make training more effective. Document attendance and keep records – you may need to show evidence of training compliance.
Involve Children and Families: Create ways for children and families to learn about their rights, provide input, and feel empowered in your organisation’s child-safe culture. This could include child-friendly materials (posters, charts or brochures explaining their rights and how to speak up), regular feedback surveys or anonymous suggestion boxes, and inviting some children or parents to participate in developing policies or on safety committees. Ensure that any engagement is appropriate to the children’s ages and abilities – for example, one-on-one conversations or focused group activities can help younger kids share their thoughts. Showing that you listen to and value the voices of children and their families is a key part of Standards 2 and 3.
Review and Improve Continuously: Establish a simple review cycle (e.g. every 6 or 12 months) to evaluate your child safe practices. Periodically review any incidents, complaints, or feedback received, and assess how effectively they were handled. Involve a diverse group of staff (and, where appropriate, parents or external advisors) in these reviews to get different perspectives. Document the outcomes – note what improvements or changes will be made as a result. Use these findings to update your policies, training, or practices. Continuous improvement not only keeps you compliant with Standard 9, but it also helps foster a truly child-centric culture over time.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
When working toward compliance, try to avoid these common pitfalls:
Delaying action until just before your deadline. (It’s risky to cram all changes in at the last minute – start early to allow time for cultural change and fine-tuning.)
Using generic policies that aren’t tailored to your organisation. Boilerplate documents won’t adequately reflect your specific risks or activities; regulators will expect to see that you’ve customised policies to your setting.
Forgetting to include child and family voices. Failing to consult or inform children and parents can lead to blind spots. A child-safe environment should be shaped with input from those it protects.
Assuming cultural safety is covered just by holding occasional cultural events or celebrations. True cultural safety (the Universal Principle) requires ongoing, embedded respect and inclusion of First Nations perspectives – not one-off gestures.
Failing to document and keep evidence of your efforts. You may need to demonstrate your compliance during audits or investigations. If you don’t keep records (like training logs, policy review notes, complaint registers, etc.), it will be hard to prove you have met the Standards.
How Diversity Sync’d Can Help
Diversity Sync’d is a platform designed to help organisations move from “we think we’re compliant” to “we know we are.” Our solution simplifies the process of implementing and monitoring the Child Safe Standards. Key features include:
Centralized Policy Management: Store and update all your child safety documents in one place, with version control and easy access for staff.
Training Tracking: Assign required child-safe training to staff and volunteers based on their roles, and track completion rates. The platform provides reminders for annual refreshers and keeps a digital record of all training undertaken.
Digital Complaints & Reporting Forms: Enable children, parents, or staff to report concerns through secure online forms (which can be made anonymous). These feed into a workflow that ensures complaints are handled promptly and in a child-focused way (fulfilling Standard 6).
Cultural Safety Integration: Tools and resources to incorporate cultural safety practices (the Universal Principle) – for example, prompts to include Indigenous representation in policy-making, or checklists to ensure events and materials are culturally inclusive.
Audit-Ready Records: Automated compliance checklists and dashboards that show your progress on each Standard. You can easily generate reports with evidence (policies, training logs, incident reports) to demonstrate compliance during audits.
Whether you are a sole trader or a large provider, Diversity Sync’d can be tailored to your needs. Our team can help configure workflows and provide sector-specific resources so that you meet the Child Safe Standards efficiently and effectively, with minimal stress.
Key Dates Summary
To recap, here are the key compliance deadlines for Queensland’s Child Safe Standards:
1 October 2025: Phase 1 sectors (e.g. child protection services, disability/NDIS providers, justice and detention agencies, and government bodies) must begin compliance.
1 January 2026: Phase 2 sectors (e.g. health services, education and early childhood services, residential care, and community organizations) must comply by this date.
1 April 2026: Phase 3 sectors (e.g. religious bodies, transport services for children, commercial services for kids, and other child-focused clubs or activities) have their final compliance deadline.
(After 1 April 2026, the Child Safe Standards will be fully in force across all relevant Queensland organisations. Reportable Conduct Scheme obligations then follow from July 2026 for applicable entities.)
Final Thoughts
The Child Safe Standards and the Universal Principle are not just about ticking boxes or satisfying a legal requirement – they are about genuinely protecting children, uplifting their voices, and building organisational cultures that put child wellbeing first. By starting early and treating these changes as more than a compliance exercise, you can create a safer, more inclusive environment that benefits everyone. In short, getting ahead of the deadlines is the best way to reduce stress, embed meaningful practices, and ensure your team is genuinely child safe, not just compliant. By embracing the spirit of these Standards now, you’ll be well on your way to meeting the requirements – and, more importantly, to making a positive difference in the lives of children and young people in your care.
Queensland's New Child Safe Standards: A Guide for Your Organisation | Diversity Sync'd
