Prioritising and advocating for children’s rights and safety is a core element of all child safe organisations. All child-related organisations and their staff must champion and model a culture where suspected and actual child abuse and harm are reported. This is an important action in upholding children’s rights and protecting them from harm and abuse.

What is a reporting culture?

Service culture refers to the shared values, attitudes, practices and beliefs of an early childhood education and care (ECEC) service. These shared values shape how approved providers and service leaders manage service operations, support staff and set up systems that define everyone’s roles and responsibilities.

A culture of reporting means taking a proactive and preventative approach to children’s safety and emphasises that child abuse and/or harm will not be tolerated, excused or ignored.

In an ECEC context, a strong reporting culture:

• supports children to speak up about concerns relating to their or another child’s safety with an understanding they will be listened to and believed
• encourages and supports staff, leaders and families to feel comfortable and confident reporting child safety concerns, issues or incidents
• means that all complaints, concerns and disclosures are taken seriously and acted upon
• reinforces the ethical and legal reporting obligations of everyone involved in the operation or delivery of a service
• ensures that service leaders establish and maintain clear rules and procedures for reporting and complaint-handling, and staff understand what is expected of them and correctly implement service and legislative requirements, including knowing how to report
• promotes the importance of ongoing education and training to ensure staff have the knowledge, skills and confidence to identify, prevent and respond appropriately to abuse.

Your role in maintaining a strong reporting culture

All staff working within ECEC services are responsible for developing and embedding a strong reporting culture.

What does a strong reporting culture look like in practice?

Leadership and governance

A strong reporting culture starts with effective service leadership and governance. Leaders set the tone and act as role models by prioritising child safety and embedding strong reporting practices into the service’s policies, procedures and daily operations. This ensures everyone at the service understands their role in keeping children safe and feels empowered to take action.

When child safety and a culture of reporting is embedded in leadership and governance, services have:

• a Child Safe Code of Conduct in place that clearly outlines expectations for staff, families and visitors
• a robust Providing a child safe environment policy and procedures (PDF 218 KB) that aligns with national legislation and guides staff in fulfilling their mandatory reporting responsibilities.
• clear complaint-handling policies and procedures (PDF 229 KB) that are regularly reviewed and communicated in accessible and meaningful formats to staff, families, community members and children, and are mindful of diverse needs, cultural backgrounds and abilities.
• an embedded focus on child safety in recruitment, induction and onboarding processes to ensure staff are trained to recognise the signs of child abuse.

Services should also have proactive conversations about child safety with children, parents and carers and support them to understand how they can report concerns about child safety. Resources are available to support these conversations, including our raising concerns flyer (PDF 405 KB) and supporting families following a serious incident flyer (PDF 86.4 KB).

All services are required under regulation 173(2)(b) and 173A(2)(b) to display the contact details of the person at the service who parents and carers can make a complaint to.

To help services easily comply with this requirement, we have developed a feedback and complaints poster (PDF 5.59 MB) services can display at their service. By scanning the QR code, parents and carers can access information on when and how they can make a complaint or provide feedback to the NSW Department of Education, as the NSW Regulatory Authority for ECEC.

Staff confidence and capability

Fostering a culture of continuous improvement is key to developing and maintaining a strong reporting culture. To support staff to build their confidence and capabilities in understanding and meeting their reporting obligations, they should:

• be supported to participate in regular child safety training and have access to learning resources on recognising and responding appropriately to signs of abuse, neglect and grooming
• have opportunities and be encouraged to engage in discussions and ongoing reflection on child safety policies, procedures and practices in staff meetings, professional development, and self-directed learning and reflection
• take appropriate steps to build their understanding of their reporting obligations and their service’s child policies and procedures, and seek out guidance from service leaders if they require further support.

Reporting, complaints and notifications

Effective reporting, complaints and notification systems and mechanisms help to clearly define and set expectations for service practice and staff behaviour around child safety reporting obligations and processes. This promotes transparency and accountability among staff, as well as with children, families and the broader community.

It is important that:

• services have clear, comprehensive policies and procedures for documenting and reporting concerns that support compliance with legislative requirements
• families and staff have access to open communication channels, such as suggestion boxes, designated staff contacts and scheduled meetings
• there are child-focused reporting processes, encouraging children to express concerns in safe and age-appropriate ways.

Tips on strengthening reporting culture

Provide clear and accessible reporting procedures

• Display step-by-step reporting guides in staff areas, such as our Responding to incidents, disclosures and suspicions of child abuse (PDF 67.9 PDF) flowchart.
• Offer practical training sessions using real-life scenarios. The NSW Office of the Children’s Guardian (OCG) offers child safety training for organisations for groups of 20 people or more – services can register their interest via its Child safe training and resources page.
• Regularly review policies to ensure they remain clear and aligned with legislative obligations. Visit ACECQA’s Preparing NQF policies and procedures page for guidance on what to consider when preparing and reviewing policies and procedures.
• Complete Module 3 – Child Safe Reporting for Staff’ and Module 4 – Child Safe Reporting for Leaders, which are part of the Implementing the Child Safe Standards suite of resources developed by the OCG for the ECEC sector.

Monitor, evaluate and improve reporting practices

• Conduct regular policy audits to ensure compliance and effectiveness. Listen to ‘Episode 3: Reporting in an ECEC Context’ of the Policy and Practice in Focus: An ECEC Child Safe Podcast Miniseries, which explores reporting considerations and obligations. The podcast is part of the Implementing the Child Safe Standards suite of resources.
• Gather anonymous feedback from staff about barriers to reporting, for example by using a survey.
• Download ACECQA’s Developing a culture of learning through reflective practice information sheet (PDF 1.5 MB) for strategies to support reflection for continuous improvement.
• Use incident and complaint reviews to identify areas for improvement and enhance training. ACECQA’s Using complaints to support continuous improvement information sheet (PDF 608 KB) can support you with this process.

Foster a supportive and open reporting culture

• Incorporate child safety into daily practices. Make child protection a regular discussion in staff meetings, reflective practice sessions and professional development to normalise open conversations.
• Provide peer support and supervision. Assign experienced educators as mentors to support newer staff in understanding and confidently handling child safety concerns.
• Offer multiple reporting avenues. Ensure staff can report concerns confidentially through private meetings or a designated child safety officer.
• Provide parents with information on how to report, and ensure this information is always displayed and clearly visible on service premises.