The ten Child Safe Standards were recommended by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to make organisations safer for children. The Standards are principle-based and outcome-focused and intended to provide a framework for organisations to make child safety a focus. In NSW, implementation of the Standards is governed under the Child Safe Scheme in the Children’s Guardian Act 2019.

Under the Act, the department and schools are required to implement the Standards as child safe organisations. As the largest provider of public education in Australia, the department recognises it has a unique and important role to play in leading, influencing and raising awareness to embed child safe practice and the Child Safe Standards. Implementation of the Standards will support the ongoing commitment of the department and schools to ensure the safety, welfare and wellbeing of children and young people in NSW public schools.

Child Safe Action Plan

In addition, as part of its requirement under the Children’s Guardian Act 2019, the department has developed a four-year Child Safe Action Plan (department-wide). The Child Safe Action Plan is a high-level document outlining the department’s approach to:

• build awareness on child safety in the department, schools and community,

• build capability of the department and schools to implement the Child Safe Standards, and

• improve safety of children by implementing the Child Safe Standards.
  

A separate NSW Regulatory Authority’s Child Safe Action Plan was developed for the Early Childhood Education and Outside of School Hours Care sector in recognition of the unique regulatory requirements for this sector.

More Information

• Department’s Early Childhood Education: For more information on child safety specific to the ECEC sector.

• Office of the Children’s Guardian: The Office of Children’s Guardian is the independent oversight body responsible for implementing the Child Safe Scheme in NSW. To support implementation of the Standards, the Office of the Children’s Guardian have developed resources, including a Child Safe self-assessment for organisations to assess their capability and a Guide to the Child Safe Standards.

Contact us

If you or your team have projects that are aligned to the Child Safe Standards or would like to know how you could align them to the Child Safe Standards please contact us at cptraining.cps@det.nsw.edu.au