Child Safe Standards monitoring and enforcement

Our approach 

We help organisations understand what they must do under the Child Safe Scheme. As a regulator, we also have additional options if we find that an organisation is not willing to meet the Standards or has placed children at risk of harm.  

We may take any of the following actions as part of our regulatory response: 

• monitor how an organisation is using the Standards  

• investigate an organisation if we are concerned that an organisation is not meeting the Standards 

• use our enforcement powers under the law to make sure an organisation does what is required to keep children safe 

We may contact several organisations within a sector to understand how they are using the Child Safe Standards to keep children safe. This process helps us to recognise which sectors need more support to understand and implement the Child Safe Standards. 

We may also contact an organisation if we receive a report that suggests a risk to children’s safety.  

We understand that child-related organisations in NSW vary in their size, the activities or services they provide for children, their resources and their structure. Our monitoring program always takes these factors into account. 

What we expect from organisations 

All child safe organisations have a responsibility to make sure that they are using child safe systems, policies and processes.  

We can take a range of actions to monitor or investigate compliance with the Child Safe Scheme. These may include: 

• requesting information about your organisation’s child safe systems, policies and processes  

• inspecting the places your organisation operates in  

• directing your organisation to complete our Child Safe Self-Assessment   

• providing recommendations or best practice guidance to improve your organisation’s child safe systems, policies and processes, and  

• reviewing your organisation’s response to our recommendations to make sure they have been implemented. 

We may request copies of your child safe policies and procedures, including, but not limited to the following: 

• a statement of the organisation’s commitment to child safety  

• a child safe policy  

• a child safe code of conduct  

• a child safe reporting policy   

• a child safe recruitment, induction and training policy   

• a child safe risk management plan  

We may also ask to see how your child safe systems, policies and processes are being applied across your organisation.  

For example, we may ask your organisation to show us how you have communicated with workers, families and children about your child safe policies and procedures. We may also ask to see copies of your Code of Conduct signed by workers and volunteers, showing they have read and understood what is required.

Enforcement actions 

The Children’s Guardian may decide that more actions are needed to make sure that an organisation is complying with the Child Safe Standards to keep children safe. We may either: 

• send out a ‘compliance notice’ that includes actions we require an organisation to take to improve child safe systems, policies and processes. An organisation will have to show us how they have implemented the actions listed in the compliance notice, or   

• accept ‘an enforceable undertaking’ from an organisation. An enforceable undertaking is a written agreement in which an organisation agrees to take actions to improve child safe systems, policies and processes by a particular date.  

We can issue fines if an organisation fails to follow a compliance notice or an enforceable undertaking.  

The Office of the Children’s Guardian is required to post a list of organisations and their compliance notices or enforceable undertakings on our public website.