Families have the right to expect that overnight care services provide safe and supportive environments for children and young people.
Child Safe organisations
Providers of specialised substitute residential care are captured under the Child Safe Scheme and must comply with the SSRC Code of Practice.
Child safe organisations:
- put children's safety and wellbeing first
- listen to children and young people
- respond appropriately to concerns
- create environments where children feel respected and included
- continually improve their child safe practices.
Find out more about the Child Safe Scheme.
What must providers do?
Providers are required to complete a Child Safe Self-Assessment and comply with the SSRC Code of Practice. They must also implement the Child Safe Standards to ensure that children and young people in their care are safe.
These organisations should:
- make sure decision-making and service delivery are child centred and consider the child’s preferences, strengths and goals
- support regular communication between the child, their parent or guardian, and the organisation.
- consult with the child, the parent or guardian, support providers used by the child and the family and other overnight care organisations in their decision-making and service delivery
- consider the child and the family’s cultural needs
- adapt and respond to the diverse needs of the child and their family so they have equitable opportunities to feel welcome and participate in activities
- make sure children, young people and families know how they can make a complaint and understand the complaint process.
Organisations providing SSRC must provide a copy of the following records to the parent or guardian of the child receiving care:
- details of the services to be provided to the child and the child’s parents
- consents given by the parents of the child
- the responsibilities of the parties involved in providing or supporting SSRC care for the child
These records must be made available to the Children’s Guardian if requested.
Organisations that provide care to children and young people have legal obligations under Chapter 16A of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998), to share information about the safety, welfare or wellbeing of a child or young person. This information sharing is limited to prescribed bodies which includes SSRC providers.
Find out more about when and why an SSRC provider may use Chapter 16A.
Our role
In NSW the Office of the Children’s Guardian does not accredit or endorse providers of specialised substitute residential care.
Specialised substitute residential care providers may be monitored under the Child Safe Scheme. Our focus is monitoring for compliance against the SSRC Code of Practice.
We manage the specialised substitute residential care register that helps us monitor the number of nights a child or young person accesses overnight respite care to identify when certain legislative requirements come into effect.
