Consultation now open on out-of-home care accreditation
The Office of the Children’s Guardian is seeking feedback from the statutory out-of-home care and adoption sector on implementing new regulations.
On 1 September 2022 the accreditation and monitoring functions for the sector were transferred to the Children’s Guardian Act 2019 and Children’s Guardian Regulation 2022.
The Child Safe Standards are now mandatory for designated agencies and adoption service providers. Agencies that are meeting the NSW Child Safe Standards for Permanent Care are also meeting the Child Safe Standards.
There are also new provisions for a code of practice for designated agencies and adoption service providers, setting out how the Child Safe Standards are to be implemented in the sector, including the steps an agency must take to achieve accreditation.
The Child Safe Standards and the code of practice will in time replace the current standards as the new accreditation criteria.
These changes were made following extensive consultation with the sector, and these consultations now move toward implementation.
We’ve released a consultation paper asking for feedback about the practices that should be addressed in the new code of practice.
The consultation is open until 18 November 2022.
