Reviewing child safety practices

Continuous improvement and review of child safety practices

Being a child safe organisation requires:

ongoing effort
a culture that focuses on continual improvement.

Services need to focus on preventing child abuse and harm though:

considering the risk of child abuse in all risk assessments and planning
analysing complaints, concerns, safety incidents and near misses to identify systemic failures
learning from mistakes and using them to inform continuous improvement
reviewing policies, procedures and practices on a regular basis
being open and transparent with everyone at the service, including families.

Child Safe Standard 10

Read the full text of the Standard and its elements.

Early childhood services must comply with all the following elements of this standard:
- The service regularly reviews, evaluates and improves child safe practices (10.1).
- Complaints, concerns and safety incidents are analysed to identify causes and systemic failures to inform continuous improvement (10.2).
- The service reports on the findings of relevant reviews to staff and volunteers, community and families and children and young people (10.3).

Implement Standard 10

Start by reflecting on how your service already evaluates its child safe practices. How do you plan for continuous improvement?

Review your child safe policies and procedures

Reviews can be done at any time. They may be prompted by:
- a concern expressed by a:
  - child
  - family member
  - staff member
  - volunteer or
  - community member.
- a complaint or confirmed incident of harm to a child or children
- a new issue or activity
- a change to service premises or information technology
- new transportation arrangements or excursions
- a change to law or regulations
- discovering that staff or volunteers are:
  - not aware of child safety policies, or
  - not implementing child safety policies as intended.
Schedule a review date for all your policies:
- on the annual anniversary of the date the policy was approved
- include it in your Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) or annual planning cycle.
Keep records of all complaints, concerns, allegations and actions taken to respond.
Review all policies and procedures carefully, especially those that relate to child safety:
- Child Safety and Wellbeing policy (Child Safe Environment policy) and procedures
- Safe Use of Digital Technologies and Online Environments policy and procedures
- Code of Conduct (this should link to the staffing policy and procedures)
- complaints policy and procedures for responding to:
  - complaints and concerns
  - relating to child abuse
- recordkeeping and information management protocols
- policies and practices on accessibility, cultural safety, diversity and inclusion
- recruitment policies and practices for staff and volunteers
- induction programs for staff and volunteers
- training for staff and volunteers
- communication aimed at children, their families and the community about child safety.
Remember to review the service’s progress in embedding child safety and rights in:
- its educational program
- service philosophy.
- What has changed since the service last reviewed its child safety practices?
- Can the service adapt its environment to better support child safety?
- Are all the Child Safe Standards addressed in the:
  - Child Safety and Wellbeing policy (Child Safe Environment policy) and procedures
  - Safe Use of Digital Technologies and Online Environments policy and procedures.
- Do staff and volunteers understand and follow:
  - the Safe Use of Digital Technologies
  - the Child Safety and Wellbeing policy (Child Safe Environment policy) and procedures as intended?
- What is the service doing well in its child safety practice?
- What is the root cause of a complaint or incident?
- What can be learned from incidents, concerns and complaints?
- How can the service address weaknesses, failures and gaps?
- Are the Child Safety and Wellbeing policy (Child Safe Environment policy) and procedures:
  - understood
  - followed by staff and volunteers as intended?
- Are staff, volunteers and families involved in the service’s approach to child safety?
- Who is responsible for actions to improve child safety?
- Who is accountable for child safety incidents?
- Review and update your service’s:
  - Child Safety and Wellbeing policy (Child Safe Environment policy)
  - Safe Use of Digital Technologies and Online Environments policy and procedures.
- Add the review to your Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) or annual planning cycle.
- Choose a member of staff or management as a child safety champion.
- Keep records of discussions on how to improve and implement child safe practices. These could include minutes of staff meetings.
- Develop an audit log of complaints and concerns:
  - showing appropriate responses and mitigations
  - keep the log secure with version control.
- Review any complaints the service has received and any incidents reported. Are there any gaps, weaknesses, or failures in policies?
- After doing a review, make sure that the findings and recommendations are easy to access and understand.
- Include any findings or recommendations from child safety reviews in future child safety training.
- Communicate review outcomes to staff, volunteers and families.
- Inform staff, volunteers and families of any relevant child safety policy and procedure changes.
- Check families’ awareness and understanding of child safety policies and procedures through:
  - focus groups
  - surveys
  - discussions.

NQF Child Safety Guides

The guides focus on creating, maintaining and improving a child safe culture in early childhood services. They include:

information on each Child Safe Standard
case studies
questions to guide reflection
additional reading and resources.

The two NQF Safety Guides include information and practical guidance:
- NQF Child Safe Culture Guide
- NQF Online Safety Guide.
There are also additional resources, including the:
- NQF Child Safe Culture – Self-assessment and risk assessment tool
- NQF Online Safe Culture – Self-assessment and risk assessment tool
- Child Safety incident response template – Responding to complaints, concerns, allegations and disclosures
- Reporting and Responding Schemes tool.
Download all these resources at Child Safety, together with links to additional ACECQA resources about child safety.

Additional resources

The Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) have information for all types of organisations that must comply with the Child Safe Standards. This includes:
- CCYP | Resources and support for the Child Safe Standards
- CCYP | Translated resources about the Child Safe Standards
Note: information isn't tailored for early childhood services.
- Child protection in early childhood, including Mandatory Reporting online training(opens in a new window).

Possible next steps

Read more about all the Child Safe Standards(opens in a new window) in early childhood services.

Early childhood

Updated 15 August 2025