This month’s free webinar is for organisations and businesses working in Queensland, to assist them to prepare for the commencement of the Child Safe Standards from October. Join us on Tuesday 19 August 2025, 1-2 pm AEST.

Register here:
https://events.humanitix.com/bbsafe-free-webinar-child-safe-standards

Beyond quick fix responses – some thoughts from the BBSafe team

In the wake of allegations of child abuse in childcare centres, people are understandably asking what can be done to prevent this happening again. A raft of reforms is underway.

Unfortunately, while we all hope these tragic events will be a catalyst for positive change, there isn’t a simple fix for this highly complex problem.

At BBSafe we understand there isn’t a silver bullet when it comes to child safety and prefer to work with organisations to help them build their own cultures of safety over the long term.

All the compliance in the world can be undermined if the culture and practice aren’t right.

Over the years working with a wide range of groups and businesses, we’ve identified some common things that indicate an organisation is successfully focussing on cultural shifts to uplift safeguarding.

Firstly, these organisations show strong leadership and send intentional messages about values and expectations. Organisations that develop a child safeguarding framework and embed a living, breathing code of conduct provide their people with a clear ‘north star’, ensuring that everyone is on the same page in terms of standards and expectations.

Their recruitment processes ensure every person joining (staff, volunteers and board members) is suitable and shares the organisation’s values when it comes to looking after children and vulnerable adults. As well as basic background and reference checks, they use values-based interviewing to draw out why the candidate wants to work in the organisation and with the client group. how they approach safeguarding, and what they do to maintain professional boundaries.

Because new risks emerge, regulatory requirements change, and organisations learn and refresh policies, training is ongoing – not something that only happens at induction. People are also prompted to regularly reflect on how they are contributing to safeguarding and what they can do next to make things better.

Organisations which focus on culture undertake safeguarding risk assessments across sites and services – specific to their context. They understand risk comes from relationships, vulnerabilities of the client group, physical environments and online environments – and they put steps in place to mitigate those risks.

They take every concern, report or incident seriously in the understanding that even minor complaints may be flagging something bigger going on. Processes are implemented to track incidents, identify patterns and areas for growth. This is presented to the board and management team in a systematic and meaningful way.

Organisations with strong cultures of safeguarding don’t see complaints and feedback as a threat to reputation. They don’t focus on blame or retribution, instead welcoming feedback as part of continuous improvement and an opportunity to do better.

It’s tempting to look for a quick fix, but organisations that take a cultural approach, and prioritise learning and continuous improvement, are going to be most effective at keeping children safe over the long term.