Suitable staff and volunteers

Guidance on Child Safe Standard 6: Ensuring staff and volunteers working with children are suitable and supported to embed child safety in early childhood services.

Early childhood

To comply with Child Safe Standard 6, you must:

ensure that staff and volunteers are suitable and supported to act in a child safe way
ensure all staff and volunteers prioritise children’s safety and wellbeing
screen applicants and keep records of conversations and job interviews
create child safety champions.

You must comply with all elements of Child Safe Standard 6.

Suitable staff and volunteers

Ensure people who work with children and young people are suitable and supported to act in a child safe way.

It requires services to:

carefully screen and select new staff during recruitment
train all staff and volunteers to understand their responsibilities
supervise all staff and volunteers to ensure they prioritise children’s safety.

Child Safe Standard 6

Read the full text of the Standard and its elements.

People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice

Early childhood services must comply with all the following elements of this Standard:

Recruitment, including advertising, referee checks and staff and volunteer pre-employment screening, emphasise child safety and wellbeing (6.1)
Relevant staff and volunteers have current working with children checks or equivalent background checks (6.2).
All staff and volunteers receive an appropriate induction and are aware of their responsibilities to children and young people, including record keeping, information sharing and reporting obligations (6.3).
Ongoing supervision and people management is focused on child safety and wellbeing (6.4).

Implement Standard 6

Open all

Recruitment and job advertisements

Tell job applicants about the service’s child safety practices. Give job applicants:

your Child Safe Environment policy (Child Safe Environment policy)
your Code of Conduct
links to your service’s child safety resources.

Include clear statements in your job advertisements about:

the job’s requirements, duties and responsibilities for child safety and wellbeing
an outline of duties and responsibilities about child safety and wellbeing
essential or relevant qualifications, experience and attributes about child safety and wellbeing.

Include selection criteria relevant to the role, such as:

experience working with children, including children with a disability or Aboriginal children
engaging with families
child safety experience
cultural safety in their work.

Screening, documentation, interviews and reference checks

Read and record the details of required documentation. Confirm that they are valid and current.
Required documentation for staff and volunteers:

Working with Children clearance or equivalent background check. For example, Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) registration or police check proof of identity
qualifications, history of working with children and references as appropriate for the role.

Seek referees for staff and volunteers as appropriate, including their last employer. If the applicant has worked overseas, seek overseas references.
For staff roles, speak to at least two previous work references. Include the applicant’s current supervisor.

Ask about the person’s character and experience in working directly with children.
Check if the previous service took disciplinary action against the applicant. Check if the service had any concerns about them. For example, not following the Code of Conduct or Child Safety and Wellbeing policy (Child Safe Environment policy).
Follow up on any concerns raised.
Keep records of your conversations and of job interviews.

For volunteers, consider the child safety risks relevant to the volunteer’s role. Follow up if you have any concerns.
Plan who will be on the interview panel. Make sure they have the right skills, experience and information.
Include questions about child safety in job interviews.
Ask applicants to declare any potential conflicts of interest. For example, family or business relationships or close friendships. Make sure the service has a process to manage it.

Induction, training and support

Give all staff, volunteers and contractors a child safety induction.
Include in the induction:

Code of Conduct
Child Safe Environment policy (Child Safe Environment policy)
how to raise any concerns, incidents or complaints
procedures for managing complaints and concerns related to child abuse.

Make sure all staff and volunteers are aware of their responsibilities for:

children information sharing and reporting obligations
recordkeeping obligations.

Make sure your policies include how you will manage the risks around contractors. This includes agency or casual staff, gardeners or trades on the premises. Policies should include:

sighting a valid Working with Children clearance before the person starts
providing a child safety induction.

Train all staff and volunteers as appropriate to their roles.
Deliver regular child safety briefings for all staff. For example, through staff meetings and newsletters.
Provide refresher child safe training for staff and volunteers.
Include child safety and wellbeing as a regular agenda item for staff meetings. This is at all levels of the organisation.
Training content and ways to identify risk, respond and engage may include:

child safety (including family violence)
mandatory reporting
responding to inappropriate sexualised behaviour
human rights and the rights of children
diversity and inclusion
harassment and bullying
cultural safety
privacy and information sharing
information sharing and family violence reforms
risk factors and signs of harm, including intentional and unintentional harm, physical or emotional harm, bullying or cyberbullying, abuse and neglect
how to identify and respond to child safety risks, especially for vulnerable children
Introducing easy ways for children to express their views and raise concerns
engaging with families to support children’s safety and wellbeing
appropriate handling of sensitive information about a child’s safety, health or wellbeing.

Supervision and people management

Make sure that all managers, staff and volunteers promote child safety and wellbeing in their roles.

Include standards for child safety performance in staff contracts. Explain how you will assess their performance.
Make sure all staff and volunteers are aware of the up-to-date processes for mandatory reporting.
Talk about the Child Safety and Wellbeing policy (Child Safe Environment policy) and Code of Conduct with staff and volunteers:

in supervision meetings
at staff meetings
in newsletters
staff updates.

Focus on child safety considerations in supervision and people management.
Include child safety and wellbeing goals in staff professional development plans.

Train service leaders to:

look out for behaviours that compromise child safety
make sure they know how to correct these behaviours in other staff and volunteers.

Show people managers how to manage staff whose behaviour raises child safety concerns. Ensure they know when to escalate concerns about staff behaviour.
Read the free resources developed by Early Learning Association Australia (ELAA):

Create child safety champions

Nominate a child safety champion at your service. Support them to promote the induction and training programs including:

service values and philosophy
procedures for managing complaints
privacy and reporting protocols.

NQF Child Safety Guides

The two NQF Safety 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.
Download the guides and extra tools

The two NQF Child Safety Guides are the:

NQF Child Safe Culture Guide
NQF Online Safety Guide. There are also additional resources:
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 these resources at Child Safety, together with links to additional ACECQA resources about child safety.

Additional resources

Understand the Standards

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.

Possible next steps

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

Early childhood education and care

Updated 26 March 2026

Victorian Early Childhood Regulatory Authority (VECRA)

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Suitable staff and volunteers

Early childhood

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Suitable staff and volunteers

Child Safe Standard 6

Implement Standard 6

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