Child Safe Standards Update 

Victoria's New Child Safe Standards

New Child Safe Standards to strengthen child safety will commence in Victoria on 1 July 2022 

The Child Safe Standards (the Standards) commenced in Victoria in January 2016. After five years, we have seen how the Standards improve safety for children and young people. Changes are being made to make our Standards even stronger. 

Organisations covered by the Standards will need to comply with new Standards by 1 July 2022. Until then, the current Standards apply. 

The new Standards set out minimum requirements and outline the actions organisations must take to keep children and young people safe. They provide more clarity for organisations and are more consistent with Standards in the rest of Australia. 

The things organisations already do to keep children and young people safe will help them be compliant with the new Standards. In some areas, organisations will need to change or develop their current child safety policy, practices and organisational culture to meet the new Standards. 

Further information and guidance will be provided by the Commission and other regulators over the coming months to help organisations move to the new Standards by 1 July 2022. 

What will be different? 

Although similar to Victoria’s current Child Safe Standards, key changes include new requirements: 

• to involve families and communities in organisations’ efforts to keep children and young people safe 
• for a greater focus on safety for Aboriginal children and young people
•  to manage the risk of child abuse in online environments
• in relation to governance, systems and processes to keep children and young people safe.

Further Information on the Child Safe Standards can be found here. 

https://ccyp.vic.gov.au/assets/resources/New-CSS/New-Child-Safe-Standards-Information-Sheet.pdf