Commonwealth Child Safe Framework

Commonwealth Child Safe Framework

The National Disability Insurance Scheme Quality and Safeguards Commission (NDIS Commission) strongly supports the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework (the Framework), which sets the minimum standards for creating and maintaining a child safe culture and practice in Australian Government entities. The Framework was established in response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse findings.

The safety and wellbeing of children and young people is embedded in our operations, governance and organisational culture and leadership. We are dedicated to ensuring that the NDIS Commission is a child safe and child friendly environment where all children and young people are valued and feel safe.

The NDIS Commission is committed to the safety of all NDIS participants, including those who are children. We acknowledge NDIS participants who are children are likely to have a different service experience to adults. By integrating child-safe principles, the NDIS Commission is enhancing the impact of its regulatory functions as a formidable regulator and contributes to positive, quality and safe service delivery to all participants, including children.

To date, the NDIS Commission, in line with the Framework has:

• undertaken an annual risk assessment in relation to the NDIS Commission’s activities to identify the level of responsibility for, and contact with children,
• determined appropriate strategies to manage identified risks and their treatments, assigning responsible treatment owners,  
• adopted the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework eLearning module in workforce training,
• implemented working with vulnerable children checks and mandatory reporting processes,
• implemented information sharing protocols between Commonwealth, State and Territory Government Agencies,  
• continued to review and refine our guidance material to include child safety principles and considerations,  
• continued to progress a tailored Child Safe Framework within the NDIS Commission.

Key principles

The NDIS Commission is committed to promoting the provision of safe and quality supports and services to people with disability; this includes all children and young people.
The NDIS Commission has adopted the National Principles for Child Safe Organisation to form the basis of our child safeguarding culture.

1. The safety and wellbeing of children, including those with a disability, is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture.
2. Children with a disability are informed about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them, and are taken seriously.
3. Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing for all children, including those with disability.
4. Equity is upheld and diverse needs respected in policy and practice.
5. People working with children are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values, and the nuances of working with children with disability, in practice
6. Processes for complaints and concerns, include specialised consideration for children.
7. Workforce, including consultants, are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children safe through ongoing education and training.
8. Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing, while minimising the opportunity for children to be harmed.
9. Implementation of the national child safe principles is regularly reviewed and improved.
10. Policies and procedures document how the organisation is safe for children, including those with disability.

Risk assessment

The NDIS Commission has undertaken a child safety risk assessment, with particular focus on the nature and extent of staff contact with children. The assessment identified only a limited number of functions involve incidental or limited contact with children, while most roles have no direct contact. For those functions where contact does occur, robust safeguards and control measures have been implemented to mitigate risk, protect children, and support improved outcomes.

The NDIS Commission continues to review and refine its policies and guidance material to address and manage child safe risks to strengthen our organisational capability as a formidable regulator.