Child Safe Action Plan

The Children’s Guardian Act 2019 (the Act) aims to protect children by seeking to embed the Child Safe Standards as the primary framework guiding child safe practice in organisations throughout NSW.

The Act requires OLG, as a prescribed agency, to develop and publish a Child Safe Action Plan describing how we will work to promote awareness of the standards across local government and how we will build the capability of local government to implement the standards to ultimately improve the safety of children in NSW.

As a trusted regulator and capacity builder OLG is responsible for enabling councils to better serve their communities and build their capability to implement the policy and regulatory changes of Government.

OLG will assist councils implement the standards in several ways, including to:

• create and implement the OLG Child Safe Action Plan (PDF, 497 KB)
• incorporate the standards into relevant policies and guidelines produced by the OLG
• provide sector leadership and opportunities for engagement to raise awareness of the standards
• communicate with the sector to increase awareness of child safety responsibilities
• support councils to build their capability to implement the standards
• promote the availability of resources and tools created by Office of Children’s Guardian and other organisations. These include templates, training, checklists and case studies. Visit Our Resources.

The local government sector plays a key role in the lives of our young people through early childhood, school aged and youth services, leisure and recreation facilities such as swimming pools, libraries, parks and sporting fields as well as through employment of young people.

The 128 local councils in NSW are well aware of the importance of the standards, and are actively working towards becoming child safe organisations. OLG commends NSW councils for proactively embracing the positive opportunities the Child Safe Standards represent. Councils are creating policies, actively training their staff, and making public commitments to promoting child safe practices. These actions are leading cultural change and making communities in NSW safer for children.

OLG would also like to acknowledge the work of the Office of the Children’s Guardian in leading this work across all sectors in NSW. OLG will continue to support the work of the Office of the Children’s Guardian and local government by raising awareness of and building capability in local government to implement the standards.