Complying with Child Safe Standard 1 – Leadership and culture (for transport providers)

Standard 1 – Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in the entity's organisational leadership, governance and culture.

How you can comply

Consider publicly committing to the safety and wellbeing of children (any person under 18) using your service.

How you may already be complying

You may already have a statement in a policy, brochure, or online about your services and providing safe travel for children.

Best-practice ideas

Display a public commitment to child safety and wellbeing on your website, application forms or correspondence, in vehicles or at depots. For example:

  • "[Your organisation name] is committed to providing a safe, supportive, and inclusive environment for all children who use our transport services. We prioritise their safety and wellbeing by [provide details]."

Update any existing policy, brochures, or online statements or create a new child safety and wellbeing policy. Set out the steps you take to:

  • prioritise the safety of children
  • interact with them on your services
  • support the cultural safety of Aboriginal children and Torres Strait Islander children using your service.

The Code of conduct for school students travelling on buses may provide ideas on how to create a safe travel environment for school students.

If you have workers, you can:

  • engage with your drivers and supervisors on buses for their input on ways to improve the safety for children on your services
  • outline the expected worker behaviour about child safety in a code of conduct for all of your workers – detail what is considered acceptable and unacceptable behaviour
  • ensure your leaders model and promote compliance with the Standards through policies, duty statements, and performance reviews.

A worker is defined in the Child Safe Organisations Act 2024.

Cultural safety and this Standard

Support Aboriginal children and families and Torres Strait Islander children and families to feel welcome, safe, valued, included and respected.

Incorporate cultural safety into daily tasks.

Provide opportunities for workers to reflect on their understanding of cultural safety and support them to improve.

Related Standards

Complying with this Standard can also help you comply with:

Also consider...