Complying with Child Safe Standard 6 – Complaints management (for transport providers)

Standard 6 – Processes to respond to complaints and concerns are child focused.

How you can comply

Take complaints and concerns seriously and respond to them appropriately and transparently to prioritise children's (any person under 18) safety and wellbeing. Transparently means you have a clear, fair process that people can understand and participate in.

For example, your process might say that every complaint is acknowledged within a certain timeframe of receiving it. This way people know you have received their complaint.

How you may already be complying

You will already have mechanisms in place to respond to complaints and incidents because of:

Best-practice ideas

Develop a complaint handling policy (or adjust one you already use) to ensure it:

  • clearly outlines roles and responsibilities, and how your workers (as defined in the Child Safe Organisations Act 2024) should deal with types of complaints or misconduct. For example
    • a bus driver would report misconduct of students to their bus operator, as per the Code
    • a bus operator would report harm caused to a student to the relevant authorities (e.g. school, police, TMR), depending on the circumstances
  • is easy to understand by children and your workers and accessible for all cultures, religions, nationalities, disabilities and differences
  • meets reporting, privacy and employment law requirements
  • includes complaint and review processes that are prompt, transparent and fair, and support everyone involved, particularly children
  • includes processes for reporting complaints and concerns to relevant authorities (e.g. police) where required
  • includes a process for providing timely feedback and reports on how the complaint was handled to all persons involved.

Involve children and families in the design of your complaints handling process and procedures to understand their needs and to develop a process that meets their needs.

Provide training and information to your workers so they:

  • know their roles and responsibilities, reporting and privacy responsibilities, and processes for responding to concerns and complaints from students, families and other workers
  • take complaints seriously and respond to them quickly and thoroughly.

Keep a record of complaints and concerns and investigate where appropriate.

Review complaints and investigation outcomes to identify patters and determine where improvements may be required.

Provide support to your workers who report incidents of child harm.

Cultural safety and this Standard

Consult with Aboriginal people and trusted community Elders and Torres Strait Islander people and trusted community Elders to ensure complaints handling and reporting processes developed are culturally safe.

Ask Aboriginal children and families and Torres Strait Islander children and families if they need support in the complaint process from a trusted community Elder, and/or an Aboriginal support person or Torres Strait Islander support person, within or outside your organisation.

Related Standards

Complying with this Standard can also help you comply with:

Also consider...