In South Australia, certain organisations (including sole traders) providing services to children and young people must provide child-safe environments and:
- have a child-safe environments policy /procedures in place and at a minimum, review them once every 5 years
- meet Working with Children Check obligations, and
- lodge a child-safe environments compliance statement with the Department of Human Services and lodge a new statement each time policy/procedures are reviewed and updated.
Lodging a compliance statement is free.
Who must lodge a compliance statement
All organisations providing services to children and young people must lodge a compliance statement. This includes (but is not limited to):
- health services including allied health practitioners
- accommodation or residential services for children (including school camp providers)
- services or activities provided by religious organisations
- childcare or child-minding services
- child protection services
- coaching or tuition services for children
- disability services for children
- commercial services provided directly to children (including recreational, entertainment, photographers and others)
- clubs and associations with a significant membership of children who provide sporting, recreational, cultural or artistic services or activities
- education services
- transport services for children
- any other service or activity declared by section 7 of the Child Safety (Prohibited Persons) Act 2016.
This includes state authorities, non-government organisations, sole traders and people working in partnerships.
Section 6 of the Child Safety (Prohibited Persons) Act 2016 tells you which organisations are included.
An easy online form
A child-safe environment compliance (CSEC) statement is an online form that is easy to complete.
A penalty of up to $10,000 may apply if your organisation does not complete a compliance statement.
You are not required to upload your child safe environment policy/procedures when completing your compliance statement. However, we may request copies of them at any time and you must provide them within 7 days.
Your child safe environment policy/procedures must meet minimum South Australian legislative requirements and align with the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.
Lodge your compliance statement
When lodging your compliance statement, there are 3 types of lodgements you can choose from:
- Sole trader (also includes partnerships)
- A sole trader is a person who is the only owner who controls and manages a business
- A partnership is an arrangement between two or more parties to manage a business.
- Single organisation
- A single entity formed as a company or corporation.
- Representative body
- An organisation that represents smaller-sized enterprises or, for sporting clubs, a representative body is the overarching peak organisation that represents affiliated sporting member clubs.
- Where a representative body lodges a statement on behalf of its member organisations, it must satisfy itself that the organisations it represents have adopted the policies of the representative body.
To lodge your compliance statement, select a link from below that best suits your business:
After you have lodged your compliance statement
Once you have completed your compliance statement, you will receive email confirmation with a PDF copy of your compliance statement attached.
We strongly recommend you save a copy of the PDF compliance statement for your records in case your organisation is asked to provide it.
Contact us
Phone 1800 371 113
Email dhs.childsafe@sa.gov.au