72% of Australian children have been exposed to an adverse experience.
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According to the Q2 2022 NQF snapshot 2.2. (Safety) is the 4th lowest ranked element of the 2018 childcare NQF.
Children at a lower risk may fly under the radar
Currently mandatory reports are submitted for children that exceed the risk threshold. But what about those other vulnerable children that fall below the threshold?
Difficulty navigating the system to seek the right help
For services and educators that have identified a child potentially at risk of harm or neglect, it can then be tricky to access the right professional support and guidance.
Different state and federal reporting requirements
Without readily available tools to support services and educators, complying with mandatory reporting obligations can be an administrative challenge.
Providing early intervention support for 7yr old Jason*
A Safe assessment completed by a OSHC staff caregiver found that of the 41 child protection questions, 28 were deemed to apply to Jason - however Jason and his family were not known to state child protection services.
Jason’s data was reviewed by a CAPS Case Review Specialist (CRS) who assessed that he faced a high level of risk due to multiple factors.
The CRS contacted the organisation recommending they report Jason’s situation to the Department of Child Protection. Along with lodging the report the organisation also undertook child protection training.
*Name changed to maintain confidentiality
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In four steps Safe’s world first early intervention software can help your service adhere to child safety standards.
With a database of over 230,000 children nationwide and eight years of machine learning experience, Safe has a 96.2% accuracy rate in identifying at-risk children.
Safe was developed in response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which found that all organisations in contact with children should have the systems in place to identify those at risk and respond appropriately.
When completing a Safe assessment users must respond to 41 simple questions designed to identify the level of risk and the type of abuse or neglect (including emotional, physical and sexual).
These questions were developed in consultation with industry leaders on child protection, trauma and case management.
Safe uses machine learning and language processing technology to analyse each Safe assessment and provide a risk prediction rating for each child.
As part of the machine learning prediction, each Safe assessment is analysed against health and welfare data sets, which have been provided by childcare organisations through the Australian Government’s prescribed Child Care Management System.
This data set of over 230,000 children nationwide is unique to Safe and is based on the mandatory reporting guidelines in each Australian state and territory.
The Safe assessment and prediction is then reviewed by CAPS experienced Case Review Specialists (CRS) that review each prediction and utilise professional judgement to identify the possibility that a child is at risk.
If the CRS considers the likelihood of risk to be high they will contact the service that completed the Safe assessment and support them to contact the appropriate child protection service for their State or Territory. If need be, the CRS will also contact child protection authorities.
By default, cases are prioritised in order of risk to ensure the most vulnerable children receive the most urgent attention. This ensures better outcomes for the child and prevents anyone from slipping through the safety net.
The program AI becomes smarter with every case assessed. The more organisations that utilise Safe the better our society becomes at recognising vulnerable children well before any harm can occur.
Safe’s dashboard can be presented as a heat map. Each child is represented as a red circle. The larger the circle the more at risk that child is.
The heatmap can be used to identify specific areas where family support services could be deployed, and you can track the impact that these services have made over a period of time.
The dashboard also provides a visual triage diagram so that the most at risk children can be readily identified and focused on first.
We are the pioneering ECEC software provider of child protection software - and we will continue to advocate for their inclusion in the sector.
Developed through our advocacy partnerships
Safe was developed by Healthy Australia (our not for profit arm) in consultation with Welfare Australia, CSIRO and NICTA. We are now partnering with Child Abuse Prevention Service to further assist in identifying at-risk children. Established in 1973, the Child Abuse Prevention Service (CAPS) is the oldest organisation in Australia dedicated to the prevention of all forms of child maltreatment. CAPS is a non-government, non-religious charity with a vision that is simple but powerful: that all children are safe, supported and loved. Learn more about CAPS at: https://www.caps.org.au/
Assessments reviewed by CAPS specialists
With almost 50 years experience, CAPS has a dedicated Case Review Specialist (CRS) who will personally review each Safe assessment. The CAPS team also include experienced psychologists, educators and policy experts who are well-equipped to create positive childhood experiences through award-winning community education programs, a national case review platform, training workshops and child safe organisation solutions.
Keeping sensitive data safe and secure
All data utilised by Safe is encrypted and password-protected, with case information only available to authorised child protection personnel with current working with children and police checks. Those authorised to review case information in Safe are routinely audited.
At HubHello, we believe in protecting the innocence of children.
That’s why all users of HubWorks (our childcare management software) get free access to Safe.
Here’s some helpful resources we picked out for you.
Learn more about our childcare software features with these quick video and article tutorials.
Making a Safe assessment
See how to complete an online Safe assessment, directly within HubWorks.
Supporting kids webinar: How storytime can relieve anxiety
Children’s anxiety has increased by almost 50% since Covid-19. In this free webinar recording, Child Abuse Prevention Service (CAPS) Registered Psychologist Hillary Milton shares simple tips to help relieve their stress.
Making a Safe assessment
See how to complete an online Safe assessment, directly within HubWorks.
Supporting kids webinar: How storytime can relieve anxiety
Children’s anxiety has increased by almost 50% since Covid-19. In this free webinar recording, Child Abuse Prevention Service (CAPS) Registered Psychologist Hillary Milton shares simple tips to help relieve their stress.
Frequently asked questions.
All Safe data is hosted with Amazon Web Services, one of the most secure data platforms in the world. Safe is also approved against Services Australia’s Secure Cloud Strategy for Integrated Third-Party Software standard and abides by the Australian Government’s 13 Australian Privacy Principles.
No, Safe is not a replacement for mandatory reporting; you are still obliged to make mandatory reports where appropriate. Safe is an early intervention tool that can assist services in providing support to vulnerable children before they reach the mandatory reporting threshold.
The Safe assessments may not be at the mandatory report level threshold on their own however, in conjunction with observations from other educators and services, combined they could increase the risk level.
The Safe assessment report and feedback provided by CAPS Case Review Specialists can also be included in mandatory report submissions where additional information is required.
Yes - In fact Safe can assist your service in exceeding the childcare NQF for Quality area 2.2 (Safety). According to the Q2 2022 NQF snapshot 2.2. (Safety) is the 4th lowest ranked element of the 2018 childcare NQF, based on the proportion of services that do not meet this element.
While risk and stress is a part of learning and developing, there are some experiences that have been shown to have long term impacts on children’s health and wellbeing. Stress can be viewed as positive (first day of school), tolerable (death of a pet) or toxic.
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are a stressful or traumatic event that a child has experienced during their childhood. ACEs can have an impact on the development of a child, as well as on their mental and physical wellbeing as an adult.
Let's protect the innocence of children together.
By making a Safe assessment you can help our society recognise vulnerable children well before any harm can occur.
