Compliance Bulletin
Welcome to the November-December 2025 edition
Better understanding the Sublicence and Funding Agreement.
The HIPPY Compliance Bulletin helps sites understand their Sublicence and Funding Agreement. It provides practical tips, ideas, and examples to help sites stay compliant and meet their obligations. The Bulletin breaks down key parts of the Sublicence, showing how strong compliance and quality practices support successful program delivery.
Though particularly focussed at supporting Line Managers - who are responsible for ensuring compliance to the Sublicence - these bulletins work to help Coordinators understand how HIPPY is administered and how the work they do fulfils their organisation’s contract with BSL.
This month’s focus is on safeguarding.
Safeguarding
HIPPY Australia is committed to child safety, and we prioritise the wellbeing and protection of children and vulnerable people across all sites.
Safeguarding describes the measures put in place to protect the wellbeing, rights and health of individuals and in HIPPY’s case those of children and vulnerable people. It includes preventing, responding to, and reporting the harm or abuse of children, young people and vulnerable people in our HIPPY communities and sites.
REMEMBER All HIPPY staff and volunteers must: - Recognise that the safety of children and vulnerable people is everyone’s responsibility |
Need to know definitions
Due to safeguarding’s vital importance within HIPPY, it’s essential that everyone has a clear understanding of the key terms that help us in understanding our moral and legal responsibilities towards children and vulnerable people.
Important HIPPY Australia has a zero-tolerance policy for any behaviour that violates child protection laws. Employment will be terminated for individuals convicted of serious or child-related offences. We are also legally and ethically obligated to notify authorities when there are substantial concerns for a child’s safety. |
The National Principles for Child Safe Organisations and the Child Safe Standards
HIPPY Australia aligns with the ten National Principles for Child Safe Organisations, endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments. These ten principles were introduced to create a uniform, national approach that promotes the safety and wellbeing of children. The National Principles guide our approach to embedding child safety into leadership, governance, and everyday practice.
At HIPPY sites and the HIPPY Australia National Office—no matter our state or territory of operation—we also comply with the Victorian Child Safe Standards because the HIPPY National Office is located in Victoria. The Victorian Child Safe Standards mirror the National Principles but also include an additional standard focused on cultural safety for Aboriginal children and young people (standard 1) .
The Sublicence and Funding Agreement that providers have with BSL/HIPPY Australia requires HIPPY providers, and their staff, to implement:
1. the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations
2. the Victorian Child Safe Standards, and
3. the standards established by the provider’s State or Territory .
For more information on the National Principles, including key action areas and indicators that principles are being upheld, please read the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations resource .
For more information on the Victorian Child Safe Standards, please visit the Child Safe Standards page of the Commission for Children and Young People’s website .
The foundations of safeguarding compliance at HIPPY Australia
The Sublicence and Funding Agreement outlines providers’ obligations, including but not limited to:
- implementing the National Principles,
- screening new staff and subcontractors and ensuring all checks are current
- embedding annual risk assessment and management
- providing safeguarding training, and
- providing HIPPY Australia with an Annual Statement of Safeguarding Compliance (ASoSC)
Screening - employment checks and requirements for staff and others working with and for HIPPY
Under your provider’s supervision, every HIPPY employee has a responsibility to take reasonable steps to safeguard the wellbeing of children and vulnerable people. To ensure the safety of children and vulnerable people, all HIPPY provider staff must complete the following checks before commencing work:
- Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check (NCCHC)
- Working with Children Check (WWCC) or state/territory equivalent
- International Police Check (if applicable)
Staff cannot begin work until all checks are cleared and recorded in ETO. Check documentation needs to be sent to HIPPY Australia via ETO as soon as possible after the checks are completed.
In addition, other provider staff and subcontractors that are reasonably likely to come into contact with children or vulnerable people in the program are also required to undergo screening with check documentation recorded and held by the HIPPY provider.
Who needs which checks?
The table below outlines the screening/checks currently required by staff and others working with and for HIPPY by the type of contact they have with children or vulnerable people.
We want to acknowledge we have received questions from providers regarding the types of engagements occurring at many of our sites. With the current review into child safeguarding happening across the country, we are working to ensure HIPPY aligns with changes as they roll out across 2026.
At this time there are no changes to screening and risk mitigation strategies. HIPPY Australia will advise providers if and when there are any updates to the requirements for subcontractors.
| Role | Type of contact with children or vulnerable people | Screening required |
| HIPPY staff E.g. Coordinators, Line Managers, Tutors | Face-to-face, online | NCCHC WWCC |
| Subcontractors (direct contact) E.g. childcare; guest speaker at Gathering delivering children’s entertainment or health checks | Face-to-face, online | NCCHC WWCC |
| Subcontractors (indirect contact) E.g. Training facilitator at Tutor training taking names, contact details; guest speaker at a Gathering taking families details to sign them up to another program | Occasional face-to-face and access to identifiable information relating to HIPPY families | NCCHC WWCC |
| Subcontractors (incidental contact) E.g. tradesperson, cleaner | Irregular, unplanned | NCCHC performed by the subcontractor's employer |
Risk management and the risk assessment
To comply with the HIPPY Sublicence and Funding Agreement and the Annual Statement of Safeguarding Compliance (ASoSC), all providers must develop, and keep updated, a HIPPY-specific program risk assessment.
The risk assessment’s purpose is to assist in identifying, assessing, managing, evaluating and reviewing potential risks associated with the operation of the HIPPY program and is particularly important when considering children and vulnerable people’s safety at your site.
Risk assessments are broader than just safeguarding and also cover the range of risks the program may face, such as the risks of:
- sharing sensitive information
- not being able to recruit Home Tutors
- fraud
- poor data management
It is recommended that the Coordinator and Line Manager complete the HIPPY-specific risk assessment together to ensure that all risks are covered. More information on risk assessments and an example can be found within the Safeguarding and your HIPPY Sublicence LMS course (more information below). See an example risk assessment here .
Once Line Managers and Coordinators have assessed risk, they should develop a risk management plan setting out how they will minimise and control risks. See an example risk management plan here .
Annual safeguarding training
All staff must complete HIPPY Australia’s annual, online safeguarding courses, which complement the safeguarding and mandatory reporting training required by state or territory legislation. These training courses help staff apply a safeguarding lens to their roles and responsibilities.
There are now two online safeguarding courses on the Canvas LMS; one is designed to support Tutors in their role (Safeguarding Fundamentals) and the other for Coordinators and Line Managers (Safeguarding and Your HIPPY Sublicence).
These courses support staff to:
- identify the key legal and organisational requirements for child safeguarding
- understand their obligations under the Sublicence
- be practically supported so that they can recognise indicators of risk and harm and know how to respond
Requirements
Please read the LMS course and resources overview ; this document provides guidance as to the requirements around safeguarding training.
Tutors
Tutors are required to complete the Safeguarding Fundamentals course in their first year of employment. In subsequent years, providers are required to ensure that Tutors participate in some form of annual safeguarding training. Annual refreshers of Safeguarding Fundamentals are strongly recommended to complement an organisation’s own training.
Coordinators and Line Managers
Coordinators and Line Managers are required to complete Safeguarding and Your HIPPY Sublicence in their first year of employment alongside their provider’s own safeguarding training.
Coordinators are recommended to review the course annually as a refresher, while Line Managers must complete the course annually as part of the ASoSC.
Coordinators are expected to record HIPPY staff’s completion of all safeguarding trainings, including the LMS courses, in ETO (including their own).
If you or your Tutors are not enrolled in these courses, please contact hippyaustralia@bsl.org.au as a matter of urgency.
Mandatory reporting Mandatory reporting refers to the legal requirement to report a reasonable belief of child abuse or neglect to child protection authorities.Each state and territory has its own mandatory laws and requirements, so it is important to check and be trained in those relevant to you and your staff. The Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) has developed an overview resource sheet highlighting the differences in requirements for mandatory reporting. Your organisation should provide mandatory reporting training to all HIPPY staff including Line Managers, as Line Managers, Coordinators and Tutors are legally required to report any reasonable belief that a child is at risk to their local child protection authority. If there is reasonable belief of child abuse or neglect occurring, you should: 1) Notify your manager 2) Report it to your state/territory’s child protection authority 3) Contact your HIPPY Australia Site Advisor about the incident 4) Follow HIPPY Australia’s Critical incident guidelines |
Annual statement of safeguarding compliance
Each year, providers must complete an Annual Statement of Safeguarding Compliance (ASoSC), signed by the CEO (or their delegate /equivalent), confirming that the organisation has complied with all national and state/territory safeguarding legislation as well as their obligations under the HIPPY Sublicence and Funding Agreement throughout the preceding year. This information is then reported to DSS, informing them compliant and non-compliant providers.
The 2025 ASoSC was sent to all providers on 24 November and was sent via AdobeSign. Please check with your CEO or their delegate to ensure that your ASoSC has been received and returned by 30 January 2026. The return of site provider ASoSCs is a critical part of the Annual Statement of Safeguarding Compliance that HIPPY Australia must submit to the Department of Social Services in the new year.
To complete the ASoSC, providers are required to submit a declaration of safeguarding compliance signed by the CEO to HIPPY Australia. Supplementary evidence may be required and may include:
- examples of how the organisation implements the National Principles.
- the risk assessment and management plan
- the organisation’s safeguarding policy
- a child safe code of conduct
- feedback protocols for grievances, and
- up-to-date working with vulnerable people checks
The importance of safeguarding at the start of the year
The beginning of the year is a critical time to reaffirm our commitment to safeguarding. It’s when new staff are onboarded, relationships with families are established, and program delivery begins. Two principal foundations of safeguarding at HIPPY, the ASoSC and staff online training are also required to be completed within this time frame.
Setting a strong foundation for child safety early in the year ensures that:
- Everyone understands their responsibilities from day one.
- Safeguarding practices are embedded into daily routines.
- Children and families feel safe, respected, and empowered to speak up.
It’s also a time to review and refresh knowledge of reporting procedures, update compliance documentation, and ensure all checks and training are current. By doing so, we create a culture of safety that supports the wellbeing of every child and vulnerable person in our care.
FAQs
Within each Bulletin we’ll now be answering sites’ questions on the monthly topic.
Next month’s topic is Confidentiality, privacy and fraud.
Send your questions through to hippyaustralia@bsl.org.au with the subject ‘Compliance Bulletin FAQs’ to be included in the next edition!
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