Transport providers and child safe standards

Transport providers/operators who provide transport services specifically for children are child safe entities and must comply with the 10 Child Safe Standards and Universal Principle from 1 April 2026.

This includes transport providers who provide school services under contract to the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), including:

school bus or ferry services
specialist school transport for students with disability (provided in buses, taxis, or booked hire vehicles)
SEQ Urban services or Regional Urban Bus services that include school transport services.

You must also comply if you provide any of the following services:

school transport provided under private arrangements with a school (such as chartered transport for school excursions)
transport provided by schools or childcare centres
taxi and booked hire services provided specifically for children (such as services specifically targeted at teenagers or minor to travel unaccompanied).

This is a requirement under the Child Safe Organisations Act 2024 which commenced 1 October 2025 and aims to protect Queensland children from harm when they interact with businesses and organisations.

This guidance provides information on compliance and best practice to help you understand and apply the Child Safe Standards and Universal Principle.

Child Safe Standards and Universal Principle for transport providers

Under the Child Safe Organisations Act 2024 (the Act), child safe entities must comply with the Child Safe Standards (the Standards) and Universal Principle.

This guidance will help you understand and apply each of the Standards. We've also suggested how you can consider the Universal Principle as you apply each Standard. You should apply them in a way that is proportionate to the size of your organisation, the type of service you deliver and where you deliver your service.

Child refers to any person under 18.

Sector regulators

If your organisation is a child safe entity, you will have a sector regulator who supports providers to understand and meet their responsibilities, and monitors compliance.

Your sector regulator is the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) if you provide school services under contract to TMR, including:

school bus or ferry services
specialist school transport for students with disability (provided in buses, taxis, or booked hire vehicles)
SEQ Urban services and Regional Urban Bus services where dedicated school transport services are provided.

You may also have other sector regulators, like the Department of Education.

How the Standards should be applied

You need to apply the Standards and Universal Principle across your entire organisation. For example, if you provide SEQ Urban bus services to the general public and also provide school services, you need to comply with the Standards and Universal Principle across your organisation.

Your approach should be proportionate. For example, drivers who work directly with children every day might need more in-depth training or more detailed procedures than your workers (as defined in the Act) working in a back-office function. Every person in your organisation should understand your child safe policies and procedures and know what they need to do if they suspect harm has occurred.

How you may already be complying with the Standards

Your organisation will already have some aspects of the Standards and Universal Principle in place. This is because you operate in a sector that prioritises safe passenger transport services in Queensland, including services specifically for children. Many of these requirements are captured in the Transport Operations (Passenger Transport) Act 1994 and Transport Operations (Passenger Transport) Regulation 2018, as outlined below:

By meeting operator accreditation and driver authorisation requirements, you and your drivers are also supporting the safety of children on your services.
Under the safety management framework for road-based public passenger services, responsible duty holders need to have a safety management plan (SMP). The SMP outlines how you manage and support safety during public passenger service activities.
The existing Code of conduct for school students travelling on buses provides a framework for the safe travel of school students on buses. The Code contributes to meeting some of the Standards.
If you operate under a school service contract, it has requirements that operators must follow for the duration of the contract. Many of these align with the Standards.

This summary (DOCX, 570KB) provides a quick overview of how you may already be meeting the Standards. More detailed information about how you may be meeting the Standards is provided under each Standard.

Understand and apply the Standards and Universal Principle

Use the Queensland Family and Child Commission's (QFCC) self-assessment tool to help you understand and apply the Standards and Universal Principle. It steps through each of the Standards and gives you space to capture what you are already doing so you know where you need to improve.

The following QFCC resources may help you with using the self-assessment tool:

The 10 Child Safe Standards

Work your way through each of the 10 Standards below.

You must apply the Universal Principle as you implement each Standard.

Read more about the 10 Child Safe Standards on the QFCC website.

The Universal Principle

You must provide an environment that promotes and upholds the right to cultural safety of Aboriginal children and Torres Strait Islander children. This means creating environments that make Aboriginal children and Torres Strait Islander children feel welcome, safe, valued, included, and respected.

The Universal Principle applies across all 10 Child Safe Standards, influencing how each Standard is applied.

Start by reflecting on where you are and what you need to do to become culturally safe. You can:

reflect on the cultural safety indicators in the guidelines for implementing the Child Safe Standards in Queensland and identify where you need to take action
ask Aboriginal children and families and Torres Strait Islander children and families who you work with about their views on cultural safety in your organisation
action feedback you receive to strengthen cultural safety in your organisation
ask your workers about what they need to strengthen their capability to create a culturally safe environment.

You can also educate yourself and your management team about cultural safety from resources such as courses, workshops, videos, or education from a consultant.

Next steps

Once you have assessed your organisation:

Set time limits for the actions your organisation will take to improve child safety on your services. Remember you need to be on the way to implementation by 1 April 2026.
Apply the actions you've found to improve child safety and wellbeing in your services.
Ensure you continually review any policies, procedures and processes you have or develop to ensure continuous improvement, as required under Standard 9.

Reportable conduct scheme

From 1 July 2026, TMR will become a reporting entity under the Act. This will require TMR to implement systems to manage reportable conduct and may require contracted transport providers to report allegations of child abuse and misconduct in line with legislative and contractual requirements. More information will be available soon.

Enquiries

Contact:

QFCC via their website, or email enquiries@qfcc.qld.gov.au
your representative industry body
your local TMR regional office.

Also consider...

Learn more about child safe organisations.
Read about TMR's commitment to child safety.

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:

Standard 10 – Policies and procedures.

Also consider...

Learn more about Standard 1 on the Queensland Family and Child Commission website.

Complying with Child Safe Standard 2 – Voice of children (for transport providers)

Standard 2 – Children are informed about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.

How you can comply

Make sure your communications with children (any person under 18) are appropriate and they have ways to share their input and feedback on their interactions with your service. Their insights should be used to inform improvements in the service.

How you may already be complying

You may already invite feedback from children on your services at the end of the school year. Under the Code of conduct for school students travelling on buses there is an expectation that:

you treat school students fairly and with respect
when you are responding to misconduct, students are given an opportunity to be heard and respond.

Best-practice ideas

Share your organisation's approach to child safety and wellbeing with the children using your service. For example, you could:

encourage children to provide feedback, such as
- give school students using a school bus service a feedback form at the end of each term or school year, so they can have their say on services
- provide an opportunity for children using taxi and booked hire services specifically for children to provide a rating at the end of the trip using in-app features
consider other methods of gathering feedback, ensuring they are accessible for children with disability or from non-English speaking backgrounds
encourage Aboriginal children and Torres Strait Islander children to provide feedback about your organisation's level of cultural safety, if they feel like they belong and are treated fairly when interacting with your organisation, or where you could improve – ensure the activity is undertaken in a way that is culturally safe
ensure children know who they can talk to if they need to report a concern or complaint about one of your workers (as defined in the Child Safe Organisations Act 2024)
track and respond to feedback you receive
use the feedback information when you review and update your policies and procedures
attend as a guest speaker at your local schools to discuss your approach and students' responsibility for safe travel.

Cultural safety and this Standard

Co-develop resources and information with Aboriginal children and families and Torres Strait Islander children and families.

Value and respond to the contributions of Aboriginal children and Torres Strait Islander children to build their trust and confidence to take part.

Related Standards

Complying with this Standard can also help you comply with:

Also consider...

Learn more about Standard 2 on the Queensland Family and Child Commission website.

Complying with Child Safe Standard 3 – Family and community (for transport providers)

Standard 3 – Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.

How you can comply

Consider how families and communities have ways to provide input and feedback on their interactions with your service.

How you may already be complying

You may already invite feedback from families who use your services. You may already be doing this when you meet with families in your community to assist them to fill in transport applications and explain the Code of conduct for school students travelling on buses (the Code) to them.

Under the Code there is an expectation that parents and guardians are kept informed of all relevant matters and are provided with an opportunity to respond.

Best-practice ideas

Share your organisation's approach to child safety and wellbeing with families and community. For example, you could:

incorporate information on child safety and wellbeing in your organisation's school transport bus pass application forms, booking systems, brochures, newsletters, social media pages or website
give an option for families and other local community members to subscribe to receive child safety and wellbeing updates from your organisation
arrange a time to speak to the community about your policies, such as at an information session held at an open date or a community BBQ, or in collaboration with the schools you provide services for
encourage families, local communities, and Aboriginal workers and Torres Strait Islander workers to provide feedback on your approach. This may include:
- an information session held at an open day or family/community BBQ
- setting up an online feedback form or physical feedback box at a suitable location
track and respond to feedback you receive
use the feedback information when you review and update your policies and procedures.

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

Cultural safety and this Standard

Remember that terms like families, parents and primary carers may have different meanings for Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples. For example, parent extends beyond biological parents to include extended family and kinship networks responsible for raising children.

Engage respectfully with Aboriginal Elders, leaders, families and community members and Torres Strait Islander Elders, leaders, families and community members. Take time to understand your local community and diverse cultures you provide services to and build relationships.

Related Standards

Complying with this Standard can also help you comply with:

Also consider...

Learn more about Standard 3 on the Queensland Family and Child Commission website.

Complying with Child Safe Standard 4 – Equity and diversity (for transport providers)

Standard 4 – Equity is upheld and diverse needs respected in policy and practice.

How you can comply

Consider how you can support children (any person under 18) using your service feel valued, respected, supported and culturally safe.

How you may already be complying

The Code of conduct for school students travelling on buses (the Code) includes guidelines for creating a safe and inclusive travel environment for all children, including those with disability.

Your workers (as defined in the Child Safe Organisations Act 2024) may already undergo cultural safety and awareness training. You may already take part in or support local cultural events like NAIDOC Week or National Reconciliation Week to promote inclusion and cultural safety.

You may also already provide information in different formats or languages to cater to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) children and families.

Best-practice ideas

Review your organisation's policies and procedures to ensure they address the needs of children from diverse backgrounds including:

Aboriginal children or Torres Strait Islander children
CALD children
children with disability – also refer to the Code for information on creating a safe travel environment for students with disability.

If you have workers, enhance your recruitment, induction and training policies to:

ask your workers about what they need to strengthen their capability to create a culturally safe environment and act on what they say
include ongoing cultural safety training and cultural awareness training for your workers. It is important for your leadership and human resources team to recognise and address unconscious bias and individual and institutional racism
promote the recruitment of workers from under-represented groups to reflect the diversity of the children served in your organisation
include accessible, inclusive and culturally appropriate resources which are in multiple languages and formats, including the use of audio descriptions or Auslan interpretation, where applicable.

Cultural safety and this Standard

Provide an environment that promotes and upholds the right to cultural safety for Aboriginal children and families and Torres Strait Islander children and families.

Seek feedback from Aboriginal families, communities, workers and Torres Strait Islander families, communities and workers about cultural safety in your organisation, and act on what they say.

Where you can, design your spaces to be welcoming, accessible and respectful of Aboriginal people and cultures and Torres Strait Islander people and cultures.

Related Standards

Complying with this Standard can also help you comply with:

Also consider...

Learn more about Standard 4 on the Queensland Family and Child Commission website.

Complying with Child Safe Standard 5 – People (for transport providers)

Standard 5 – People working with children are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing vales in practice.

How you can comply

Ensure you and those who work for you (workers as defined in the Child Safe Organisations Act 2024) have the appropriate screening checks to be working with children (any person under 18) and are aware of their responsibilities.

How you may already be complying

As part of your recruitment, you would already verify that:

drivers hold a valid driver authorisation for passenger transport services as required
supervisors on specialist school transport services hold a Working with Children Check (blue card) as required.

Continue to monitor the expiry dates of these checks and meet other obligations as required.

You may also provide induction/training to ensure drivers understand their roles and responsibilities, which you can build on.

Best-practice ideas

Make sure your recruitment policies and processes:

include mandatory background checks such as
- reference checks
- Working with Children Check (blue card) for roles working directly with children (e.g. supervisors in buses providing specialist school transport services must have a blue card or exemption).
promote the employment of Aboriginal workers and Torres Strait Islander workers, including in leadership roles so that Aboriginal children and Torres Strait Islander children have access to relevant workers and support networks when they need it
promote the employment of people from minority groups such as people with disability and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) people, including in leadership roles, so that children from minority groups have access to relevant workers and support networks when they need it.

Develop or adjust your existing induction/onboarding policies and processes so they include:

your organisation's child safety and wellbeing policies and procedures, including complaints management procedures
worker responsibility to keep children safe
acceptance and inclusion of all cultures, religions, nationalities, disabilities and differences
opportunities for your workers to provide feedback on the induction to help its quality and relevance.

Visit the Queensland Family and Child Commission's (QFCC) training hub for ideas about content and methods to use in your induction.

Cultural safety and this Standard

Train your workers in culturally safe practices with regard to Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people to build cultural awareness, sensitivity and competency.

For larger organisations, look for opportunities for Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people to hold leadership positions or participate in decision making with the organisation.

Related Standards

Complying with this Standard can also help you comply with:

Also consider...

Learn more about Standard 5 on the QFCC website.

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:

your service contract with the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) (if you have one), which includes requirements for complaints and incident management
your implementation of the Code of conduct for school students travelling on buses (the Code).

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...

Learn more about Standard 6 on the Queensland Family and Child Commission website.

Complying with Child Safe Standard 7 – Knowledge and skills (for transport providers)

Standard 7 – Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children safe through ongoing education and training.

How you can comply

Support your workers (as defined in the Child Safe Organisations Act 2024) to be aware of their child safeguarding obligations.

Child safeguarding means the actions you and your organisation take to protect children (any person under 18) from all kinds of harm, including physical, emotional, sexual and cultural harm.

How you may already be complying

As part of your induction or training resources you may already outline child safety responsibilities for your services.

Best-practice ideas

Develop and deliver training for all of your workers that includes:

understanding the organisation's child safeguarding policies and procedures, including their role and responsibilities
signs to look for relating to child harm
how to respond to issues of children's safety and wellbeing
record keeping, information sharing, and reporting responsibilities and requirements for the child safe obligations
ongoing refresher training courses for your workers to ensure their child safety and cultural awareness training is up to date.

Provide specific training so your workers can better understand how to apply the Standards to their work such as workshops, role-playing and real-life scenario-based training.

Build child safeguarding into your driver training.

Use the results from feedback/evaluation exercises to identify improvements to existing training or new training.

Support your workers to work in a child safe way, including:

changing their communication style to make sure children understand what they are saying or meaning
ensuring that when they supervise and manage other workers, there is a focus on child safety and wellbeing, including the cultural safety and wellbeing of Aboriginal children and Torres Strait Islander children.

Cultural safety and this Standard

Ask your workers about their needs to build their knowledge and understanding of cultural safety and about Aboriginal cultures and Torres Strait Islander cultures, and connect them with the training they need.

Make sure your workers understand how to provide an environment that promotes and upholds the right to cultural safety of Aboriginal children and families and Torres Strait Islander children and families.

Train your workers to understand the impacts of discrimination and how to address it.

Related Standards

Complying with this Standard can also help you comply with:

Also consider...

Learn more about Standard 7 on the Queensland Family and Child Commission website.

Complying with Child Safe Standard 8 – Physical and online environments (for transport providers)

Standard 8 – Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing and minimise the opportunity for children to be harmed.

How you can comply

Manage and consider the risks for children (any person under 18) using your physical spaces, like buses, and your online spaces, such as your website and social media pages.

How you may already be complying

Your risk management strategy may already deal with risks to physical and online safety. You can expand it to refer specifically to children.

Best-practice ideas

Make your organisation's child safety and wellbeing policy is accessible from your organisation's website or, if you don't have a website, any other online platform you use to communicate with customers.

Ensure your organisation's risk management strategy deals with physical and online risks to children using your services. Your strategy should also:

require you to do risk assessments on physical and online environments on a regular basis, to find possible problems and ways of reducing the chances of problems occurring
where appropriate, require third-party organisations you engage with to have child safe policies in place for their facilities and for the services contracted to them
be regularly reviewed and updated.

Provide your workers (as defined in the Child Safe Organisations Act 2024) with training on safety in physical and online environments:

drivers looking out for inappropriate behaviour between students on bus services
moderating online forums, by watching for and removing inappropriate content/comments
regularly reviewing content and blocking unsuitable users.

Look at best practice in your organisation, such as ways your drivers and supervisors on your school and specialist school transport services are applying child safe measures on bus routes and more broadly across services.

Ask students and families using your services to provide feedback on how safe they feel when using your service and when visiting your online platforms. This will help you identify places or situations where they feel unsafe.

Cultural safety and this Standard

Design your physical and online spaces so they are welcoming to and respectful of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people, and co-design where possible.

Related Standards

Complying with this Standard can also help you comply with:

Also consider...

Learn more about Standard 8 on the Queensland Family and Child Commission website.

Complying with Child Safe Standard 9 – Continuous improvement (for transport providers)

Standard 9 – Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is regularly reviewed and improved.

How you can comply

Regularly review your child safe policies, procedures and practices and make improvements or adjustments where needed.

Child refers to any person under 18.

How you may already be complying

You will already have regular review, audit and reporting processes in place.

Best-practice ideas

Make sure all policies, procedures and processes relevant to child safety are regularly reviewed.

Analyse data on complaints, concerns, safety incidents and feedback from children and families to identify ways to improve:

your organisation's child safety and wellbeing policies, procedures and processes
your workers' knowledge and skills
the safety of Aboriginal children and Torres Strait Islander children.

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

When policies and practices are developed and improved, provide opportunities for your workers and other stakeholders to provide feedback.

Encourage your workers to raise any child safety concerns about your services in a confidential and safe environment.

Cultural safety and this Standard

Continually review your policies and procedures and assess whether changes are needed to ensure cultural safety. This can include consulting with Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people involved with your organisation, and consider and respond to feedback received.

Related Standards

Complying with this Standard supports continuous improvement across all other Child Safe Standards.

Also consider...

Learn more about Standard 9 on the Queensland Family and Child Commission website.

Complying with Child Safe Standard 10 – Policies and procedures (for transport providers)

Standard 10 – Policies and procedures document how the organisation is safe for children.

How you can comply

Ensure your policies and procedures prioritise child safety.

Child refers to any person under 18.

How you may already be complying

You will already have existing policies and procedures in place that support your operations. Build on these to align with the Child Safe Standards.

Best-practice ideas

Your policies and procedures should:

reflect your commitment to the safety and cultural safety of children
be inclusive of different cultures, religions, nationalities, disabilities and differences
be easily accessed by your workers, students and families. For example, provide information that is easy to read and understand in physical resources like information sheets and brochures, as well as digitally on your organisation's website.

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

Provide opportunities for your workers and the community to give feedback on the development, implementation and improvement of policies and procedures:

set up information sessions for your workers, or build feedback gathering into team meetings
see Standard 2 for information on how to provide feedback opportunities for children
see Standard 3 for information on how to provide feedback opportunities for families and communities
make sure consultation is tailored to
- Aboriginal peoples, organisations and communities and Torres Strait Islander peoples, organisations and communities
- other groups, such as children with disability, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) children, children who are refugees or asylum seekers, children unable to live at home, and LGBTIQ+ children.

Cultural safety and this Standard

Assess cultural safety for Aboriginal children and Torres Strait Islander children in your organisation, and the actions you need to take to make improvements.

Invite feedback from the Aboriginal children, families and communities and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities your organisation provides services to.

Related Standards

Complying with this Standard supports compliance across all other Child Safe Standards.

Also consider...

Learn more about Standard 10 on the Queensland Family and Child Commission website.