Child-Safe Recruitment: Your First Line of Defence in Keeping Children Safe in Early Childhood Settings

Protecting children from grooming and sexual abuse in early childhood settings begins with the recruitment process.

You are selecting people to be in close daily contact with the children in your care, many of whom are too young to speak for themselves or report harm. The stakes are high. If you get it wrong, children are at risk.

Child-safe recruitment is the first line of defence in keeping the children in your care safe and should be embedded in every single stage of your hiring process.

What is child-safe recruitment?

Recruitment is about finding the best person for the job; the right skills, qualifications, experience and cultural fit. Child-safe recruitment does all of this and adds the non-negotiable layer of actively assessing whether a candidate is safe to work with children.

Child-safe recruitment goes far deeper than Police Checks. It is a recruitment philosophy that is embedded in the recruitment process. It is reflected in how you write your job ads, how you structure interviews, whom you call for references, and the questions you ask. It’s about screening in values, not simply screening out risk. 

Examples of child-safe recruitment in action:

• Job ads and position descriptions explicitly name child safety as a core value and expectation. It is front and centre, not buried in fine print. This signals to unsafe candidates that this organisation is paying attention.
• Behavioural interview questions probe how candidates respond to boundary-testing situations, how they understand appropriate physical contact, and what they would do if they witnessed a colleague behaving in an unsafe manner.
• Reference checks go beyond ‘was this person reliable?’ Referees are specifically asked about the candidate’s interactions with children, their boundaries, and whether concerns have ever been raised about their behaviour.
• Understanding that Working with Children Checks are the floor, not the ceiling. Understanding that they only capture known offenders, and the majority of people who pose a risk to children have never been convicted.

DOWNLOAD Bravehearts’ Child-Safe Recruitment Interview Tip Sheet

Does child-safe recruitment really make a difference? 

More than 1 in 4 Australians have experienced child sexual abuse (1). Research consistently tells us that child sexual abuse in institutional settings is most often perpetrated by someone known and trusted, not a stranger. 

Grooming begins during recruitment when an organisation has weak practices. Someone who intends harm will look for places with poor screening, vague values, and a culture of unquestioned authority.

Child-safe recruitment disrupts the grooming process. When you ask probing questions, when your child-safe culture is visible and explicit, and when referees are asked the right questions, you are signalling that this is not an easy environment to exploit. It also protects the vast majority of your workforce who are safe people, because clear expectations from day one mean everyone knows what is expected, and unsafe behaviour stands out.

The secondary impact of child-safe recruitment is that it can help to build parent and community trust. When families know you recruit through a genuine child-safe lens, and you are not just ‘ticking boxes, they feel safer, they’re more likely to report concerns, and the culture of safety becomes self-reinforcing.

Child-safe onboarding

Child-safe onboarding treats the first weeks and months for a new employee as a critical window to establish your workplace’s child-safe culture.

You are not just orienting someone to the job; you’re explicitly inducting them into your culture, values, and non-negotiables, before they are ever alone with a child. 

Educators working with infants and toddlers are doing physical, relational work, such as nappy changes, settling, and sleep routines. This requires explicit guidance on what safe practice looks like, not just an assumption that they will ‘work it out’. Being specific and explicit about boundaries and expectations is child safeguarding in action.

Child-safe onboarding examples in action:

• Child safety policies are not just handed over in a folder to read later. They are walked through and discussed, and the new staff member signs that they understand and commit to them.
• Boundaries are concrete and specific. It is explicitly stated what appropriate touch looks like in this setting, and the two-adult rule and open-door expectations are established. You describe how to handle a distressed child in a way that is both nurturing and transparent.
• Reporting obligations are explained clearly, not just legally (mandatory reporting) but culturally. It is made clear that ‘we report concerns here, we do not minimise, and we support people who raise issues’.
• Supervised practice periods are mandatory. New staff are not immediately left unsupervised with children. There is a genuine probationary window, where values in action can be observed, not just assumed.
• Questions can be asked without fear or hesitation. A specific person whom the new employee can ask questions of is nominated. The new employee is comfortable asking questions, including sensitive questions about appropriate versus inappropriate conduct.

An organisation-wide responsibility 

Legally and structurally, the responsibility of child-safe recruitment and onboarding sits with the organisation and its leadership. In an early childhood context, these are the directors, owners, and approved providers. However, child-safe recruitment and onboarding are whole-of-organisation responsibilities:

• Leaders set the tone. If child safety is genuinely valued from the top, it flows through every hiring conversation and every induction.
• Room leaders and senior educators are often the people who notice when something feels ‘off’ during a probationary period. Their observations matter.
• All staff have a role in maintaining and modelling the culture. If the actual culture doesn’t match what is in the handbook, the handbook is worthless.
• Governing bodies, management committees, and boards have oversight responsibility. They need to be asking whether these systems are in place and functioning.
• Children and families have a role too, not in running the recruitment process, but in being active participants in a culture where their voice is valued and heard.

The impact of successful child-safe recruitment

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that institutions with weak recruitment and induction practices were more vulnerable to infiltration. Conversely, institutions with strong screening cultures and robust onboarding were more likely to detect and respond to risk early.

The National Principles for Child Safe Organisations, which underpin the regulatory framework for early childhood, place people, culture, and recruitment practices as foundational, not incidental.

In practice, organisations that do this well report:

• Earlier identification of staff whose behaviour raises concerns, because there is a clear baseline of what safe practice looks like.
• Greater willingness from staff to report concerns about colleagues, because the culture signals this is expected and supported.
• Lower rates of serious incidents; not because risk disappears, but because it is harder to hide and easier to disrupt.
• Stronger family engagement, because trust is built on visible, genuine commitment to safety.

In summary, keeping children safe in early childhood settings begins with recruiting not just the right people for the job, but the safest people. Recruiting and onboarding safe people to care for children requires a deep and genuine whole-of-organisation commitment to child-safe practices, values and culture. 

Further learning

Bravehearts offers industry-leading online child protection courses that equip those supporting and working with children with the knowledge and tools to create and maintain child-safe environments. Learn more about our courses today.

1. Haslam D, Mathews B, Pacella R, Scott JG, Finkelhor D, Higgins DJ, Meinck F, Erskine HE, Thomas HJ, Lawrence D, Malacova E. (2023). The prevalence and impact of child maltreatment in Australia: Findings from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study: Brief Report. Australian Child Maltreatment Study, Queensland University of Technology.