Organisations working with children and young people hold a significant responsibility to ensure their safety and well-being. To support this, services like ChildSafe Audits and ChildSafe Consulting play crucial roles in fostering childsafe environments. However, while both aim to strengthen child protection frameworks, their purposes and approaches differ significantly. This in-depth look at child safety audit versus consulting will help you understand which might suit your organisation’s needs.
What Is a Child Safety Audit?
ChildSafe Consulting is a flexible, collaborative service aimed at empowering organisations to strengthen their child protection frameworks. By working closely with your team, our consultants provide hands-on guidance, customised strategies, and capacity-building tools to enhance child safe practices and ensure long-term sustainability.
Key Features of a ChildSafe Audit:
- Compliance-Focused:
The audit evaluates how well your organisation adheres to regulatory requirements, such as national child safe standards or state-based child safety standards. - Evidence-Based:
Auditors examine documentation, child safe training records, incident reports, and workplace practices to gauge the organisation’s effectiveness in safeguarding children. - Gap Analysis:
The process identifies gaps in compliance with the child safe standards that could compromise child safety, providing actionable recommendations to strengthen implementation. - Global Organisation Assessment:
An audit is designed to identify evidence of compliance in documents and practice. Once strong evidence is found, the compliance requirement is met globally for the organisation. More complex organisations may find that a standard Audit does not identify gaps or areas of weakness across its various services areas. - Reporting:
A ChildSafe Audit will result in a detailed report, which can be useful for demonstrating accountability to stakeholders, such as funders, board members or parents.
What Are ChildSafe Consulting Services?
ChildSafe Consulting Services take a more tailored and collaborative approach to improving an organisation’s child protection framework. Rather than solely evaluating existing practices, consulting services focus on guidance, capacity-building, and bespoke solutions. ChildSafe consultants get to know your organisation and the unique work you do with children and young people.
Key Features of ChildSafe Consulting:
- Customised Support:
Consulting services work closely with your organisation to develop strategies that align with your unique operations, culture, and challenges. - Capacity Building:
Consultants provide child safe training, workshops, and mentoring to empower staff and leadership with the skills and knowledge to uphold child safety. - Policy Development:
Consultants assist in crafting or updating child safe policies and procedures, ensuring they are robust, clear, and legally compliant. - Proactive Guidance:
Unlike audits, which primarily assess the past and present, consulting services help organisations anticipate future challenges and adapt to changing regulations. - Holistic Approach:
Consulting often goes beyond compliance, focusing on fostering a child-safe culture throughout the organisation.
Choosing Between a ChildSafe Audit and Consulting
The choice between a ChildSafe Audit and ChildSafe Consulting Services depends on your organisation’s current needs, objectives, and maturity in child safety practices.
| Criteria | ChildSafe Audit | ChildSafe Consulting Services |
| Primary Purpose | Evaluate compliance and identify gaps | Build capacity and improve practices |
| Scope | Formal, structured assessment | Flexible, tailored support |
| Ideal For | Organisations needing accountability or child safety accreditation/ certification | Organisations seeking guidance or child safe policies development |
| Outcome | Compliance report or child safe certificate | Bespoke solutions, child safe training, and policy creation |
| Approach | Reactive (focuses on past and present) | Proactive (focuses on future readiness) |
Why Not Both?
In many cases, organisations benefit from combining both services. A ChildSafe Audit can serve as a starting point, identifying areas that need improvement. Following the audit, ChildSafe Consulting can help address those gaps, implement recommendations, and create a sustainable child-safe culture.
Conclusion
Both ChildSafe Audits and Consulting Services are invaluable tools for any organisation committed to child safety. Whether you’re looking to benchmark your current practices or develop a more robust child protection framework, understanding the differences between these services is key to making the right choice. Ultimately, the goal is the same: creating child safe environments where children and young people can thrive safely and securely.
