Since 1 February 2022, NSW sport and recreation organisations that provide services to children have had to apply the 10 Child Safe Standards under the Children's Guardian Act 2019, according to the Office of the Children's Guardian, which oversees them and can issue compliance notices and fines. If a child is in danger now, call 000. To report a child at risk of harm, call the Child Protection Helpline on 132 111.
Last updated 9 October 2026.
In NSW, the Child Safe Scheme is overseen by the Office of the Children's Guardian, usually shortened to the OCG. The OCG says the scheme was created by laws introduced in February 2022, and that the Children's Guardian Act 2019 makes it mandatory for certain organisations that provide services to children. The OCG describes a strong focus on education and on helping organisations build their child safe foundations, but says it can take enforcement action if it needs to.
Sport is covered by name. The OCG's legislative framework page lists sport and recreation organisations that provide services to children among the groups that had to implement the Standards from 1 February 2022, and the NSW Office of Sport gives the same start date. The OCG's list of entities that must implement the Standards includes clubs or other bodies running sport and recreation programs or services in which workers must hold a Working with Children Check. If you are unsure whether your association has put the Standards in place, the OCG's advice to parents is to ask.
The OCG says the NSW Child Safe Scheme mirrors the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations, and that meeting the NSW requirements is equivalent to meeting those principles. It also notes that each state and territory puts the national principles, or equivalent standards, in place itself. The Office of Sport says child safety laws vary between states and territories, and that this matters especially for teams and clubs that travel interstate.
Basketball NSW's Child Safety and Basketball page says it works with the sector, the NSW Office of Sport, the OCG and Play by the Rules, along with other child safety agencies. The regulator for the Standards is the OCG, which describes itself as responsible for regulating the organisations that must comply with the scheme.
The OCG publishes 10 Standards, each with a short list of what it looks like in practice. They are written for organisations rather than families, so the list below restates them in everyday language. The wording is ours, not the official text, which is on the OCG's What are the Child Safe Standards page.
Several of them map neatly onto a basketball season. Standard 1 includes staff and volunteers following a code of conduct that sets clear rules for how adults behave towards children. Standard 5 is where the Working with Children Check sits: the OCG lists Checks for relevant staff and volunteers as one part of it, alongside a proper induction and supervision that keeps child safety in focus.
Standard 8 covers online environments as well as physical ones, and includes using the online environment in line with the organisation's code of conduct and policies. In an update first published on 24 August 2026, the OCG said organisations' policies on sharing images of children on social media need to take account of new risks from AI and image manipulation.
Standard 4 asks organisations to pay particular attention to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children with disability, LGBTQIA+ children and children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Standard 6 asks for a complaints process that children, staff, volunteers and families all understand. Standard 10 asks for policies that are easy to access and easy to understand.
The OCG can watch how an organisation is applying the Standards, investigate when it is concerned an organisation is falling short, and use its enforcement powers. Monitoring can include asking for information, inspecting the places an organisation operates, directing it to complete the OCG's Child Safe Self-Assessment, and making recommendations that it then follows up.
The OCG lists the documents it may ask to see, and they double as a checklist for parents: a written commitment to child safety, a child safe policy and code of conduct, a policy on reporting, a policy covering recruitment, induction and training, and a plan for managing risk. It may also ask for copies of the code of conduct signed by workers and volunteers.
If more is needed, the OCG can issue a compliance notice listing what the organisation must fix, or accept an enforceable undertaking, which is a written agreement to make improvements by a set date. Fines can follow if an organisation does not keep to either. The OCG is required to publish a list of organisations with compliance notices or enforceable undertakings on its website.
The OCG describes its investigation and enforcement work as stepping up in 2026. On 16 February 2026 it announced NSW Government funding, approved for an initial two years, for a new Investigations and Enforcement team. On 30 April 2026 the Children's Guardian reported 24 fines totalling $27,500 and 13 official warnings in the previous two months under Operation Sentinel, which sifts data from the OCG's Check and Reportable Conduct systems, among others, for suspicious patterns. An update first published on 24 August 2026 reported more than 100 fines and warnings so far that year, with fines totalling more than $99,500.
In that August update the Children's Guardian said a common problem was organisations not verifying Working with Children Check clearances online. She also gave the example of a tutoring agency fined $12,000 for not properly administering its Working with Children Check obligations. None of the three OCG updates named a basketball organisation.
NSW has a second scheme, also run by the OCG under the Children's Guardian Act 2019, that is easy to confuse with the Standards. The Reportable Conduct Scheme oversees how certain organisations look into and report allegations of particular kinds of conduct towards children by their own workers.
The scheme applies only to organisations the Act calls relevant entities, and the OCG lists three types. Schedule 1 entities include the Department of Education and government and non-government schools, health bodies, designated agencies and approved education and care services. Public authorities include government sector agencies, local government authorities and universities established under an Act. Religious bodies are covered too, and the OCG says that includes faith-based bodies that run sport and other recreational activities for children. The OCG's list does not name community sporting clubs or associations as a type of relevant entity.
If you want to know whether a program your child attends falls under the scheme, ask the organisation that runs it. The OCG asks organisations that are unsure whether they are covered to contact its Reportable Conduct team for advice.
Some duties apply to every adult, whatever the scheme. The Office of Sport says changes to the Crimes Act 1900 in August 2019 made it a criminal offence for an adult not to tell police when they know, believe or reasonably ought to know that someone has committed a child abuse offence. It adds that people in child-related work may commit an offence if they fail to reduce or remove a risk that a child will become a victim of abuse.
Basketball NSW says every participant needs to be able to contact the Member Protection Information Officer, or MPIO, at their association. It describes MPIOs as the point of contact at associations for players, volunteers and parents with member protection questions or complaints, and says that in many associations the MPIO also looks after the Working with Children Check responsibilities.
Basketball NSW also says the MPIO's name and contact phone number should be given, without question, to anyone who asks. The role is usually voluntary, and MPIOs are impartial: they do not mediate or investigate complaints, which are handled by a person the association appoints for that job.
The OCG's advice to parents points the same way. It says parents are entitled to know who works with their children, and suggests asking to see an organisation's policies and code of conduct, asking whether it has put the Child Safe Standards in place, asking leaders about staff training, and finding out how complaints are handled. It adds that leaders should welcome those questions.
On messaging, Basketball NSW's child safety FAQ answers no to whether a child should receive personal messages from coaching staff, and says its Code of Conduct states that coaches should refrain from private messaging with children. The same FAQ says group messages about things like training times are common practice, and encourages parents to ask to be included in them. Basketball Australia's Child Safeguarding Policy, version 2.1, asks that both the organisation and a parent or guardian are copied into any electronic or online communication with children.
If you believe an organisation is not meeting the Standards, the OCG asks you to raise it with the organisation first. If you are still concerned after that, you can report it to the OCG through the form on its How parents can raise a concern page. The OCG does not deal directly with concerns about risk of harm to an individual child. Those go to the numbers in the next section.
If a child is in immediate danger, or their health or life is at urgent risk, call triple zero (000) and ask for the police.
If you believe abuse or neglect is putting a child or young person at risk of harm, the OCG directs parents to the Child Protection Helpline on 132 111 (TTY 1800 212 936), open 24 hours, 7 days. The Department of Communities and Justice writes the same number as 13 21 11 on its reporting pages. Its guidance says you do not have to be certain, only that your concerns are well founded, and that you can report anonymously, although it then cannot contact you again or give you feedback on your report.
If your child needs someone to talk to, the OCG lists Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800, a free and confidential counselling service, by phone and online, for young people aged 5 to 25, available 24/7.
For a concern about behaviour at basketball that is not an emergency, Basketball NSW's child safety FAQ points parents to their association's MPIO or to a Basketball NSW Member Protection Officer, and says families who feel more comfortable reporting child protection concerns directly to Basketball NSW can do so. Our codes of conduct page sets out how Basketball NSW's complaint process works.
Liddicoat Basketball is not a reporting body and does not take reports. Please do not send a concern about a child to us. Use the police, the Child Protection Helpline, your association or Basketball NSW, as set out above, and the OCG for concerns about an organisation's child safe practices or its Working with Children Check obligations.
More on safety and conduct
Next questions parents ask
Facts on this page were compiled from the official sources below and written up in our own words. Dates, fees and venues change every season, so confirm anything you are relying on with the association directly.
This page was last updated October 2026. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
