Child Safety in Victoria: Insights from the CCYP Annual Report 2025-26

Child Safety in Victoria: Insights from the CCYP Annual Report 2025-26

What happens when the systems designed to protect children and young people are struggling to respond to their needs?

The Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) Annual Report 2025–26 (Annual Report) highlights significant pressures across Victoria’s youth justice, child protection and out-of-home care (OOHC) systems. Rising youth detention numbers, increasing incidents in residential care and recurring concerns about child protection responses raise important questions about how organisations identify risks, coordinate support and safeguard vulnerable children and young people.

The Annual Report also highlights the significant changes to Victoria’s regulatory landscape. In February 2026, responsibility for administering the Child Safe Standards (Standards) and Reportable Conduct Scheme (Scheme) transferred from the CCYP to the Social Services Regulator (SSR). While the SSR now oversees these regulatory functions, the CCYP continues to monitor systemic issues affecting children and young people, conduct inquiries and advocate for improvements to services.

The findings from the Annual Report highlight the importance of effective safeguarding frameworks, appropriate risk management and coordinated responses when concerns arise.

Youth Justice: Rising Detention Numbers and Safety Concerns

The Annual Report identifies growing pressures within Victoria’s youth justice system, with increases in detention numbers and serious incidents raising concerns about the safety and wellbeing of children and young people in custody.

In 2025–26, the average monthly number of children and young people in youth justice custody increased by 35% to 172%. The number reached 202 by June 2026. Approximately 59% of young people in custody were on remand, meaning they were awaiting trial or sentencing.

The Annual Report also recorded a 53% increase in Category One incidents in youth justice centres compared with the previous year. These incidents include serious events, such as reports of physical and sexual violence.

Unplanned use of force also increased significantly, reaching 3,063 instances during the reporting period. These figures highlight the challenges involved in maintaining safe environments for children, young people and staff when responding to complex behavioural and support needs.

Although security-related lockdowns decreased, the broader findings demonstrate that youth justice services continue to face considerable operational and safeguarding pressures.

The findings reinforce the need for clear incident management procedures, appropriate workforce training, effective supervision and processes that identify and respond to risks before they escalate. Where restrictive interventions or physical force are used, organisations must also ensure their practices comply with applicable legal requirements and that incidents are appropriately documented, reviewed and addressed.

Child Protection: The Importance of Early Intervention and Coordinated Support

The Annual Report also highlights ongoing pressures within Victoria’s child protection system, particularly in responding to recurring concerns about children, young people and families.

In 2025, repeat reports accounted for 75% of all intake reports received by Child Protection. Between 2022 and 2025, total reports to Child Protection increased by 23% while referrals to The Orange Door increased by 35%.

These figures raise important questions about whether children, young people and families are receiving timely, coordinated and appropriate support when concerns first emerge.

The CCYP’s Left Behind Inquiry also examined cases involving children who died following contact with Child Protection. During 2025–26, the CCYP received 38 child death notifications and completed 35 child death inquiries. These inquiries resulted in 18 new recommendations directed towards improving responses to children, young people and families, including risk assessments, intake practices and responses to family violence.

The findings reinforce the importance of recognising patterns of concern and/or harm rather than treating each incident or referral in isolation. Where a child, young person or family has previously come to the attention of a service, organisations need appropriate processes for reviewing relevant information, assessing changing circumstances and determining whether further action is required.

For organisations providing family support, community services, disability support and/or other services involving children and young people, this means ensuring staff understand their reporting obligations, know how to escalate concerns and can work effectively with other services where appropriate.

Effective safeguarding also requires organisations to consider whether their existing responses are working. Repeated concerns may indicate that additional support, a reassessment of risk or a different intervention is needed.

Out-of-Home Care: Serious Risks in Residential Settings

The CCYP’s findings on OOHC highlight the significant safeguarding challenges facing residential care providers.

During 2025–26, 11,805 incidents were recorded across all OOHC types. Residential care accounted for 82% of these incidents, despite representing only 5% of the total OOHC population.

Children and young people going missing from their placements remained the most frequently recorded incident type, accounting for 6,161 incidents, or 52% of all OOHC incidents.

The Annual Report also recorded 800 self-harm incidents, 642 serious risk incidents and 367 incidents involving sexual abuse or assault.

These figures demonstrate the complex risks experienced by children and young people in care, particularly those living in residential settings. When a child goes missing from a placement, for example, they may be exposed to further harm, including exploitation, assault or criminalisation.

For residential care providers, safeguarding cannot be limited to responding to incidents after they occur. Organisations need to understand the circumstances surrounding incidents, identify recurring patterns and assess whether existing care arrangements and risk management strategies remain appropriate.

This includes ensuring that staff know how to respond when a child or young person is missing, self-harm occurs or an allegation of abuse is raised. Incidents should be documented, escalated and reviewed to identify contributing factors and opportunities to strengthen safety.

Organisations should also ensure children and young people can raise concerns safely, understand how complaints will be handled and have access to appropriate support.

Understanding the CCYP and SSR Regulatory Split

The transfer of the Standards and the Scheme from the CCYP to the SSR is an important development for Victorian organisations.

From 23 February 2026, the SSR assumed responsibility for these regulatory functions, bringing them together with its existing responsibilities, including the Working with Children Check and NDIS Worker Screening Check schemes.

The change is part of broader reforms intended to strengthen Victoria’s child safety system by bringing related regulatory functions under a single regulator.

The CCYP has not ceased its child safety work. Its continuing responsibilities include independent monitoring, systemic inquiries and oversight of issues affecting children and young people in child protection, OOHC and youth justice.

What Does the Annual Report Mean for Safeguarding Compliance?

The Annual Report highlights the importance of effective safeguarding practices across services that work with children and young people. The SSR’s responsibility for the Standards and the Scheme also reinforces the need for organisations to maintain clear processes for preventing, identifying and responding to harm.

Organisations should ensure their safeguarding frameworks address the risks relevant to their operations, including recruitment and screening, staff conduct, complaints handling, incident reporting and the management of allegations.

Where a reportable conduct allegation arises, organisations subject to the Scheme must meet their notification and investigation obligations. They should also consider whether the allegation reveals broader risks in their policies, workforce practices or organisational culture.

Similarly, a serious incident or recurring pattern of concerns should prompt organisations to consider whether their existing safeguards remain effective.

Organisations must treat safeguarding as an ongoing organisational responsibility, rather than a set of policies that are reviewed only when a problem occurs.

What This Means for Organisations

The Annual Report highlights the consequences of gaps in risk assessment, early intervention, incident management and coordination between services.

Although the Annual Report focuses substantially on government systems and services, its findings are relevant to all organisations delivering services to children, young people and families.

Organisations should consider the following priorities:

• Review safeguarding frameworks and risk management practices. Ensure policies, procedures and codes of conduct reflect the risks associated with your services and provide clear guidance on preventing and responding to harm.
• Strengthen incident reporting and complaints handling. Staff should understand how to identify, document and escalate concerns. Complaints processes should be accessible to children and young people and support timely, appropriate responses.
• Ensure allegations are handled appropriately. Organisations should have clear procedures for responding to allegations of abuse, neglect or misconduct, including determining when external reporting is required and whether interim measures are needed to protect children and young people.
• Monitor recurring incidents and identify systemic issues. Repeated complaints, missing-person incidents, self-harm or other serious events may indicate gaps in existing safeguards. Reviewing patterns and underlying causes can help organisations identify opportunities for improvement.
• Maintain appropriate screening, supervision and training. Recruitment and screening processes should be fit for purpose, while staff and volunteers should receive training relevant to their roles and safeguarding responsibilities.
• Understand your regulatory obligations. Victorian organisations should confirm which regulator oversees their obligations, access current guidance from the appropriate authority and ensure their internal procedures reflect any relevant changes.
• Promote accountability and continuous improvement. Safeguarding requires more than written policies. Leaders and governing bodies should monitor how those policies operate in practice, respond to identified gaps and ensure child safety remains an organisational priority.

How Can Safe Space Legal Help?

The team at Safe Space Legal has extensive safeguarding experience. We have worked with many organisations across Australia to ensure they are meeting their legal obligations and help them build a culture of safety and accountability.

Our team can assist organisations to assess whether their safeguarding frameworks are compliant with legislative obligations and best practice, identify gaps in policies and practices, and develop legally sound procedures that support child safe environments.

Our services include:

• Drafting legally sound policies, procedures, and codes of conduct;
• Providing policy audits and developing safeguarding policies, procedures, and complaint handing processes;
• Providing root cause analysis to identify gaps in policy and/or practice which put organisations at risk of non-compliance with their sector-specific obligations;
• Conducting safeguarding investigations which are compliant with relevant state and territory legislation and regulations;
• Delivering tailored safeguarding training to ensure organisations are aware of their sector-specific requirements and obligations;
• Ensuring that complaints handling and reporting processes are compliant with legal obligations; and
• Provide sound legal advice on risk mitigation.

Contact office@safespacelegal.com.au or call (03) 9124 7321 to organise a complementary discussion in relation to your organisation’s child safety and safeguarding needs.