Qualifications

Child Safety Officers must hold a relevant qualification from an accredited Australian tertiary institution, or a comparable overseas qualification. There are 2 qualification pathways to becoming a Child Safety Officer:

Pathway 1

You must have one of these qualifications:

  • A bachelor degree in:
  • social work (or social work majors with a practicum component)
  • human services or social welfare
  • psychology or behavioural science
  • Master of Social Work (Qualifying).

Pathway 2

Other bachelor degrees are acceptable as long as you've completed a minimum of 6 subjects related to human services, psychology or behavioural science. For your degree to meet our requirements, you'll need to demonstrate:

  • study in effective practice, including assessment and intervention skills for work with individuals, groups, families, organisations, communities and other social systems
  • knowledge and skills to work with young people, children and families for making assessments and supporting them to change
  • knowledge of child development, human behaviour and interaction, family dynamics, cultural factors, interpersonal violence within a human services setting and experience in assisting relationships
  • knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and addressing overrepresentation in the child protection system.

You must also have an additional qualification or 12 months full-time (or equivalent part-time) relevant work experience.

Bachelor degrees that may provide the pre-requisite study content (depending on chosen electives) include, but are not limited to:

  • applied social sciences
  • social sciences
  • arts.

Additional qualifications

Additional qualifications are assessed on an individual basis but should include the study of relevant subjects — for example, child development, life span development, child and family violence, family dynamics and/or impacts of trauma.

Examples of acceptable additional qualifications in Queensland include:

  • Human Services
  • Statutory Child Protection
  • Case Management
  • Psychology, Positive Psychology
  • Applied Behaviour Analysis; Applied Support Work
  • Disability Studies; Autism Studies
  • Forensic Mental Health; Mental Health Practice
  • First Peoples Community Practice
  • Suicidology
  • Domestic and Family Violence; Facilitating Men's Behaviour Change
  • Counselling
  • Alcohol and Drug Studies
  • Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
  • Community Services
  • Child, Youth and Family Intervention
  • Youth Work
  • Alcohol and Other Drugs
  • Mental Health
  • Counselling
  • Crime and Justice Studies.

Relevant work experience

If you have work experience in a relevant occupation, include examples of your role and responsibilities in your application. We're looking for people with experience in human services or case management; or people who have worked with children, young people, families, or disadvantaged groups, including those with mental health issues or disability.

We assess the suitability of each applicant's degree subject content, additional qualifications and relevant work experience.

If you have previous experience working as a Child Safety Officer in Queensland, you'll automatically meet the current eligibility requirements for all child protection roles.

Overseas qualifications

We'll consider overseas qualifications if the qualification is assessed as comparable to a relevant Australian qualification. You must submit your academic transcripts and evidence of your qualification assessment with your application.

The following organisations can assess overseas qualifications:

Telephone: 1300 369 935

Telephone: 1300 369 935

To find out if you meet the eligibility requirements of the role, you can ask for an informal qualification assessment by emailing your resume and university transcripts to our Recruitment team at recruitment@cyjma.qld.gov.au.