Child safety

For parents

If you are concerned about your child's wellbeing, please talk to your Child Safety Officer (CSO) about how you want to be kept informed of your child's care during this time.

If your child becomes unwell, your CSO will contact you and the child's network to ensure appropriate medical attention. We will follow advice recommended by Queensland Health and contact you as soon as possible.

For foster and kinship carers

If you have concerns about how COVID-19 may impact you and the child or young person in your care, please discuss them with your foster and kinship care agency.

You can also contact your local Child Safety service centre or the Foster and Kinship Care Support Line on 1300 729 309.

The Carer Connect app will help ensure information about a child's needs is shared quickly with you. We encourage you to download the app if you have not done so already.

For service providers

If you have concerns about how COVID-19 may impact your organisation or your clients, please contact your contract manager.

If the contracted obligations of your organisation are impacted by COVID-19, please contact your contract manager in writing promptly, and advise how service delivery has been affected and what strategies you are implementing to minimise the impact. We will work with you to manage an agreed way forward.

Any changes to contracts and deliverables will need to be discussed with your contract manager and take into account any health directions where someone connected to your service is confirmed to have contracted COVID19 or is self-isolating on medical advice.

For organisations delivering services to children in care, directly or indirectly, please seek medical advice as appropriate if you become aware a child or an associated household member is exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms and contact your CSO or Child Safety After Hours, as soon as possible.

Useful information

Family Based Care

Individual flexibility agreements

Individual flexibility agreements (IFAs) have been developed to ensure continuity of responsive, safe and industrially compliant non-family based care services for children and young people during COVID-19.

IFAs will allow service providers to roster staff for extended shifts of 12 hours or 24 hours in emergency situations — by agreement with employees — where ordinary hours of work and shift patterns covered in the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 do not cover the types of health risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Full details about the IFAs, associated conditions, procedures, templates and supporting information are available on the Community Services Industry Alliance website.

To enable the department to provide your organisation with timely support and assistance in the event that an IFA is required or activated, we have established a centralised mailbox.

Please use this mailbox to:

  • seek information regarding the IFA specifically
  • provide the department with updates regarding your organisation's status in entering into IFAs with your staff
  • submit applications in the event of activation of an IFA.