Reforms risk failing as new data reveals $2.4b child-safety gap

SYDNEY, Jan. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Child Safeguarding reforms have a real risk of failing as data exposes a $2.4 billion national cost exposure associated with safeguarding failures, according to new research released by Australia's only continuous credential verification platform, Oho.

While government reforms represent critical progress, Oho warns the pace and type of reforms still leave children dangerously exposed, with a three-year timeline and a lack of systems that help employers to comply with reforms. The reforms focus on government data sharing. They do not yet address government to employer data sharing, where the risk exists day to day.

New data from 224,000 independent worker records reveals the scale of the problem: between 1 in 434 to 3000 workers currently hold a revoked or suspended clearance, a critical defence that should be stopping them from working with children and vulnerable people. 

Around 27% of the national care and education workforce - 1.7 million workers - also cannot be continuously verified due to the existing government registers not being built for a workforce growing, moving and churning at an unprecedented rate. Employers simply can't keep up with 23+ registers requiring huge manual effort, prone to error and risk.

The economic cost exposure of these safeguarding failures totals to $2.4 billion annually. The figure was released in a white paper titled "Safeguarding Australia: Strengthening Right-to-Work Systems to Protect Children & Vulnerable People", and incorporates legal, insurance, investigations, productivity, and workforce losses. 

Its publication comes as the federal government continues its staged roll out of one of the most broad-reaching overhauls of child and vulnerable-person safeguarding in decades with the "Early Childhood Education and Care (Strengthening Regulation of Early Education) Act 2025" as well as reforms led by Attorney General's on mutually recognising Working with Children Check outcomes across jurisdictions.

The paper also reveals that these safeguarding flaws could be resolved by enabling secure and connected government to employer data sharing much like the technology used by the Australian Tax Office to fix payroll issues. Using existing technology it would cost around $70 million a year, according to Oho, which constitutes a fraction of the current $2.4 billion in economic cost exposure.

The paper comes as governments are progressing major post-Royal Commission reforms, including Victoria's Rapid Child Safety Review, the Aged Care Act 2024, and Queensland's Child Safe Organisations Act. Since August 2025, 88 new workforce-safety standards have also been endorsed nationally, reflecting strong momentum.

Oho says without modern infrastructure to supper real-time verification and real-time insights into worker suitability, even well-intentioned reforms risk failing at the point implementation. 

To support the announced reforms, Oho has suggested a national safeguarding systems framework focused on mutual recognition, continuous verification, secure technology integration, transition support for providers, and a stronger culture of prevention from boards to the frontline.

Oho is now calling on state and federal governments to work with industry and technologists to ensure reforms are delivered collaboratively, coherently, and in a way that genuinely strengthens the protections for Australia's most vulnerable. 

Liv Whitty, CEO of Oho, said:

"The reforms are sweeping and ambitious, so will take time to land. So, it's crucial governments identify the parts of the burning problem that can be solved today, with systems and technology designed to protect vulnerable people and employers doing their best to keep them safe."

"Government reforms are moving in the right direction, and employers are working hard to meet higher expectations. However, the systems they are being asked to rely on are fragmented, manual and not built for the size, growth and churning shape of the care workforce in Australia. In many organisations, safeguarding still depends on spreadsheets, reminder emails, and one-off checks that simply cannot keep pace with the level of risk in  care and education settings. 

"Our analysis shows that between one in 434 workers can be holding a revoked or suspended clearance. The broader economic cost of safeguarding failures runs into the billions every year in legal, insurance, and productivity losses. The human cost is incalculable."

"By contrast, enabling, existing, continuous-verification capability between employers and government registers would cost a fraction of what we are already spending on the consequences of failure. For the same investment as a minor line item in a federal budget, we could dramatically reduce the chances that unsuitable people are allowed to work with children and other vulnerable members of the community.

"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to prevent further abuse in plain sight by using standards for industry, set and used by The ATO when they enabled took the headaches out of payroll. By enabling accredited technology partners to integrate data between government systems and employers we can protect millions of Australians who rely on care for their loved ones. Employers still bear the burden of worker suitability proof so this will give them confidence that their workforce remains safe to work every single day."

Oho (weareoho.com) is Australia's only continuous credential verification platform, purpose-built to protect children and vulnerable people through near real time screening of workers and volunteers from recruitment, through employment and offboarding. Trusted by over 140 organisations across disability, care and community, Oho has detected over 569 critical safeguarding risks and saved over 110,000 hours in compliance admin. By embedding continuous right-to-work checks into everyday operations, Oho is helping create safer environments for all Australians.

SOURCE Oho