A presentation of Safe - the child protection and early intervention program found on HubHello. Presentation given in person for the NSW Department of Communities and Justice. Co-presented by Reegan Barber at CAPS and David Salajan at HubHello and Healthy Australia in June 2023.

1. Safe

2. Acknowledgment of Country
“Always was, always will be Aboriginal Land”.
As a community, we acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the
Lands and Waters throughout Australia on which we are sitting.
We pay respects to Elders past, present and emerging, for they
hold the memories, the traditions, the cultures and hopes of
Aboriginal Australia.

3. What is Safe?
Safe is a world-first case review platform that uses a
combination of AI and child protection expertise to predict
children potentially at risk.
It makes it as easy as possible for any organisation, anywhere
in Australia to have the tools needed to identify vulnerable kids
and provide them with the supports that will keep them safe
from harm.
Note: it does not replace child protection processes and
mandatory reporting requirements. It has been designed to
support them.

4. Established in 1973, the Child Abuse Prevention Service
is the oldest organisation in Australia dedicated to the
prevention of all forms of child maltreatment.
Our staff are experienced psychologists, educators
and policy experts who create positive childhood
experiences through our award-winning community
education programs, training workshops and child
safe organisation solutions.
What is CAPS?

5. Westpac
• CAPS and HubHello have received two generous grants
through Westpac’s Safer Children, Safer Communities
program.
• This incredible investment has provided $400k in funding
over four years to promote and scale-up the program.
Safe partnerships
Child Abuse Prevention Service (CAPS)
• CAPS is the oldest organisation in Australia dedicated to
the prevention of all forms of child maltreatment.
• CAPS are a key partner of the program and have been
instrumental in the growth of Safe and establishing the
partnership with Westpac. CAPS also provides our Case
Review Specialist who assesses all cases submitted.
Child Abuse Prevention Service (CAPS)
• CAPS has been a key partner for the last two years and
has been instrumental in the recent growth of the
program.
• CAPS employs the Case Review Specialist, an experienced
child protection expert who assesses all cases submitted
on Safe.

6. Safe was
created to help
organisations
better protect
our most
vulnerable
All organisations should be supported
as part of the universal system child
protection by recognising their role in
recognising and responding to child
protection risks.
This is especially relevant where
partnerships are needed to support
children who may not be able to be
allocated a response through state and
territory child protection systems.
Child protection is everybody’s
business!

7. HubHello is an Australian Early Childhood Education and
Care Platform.
We are a highly experienced Australian software vendor
with over 15 years of expertise in scaling data-rich
enterprise web applications for the early childhood and
school-aged care sectors.
Our areas of expertise encompass administration, health,
education, and child safety.
What is HubHello?

8. Safe was developed back in 2014 by
HubHello and the charity Healthy Australia.
Developed in collaboration with:
• CSIRO’s Data61
• QLD Police
• the QLD Department of Communities
and Child Safety
• researchers at the University of
Queensland
• key figures from the child protection
and emerging technology sectors.
Modelled on Feed Australia project with
Uni of Newcastle and Hunter Area Health
Safe background

9. An organisation signs up to Safe
Their staff member inputs data about a
child of concern
1
2
The Safe platform analyses the data
3
The Case Review Specialist reviews the
data
4
The Case Review Specialist contacts the
organisation to provide further support
and follow up as required
5
How
does
Safe
work?

10. Contains visual
representations of the
data which can be
customised
The visual
representations can be
customised in any way
The dashboard can be
presented as a heat map.
Each child represented as a
red circle. The larger the
circle the more at risk that
child is.
The heatmap can be used to
identify areas where family
support services can be
deployed and their impacts
tracked over time
Heat Map Dashboard
This is a way to triage all the
reports so that the most at-
risk children can be focussed
on first.
You can also focus on the
children that would benefit
from early intervention
Visual Plots
Safe Features
Detailed list of children
being monitored
nationwide
List

11. Data collected with the
Early Childhood and
Education Care Services
through the Australian
Government’s prescribed
Child Care Subsidy
System (CCSS)
HubHello is a CCS
provider and complies
with the information and
data legislation of CCS
providers
Use of Safe is consistent
with priorities identified
in the Australian
Government’s Safe &
Supported Framework
Data Security
Data is stored in Sydney
with AWS across multiple
availability zones.
Data is encrypted at in
transit and at rest, adheres
to the Australian Privacy
Principles and Services
Australia’s Secure Cloud
Strategy.

12. What are the
benefits of
Safe?
For organisations:
● Accessible
● Evidence-informed
● Child-centred and observation-
based
● Monitors change
● Machine learning allows the
platform to “learn”

13. What are
the benefits
of Safe?
For child protection
systems:
● Contributes to Decision Making
● Engages universal systems in
child protection
● Provides the capacity to assess
changes over time
● It is national
● It is highly customisable

14. Case Study:
Anna (five years old) and
Julie (her mum)

15. According to Emerging Minds, approximately 72% of
Australian children have been exposed to at least one
ACE, with rates higher in vulnerable populations.
The
Evidence
Base for
Safe
Adverse Childhood Experiences
(ACEs)

16. According to Emerging Minds, approximately 72% of
Australian children have been exposed to at least one
ACE, with rates higher in vulnerable populations.
The
Evidence
Base for
Safe
Adverse Childhood Experiences
(ACEs)

17. Positive Childhood
Experiences (PCEs)

18. Many organisations using Safe are already providing families
with access to positive childhood experiences, such as referrals
to support services and forming relationships with children.
Future plans for Safe include assisting services to track the
impact of the provision of PCEs for children engaged with the
services who are experiencing some degree of risk.
Future
Directions:
Positive
Childhood
Experiences
Safe and PCEs

19. ● Evidence is emerging that PCEs have an
impact not only on mental health
outcomes but a range of other
experiences
● PCEs give us a basis for developing and
assessing outcomes of prevention
initiatives.
● Risk prediction scores can help prioritise
child protection responses.
● Planning and assessing children’s PCEs
provides universal services with a tool to
evaluate their services, and enhances
staff engagement with child protection.
Why focus
on PCEs?

20. How do I sign up to Safe?
safechild.com.au

21. Thank You
www.hubhello.com.au
www.caps.org.au