WHS & Regulatory Compliance · Childcare Centres & Schools · South East Queensland & Northern NSW
You run a childcare group or a school. You’re accountable for the safety of children, staff and families, and for meeting your regulatory obligations and WHS law at the same time. You may not have a dedicated WHS person, and you may not need one full time. KLB gives you experienced WHS and compliance support when you need it, so you’re ready before an assessment or an incident tests your systems.
WHO WE WORK WITH
Large providers have their own WHS teams. Most family-owned groups of two, three or four centres don’t. Neither do many small independent and faith-based schools. The director or principal ends up carrying the WHS load on top of everything else, and it usually gets attention only when something goes wrong or an assessment is due.
That’s the gap KLB fills. We work with owners, approved providers, nominated supervisors and school leadership teams who need their WHS and compliance obligations handled properly, but don’t want the cost of a permanent safety manager. Larger schools often have WHS staff in-house but value an independent perspective. We work alongside them too.
THE COMPLIANCE PICTURE
Childcare services sit under two regulatory frameworks at once. The Education and Care Services National Law and Regulations, assessed against the National Quality Standard, cover children’s health, safety and supervision. Work health and safety law in Queensland and NSW covers your educators, cleaners, contractors and visitors. Schools are in a similar position: school registration requirements sit alongside the same WHS duties to staff, contractors and visitors.
On top of that, both states now have Child Safe Standards, and both have psychosocial codes of practice that set out how to manage risks to your team’s mental health. In NSW, from 1 July 2026, approved codes must be followed or an equivalent standard met.
The two overlap more than most services realise. Emergency procedures, risk assessments, incident reporting, supervision, the physical environment and staff wellbeing all show up in both. Treated separately, they create duplicate paperwork and gaps between them. KLB builds one set of policies, procedures and controls that satisfies both, and that your team can actually follow on a busy day.
And this isn’t a tick-and-flick inspection. When we visit, we tell you plainly what we found, why it matters and what we recommend putting in place, then help you get it done.
HOW WE HELP
Start with the area that worries you most, or let us look at the whole picture. Every engagement is shaped around your service, your rooms and your team.
Educators and teachers face high workloads, challenging behaviour, difficult conversations with families and fatigue. The psychosocial codes of practice in Queensland and NSW set out how to identify and manage these risks. Clare leads this work for KLB. She helps you assess the risks, consult with your staff and put practical controls in place. A good first step is our free School Psychosocial Risk Self-Check. Our Psychosocial Health Check brings together a confidential staff survey, focus groups, a document review and a site walk, then gives you a prioritised action plan and an agreed follow-up review.
An independent review of your policies, procedures, records and practices against WHS law and the National Quality Standard. You get a clear, prioritised list of what needs fixing, and we help you close the actions rather than leaving you with a report. More on inspection and compliance.
A practical check of the day-to-day requirements services get caught on: educator-to-child ratios and supervision, food preparation and kitchen practices, incident, injury and illness reporting to families, and the privacy and confidentiality of children’s and families’ records. Where something isn’t right, we tell you and help you fix it before a regulator does.
Risk assessments for your premises, routines, excursions, transport, sleep and rest, and high-risk activities. Written for your service and your rooms, not copied from a generic template.
Policies and procedures that are current, consistent across every centre and connected to how your team actually works. That includes emergency and evacuation procedures, incident and injury reporting, and contractor and visitor management.
Scheduled inspections of outdoor play areas, buildings, equipment and maintenance practices, with findings tracked through to close-out.
Holidays and closure periods are when the big jobs happen: refurbishments, roofing, painting and maintenance, often with several contractors on site at once. The Christmas break is the biggest, but every term break counts. We coordinate WHS on your behalf, checking licences, insurance and SWMS, inducting contractors, inspecting the works and handing the site back ready for your team and children to return.
When a serious incident happens, we run a structured ICAM investigation to find the underlying causes and fix them, so the same thing doesn’t happen at another centre.
Not sure where to start? Talk to Clare about where your service stands.
FREE DOWNLOAD FOR SCHOOL LEADERS
Ten questions on how your school identifies, controls and reviews psychosocial risks, from workload and role clarity to aggression, harmful behaviour, reporting and leadership capability.
Work through it with relevant staff and health and safety representatives, mark each practice Yes, Partly, No or Unsure, and note the evidence behind each answer. You finish with a short list of priority gaps, owners and due dates.
It’s an initial discussion tool, not a compliance assessment, and it draws on Safe Work Australia and SafeWork NSW guidance and Queensland’s psychosocial code of practice.
One-page PDF · We'll also email you the link
THE COMMERCIAL CASE
A full-time WHS manager is out of reach for most two-to-four centre groups and small schools, and the role rarely needs forty hours a week. KLB gives you the same expertise for a single project, ongoing support or just when you need it.
Pay for What You Need
An audit before assessment and rating, a quarterly check-in, or ongoing support.
No Employment Overheads
No superannuation, leave liabilities or recruitment costs.
Consistent Across Sites
One approach and one standard of documentation across every centre or campus.
Someone to Call
When a notice, incident or tricky question lands, you have an experienced person on the phone.
Independent WHS Partner
Ongoing WHS support that fits around you. We spend time on site each month, you can call us when something comes up, and we keep your action plan, risk register and reporting on track. It works on its own or alongside an in-house WHS team.
Talk to Clare about the right level of support for your service.
HOW IT WORKS
Four steps, at a pace that suits your service.
A conversation about your services, your current systems and anything coming up, such as an assessment visit, an incident or a new centre.
We look at what you already have: policies, risk assessments, registers, incident records and how things happen on the floor.
A short, clear list of what to fix first and what can wait, matched to your budget.
We do the work with your team, then stay on as much or as little as you need.
YOUR CONSULTANT
Clare has a particular passion for early childhood and education, with a strong interest in psychosocial safety. She is committed to helping services create environments where educators and staff feel safe, supported and heard, recognising the connection between staff wellbeing and the care and education they provide.
She brings more than a decade of experience in residential construction, client relationships and team leadership, and at KLB undertakes WHS audits, supports workplace investigations and develops practical safety policies, procedures and management systems. Clare is an Integrated Management Systems Lead Auditor (ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001) and ICAM Lead Investigator, and she’s the person a director or principal will deal with day to day. Meet the KLB team.
Backed by Kurt Bartlett, KLB’s founder, with 16+ years leading WHS across major projects and national operations, and an Exemplar Global certified ISO 45001 Lead Auditor.
Our services
Beyond education-specific compliance, KLB’s core WHS services are available to every centre and school we work with.
Yes. The approved provider is also a person conducting a business or undertaking under WHS law, with duties to educators, staff, contractors and visitors. The National Quality Standard focuses on children. Both apply at the same time, and good systems address them together.
They are aspects of work that can cause psychological harm, such as high workloads, aggression or challenging behaviour, poor support, fatigue and conflict. Employers have always had a duty to manage risks to psychological health. Since 1 April 2023, Queensland’s WHS Regulation and Code of Practice have spelled out how to identify and control these risks. In NSW, from 1 July 2026, approved codes of practice, including the psychosocial code, must be followed or an equivalent standard met.
That’s exactly who we built this service for. Smaller family-owned groups don’t need a corporate safety department. They need practical systems that work across a handful of sites and someone experienced to call.
Yes. Many larger schools have someone in-house. We work alongside them as an independent second pair of hands: an independent look at psychosocial risk, extra support during busy periods like holiday works, or a fresh review of policies and procedures.
Yes. We can review your health, safety and physical environment practices and documentation beforehand, so gaps are fixed before an authorised officer finds them. Assessment and rating outcomes are decided by the regulator, and we help you be properly prepared.
No. WHS duties and approved provider obligations can’t be transferred. KLB helps you meet them, but your service remains responsible.
We’re based in South East Queensland and on the Tweed Coast, working with services across the Gold Coast and Northern NSW. We also support clients Australia-wide.
Request a consultation
"*" indicates required fields
