Safer Care Victoria, in partnership with the Department of Health, is proud to acknowledge the successful completion of the Safer Care for Kids program.
About the program
This program was launched in response to an increase in paediatric sentinel events associated with delayed recognition and response to deterioration. It brought together more than 100 clinicians, health service leaders, consumers, patients and families from across Victoria to identify opportunities to improve the safety and quality of care for children and young people accessing emergency health care.
The work was guided by a shared commitment to ensuring children receive safe, timely and equitable care, regardless of where they access health care in Victoria.
The program focused on 3 key priorities:
- strengthening the recognition and response to paediatric deterioration through statewide implementation of the Victorian Children's Tool for Observation and Response (ViCTOR)
- establishing a family-led escalation pathway for parents and carers concerned about their child's condition
- improving access to specialist paediatric advice and support for clinicians caring for unwell children across Victoria.
Lasting system-wide change
While the Safer Care for Kids program has now concluded, its achievements have become embedded across Victoria's health system and continue to support safer care for children and young people.
Refreshed ViCTOR charts supporting earlier recognition of deterioration
A key achievement of the program was the statewide refinement and implementation of the Victorian Children's Tool for Observation and Response (ViCTOR). The refreshed charts strengthen the recognition and response to deterioration and incorporate parent and carer recognition of deterioration as a core component of care. This recognises what families have always known: parents and carers are often the first to notice when there is a change in their child's condition.
The refined ViCTOR charts support a more consistent, evidence-based approach to monitoring children across Victoria and help ensure that family concerns are heard, documented and acted upon. Following successful testing and implementation, Victorian health services caring for paediatric patients have adopted or are progressing implementation of the refined charts as part of routine clinical care.
Victorian Children's Tool for Observation and Response (ViCTOR)
Statewide Kids Urgent Concern Helpline
The program's vision for a consistent family escalation pathway has been realised through the establishment of the Kids Urgent Concern Helpline, a statewide service available 24 hours a day, seven days a week across Victorian public hospitals and Urgent Care Centres. The helpline provides families and carers with an independent pathway to raise concerns if they believe their child is getting worse and supports escalation when local concerns remain unresolved.
Rolled out statewide in 2026 following a successful pilot, the Kids Urgent Concern Helpline complements existing local escalation processes and provides an additional safeguard to ensure the voices of children, parents and carers are heard when it matters most.
Increased access to specialist paediatric expertise
The objectives of Safer Care for Kids continue to be advanced through Victoria's growing network of paediatric advice, consultation and retrieval services.
The continued maturation and expansion of the Virtual Emergency Department (VED) has increased access to timely emergency care and clinical advice for Victorian families and healthcare professionals, helping ensure children can access expert support regardless of their location.
At the same time, the Paediatric Infant Perinatal Emergency Retrieval (PIPER) service continues to deliver exceptional statewide support through its 24-hour consultation, referral and retrieval service. PIPER provides expert advice, care coordination and escalation pathways for clinicians caring for critically unwell babies and children, ensuring rapid access to specialist expertise and retrieval services across Victoria.
Together, these services help ensure that Victorian children and young people receive timely access to the right care, in the right place, at the right time.
A lasting legacy
The success of Safer Care for Kids is a testament to the courage, generosity and determination of the children, parents, carers and families who shared their experiences to help drive change across Victoria's health system. The program was developed in partnership with families affected by serious patient safety events, ensuring lived experience remained at the centre of system design, decision-making and improvement.
We acknowledge the profound contribution of these families, whose advocacy helped shape safer systems for recognising and responding to deterioration in children, strengthened the role of parents and carers as partners in care, and influenced the development of initiatives including the refined ViCTOR charts and the Kids Urgent Concern Helpline
The sustained changes now embedded across Victoria's healthcare system are a legacy of their determination to ensure that children and families are seen, heard and responded to when concerns arise. Every child and family who benefits from earlier recognition of deterioration, stronger escalation pathways, access to specialist advice and more consistent care stands as a tribute to their advocacy, resilience and commitment to improving outcomes for future generations of Victorian children.
Thank you
Safer Care Victoria thank the many children, families, carers, consumer representatives, clinicians, health services and partners who contributed to the Safer Care for Kids program.
While the program has concluded, its impact will continue through the statewide systems, services and partnerships now supporting safer paediatric care every day. Through the continued use of the refined ViCTOR charts, the Kids Urgent Concern Helpline, the Virtual Emergency Department and PIPER, the vision of Safer Care for Kids lives on: a health system where children receive safe, responsive and coordinated care, and where families are recognised as essential partners in keeping children safe.