In 1996 the Bishops and Leaders of Religious Institutes of the Catholic Church established a Professional Standards Office in each state of Australia to coordinate the response to complaints of abuse against personnel of the Catholic Church in Australia.  This program is called Towards Healing.

The South Australian Professional Standards Office(PSO) has responsibility for a number of additional programme areas.  These include assisting the Church to work toward a Child Safe Environment, the provision of Police Checks through the Police Check Unit (PCU), and managing the provision of access to records for former residents of Catholic Residential Facilities through the Records Service.