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OUR COMMITMENT TO CHILD SAFETY

Our organisation is committed to child safety. We want children to be safe, happy and empowered. We support and respect all children, as well as our volunteers.

We are committed to the safety, participation and empowerment of all children.

We have zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns will be treated very seriously and consistently with our robust policies and procedures.

We have legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried about a child’s safety.

Our organisation is committed to preventing child abuse and identifying risks early, and removing and reducing these risks.

Our organisations is committed to training and educating our staff and volunteers on child abuse risks.

We support and respect all children, as well as our staff and volunteers. We are committed to the cultural safety of children from a culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds, and to providing a safe environment for children with a disability.

If you believe a child is at immediate risk of abuse phone 000.

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OUR CHILDREN

This policy is intended to empower children who are vital and active participants in our organisation. We involve them when making decisions, especially about matters that directly affect them. We listen to their views and respect what they have to say.

We promote diversity and tolerance in our organisation, and people from all walks of life and cultural backgrounds are welcome. In particular we:

• promote the cultural safety, participation and empowerment of children from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds

  • ensure that children with a disability are safe and can participate equally.

• promote the cultural safety, participation and empowerment of children.
   

OUR VOLUNTEERS

This policy guides our volunteers on how to behave with children in our organisation.

All of our volunteers must agree to abide by our code of conduct which specifies the standards of conduct required when working with children. All volunteers, as well as children, are given the opportunity to contribute to the development of the code of conduct.

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TRAINING AND SUPERVISION

Training and education is important to ensure that everyone in our organisation understands that child safety is everyone’s responsibility.

Our organisational culture aims for all volunteers (in addition to parents/carers and children) to feel confident and comfortable in discussing any allegations of child abuse or child safety concerns. We will train our volunteers to identify, assess, and minimise risks of child abuse and to detect potential signs of child abuse.

New volunteers will be supervised regularly to ensure they understand our organisation’s commitment to child safety and that everyone has a role to play in protecting children from abuse, as well as checking that their behaviour towards children is safe and appropriate. Any inappropriate behaviour will be reported through appropriate channels, including the Department of Health and Human Services and Victoria Police, depending on the severity and urgency of the matter.

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WORKING WITH CHILDREN CHECK

All people engaged in child-related work, including volunteers, are required to hold a Working with Children Check and to provide evidence of this Check. Please see the Working with Children Check website for further information.

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FAIR PROCEDURES FOR PERSONEL

The safety and wellbeing of children is our primary concern. We are also fair and just to personnel. The decisions we make when assessing incidents, and undertaking disciplinary action will always be thorough, transparent, and based on evidence.

We will record any allegations of abuse and safety concerns, including investigation updates. These records would be securely stored.

If an allegation of abuse or a safety concern is raised, we provide updates to children and families on progress and any actions we as an organisation take.

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PRIVACY

All personal information considered or recorded will respect the privacy of the individuals involved, whether they be volunteers, parents or children, unless there is a risk to someone’s safety. Everyone is entitled to know how this information is recorded, what will be done with it, and who will have access to it.

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LEGISLATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES

Our organisation takes our legal responsibilities seriously, including:

• Failure to disclose: Reporting child sexual abuse is a community-wide responsibility. All adults in Victoria who have a reasonable belief that an adult has committed a sexual offence against a child under 16 have an obligation to report that information to the police.

• Failure to protect: People of authority in our organisation will commit an offence if they know of a substantial risk of child sexual abuse and have the power or responsibility to reduce or remove the risk, but negligently fail to do so.

  • Any personnel who are mandatory reporters must comply with their duties.
     

RISK MANAGEMENT

In Victoria, organisations are required to protect children when a risk is identified (see information about failure to protect above). In addition to general occupational health and safety risks, we will proactively manage risks of abuse to our children.

 

REGULAR REVIEW

This policy will be reviewed every two years and following significant incidents if they occur. We will ensure that families and children have the opportunity to contribute.

 

ALLEGATIONS, CONCERNS AND COMPLAINS

Our organisation takes all allegations seriously and has practices in place to investigate thoroughly and quickly. Our staff and volunteers are trained to deal appropriately with allegations.

We work to ensure all children, families, and volunteers know what to do and who to tell if they observe abuse or are a victim, and if they notice inappropriate behaviour.

We all have a responsibility to report an allegation of abuse if we have a reasonable belief that an incident took place (see information about failure to disclose above).

If an adult has a reasonable belief that an incident has occurred then they must report the incident. Factors contributing to reasonable belief may be:

• a child states they or someone they know has been abused (noting that sometimes the child may in fact be referring to themselves)

• behaviour consistent with that of an abuse victim is observed

• someone else has raised a suspicion of abuse but is unwilling to report it

• observing suspicious behaviour.