Child Safety and Wellbeing: Embedding a Culture of Child Safety Within Organisations
The National Principles for Child Safe Organisations (National Principles) have been endorsed by all states and territories across Australia. Some states across Australia including Victoria, New South Wales, and Tasmania have legislated the National Principles. For example, in Victoria, any organisation that has the care, supervision or authority of children and young people are subject to the 11 Child Safe Standards (Victorian Standards), which are based on the National Principles.
National Principle 1 (Victorian Standard 2) requires that child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture. Therefore, it is a legal requirement for organisations to show a commitment to child safety and wellbeing, through the implementation of policies, codes of conduct and risk mitigation frameworks.
Embedding child safety and wellbeing within an organisation is a critical component of ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children in various environments, from schools to any other organisations that have the care, supervision or authority of children and young people.
What does a Commitment to Child Safety and Wellbeing Involve?
The key action areas for organisations when implementing National Principle 1 (Victorian Standard 2) are:
- The organisation makes a public commitment to child safety.
- A child safe culture is championed and modelled at all levels of the organisation from the top down and the bottom up.
- Governance arrangements facilitate implementation of the child safety and wellbeing policy at all levels.
- A Code of Conduct provides guidelines for staff and volunteers on expected behavioural standards and responsibilities.
- Risk management strategies focus on preventing, identifying and mitigating risks to children and young people.
- Staff and volunteers understand their obligations on information sharing and recordkeeping.
What Should Organisations Be Doing?
Whether an organisation is meeting their obligations under National Principle 1 (Victorian Standard 2) is largely demonstrated through the implementation of safeguarding documents.
Organisations should ensure that they have the following documents in place, which are regularly updated and publicly displayed:
- Commitment to Child Safety
- Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy
- Child Safety Code of Conduct
- Incident Reporting Procedure
Organisations should also ensure that all documents and expectations are communicated to all staff and volunteers and that the values and behaviours of child safety are embedded in all organisational processes, including performance agreements and review processes. All members of the organisation need to model and promote a culture of child safety, and this should be monitored and enforced by leadership.
Why Are These Documents Important?
Prevention of Harm
The primary goal of embedding child safety and wellbeing into the organisation is to prevent harm to children and young people. By ensuring that policies and procedures are in place to prevent, identify and mitigate risks, organisations are taking a proactive approach to safeguarding children.
Empowering Adults and Children
Child safety and wellbeing policies and procedures empowers organisations and their staff with the knowledge that they need to protect children effectively and equips them with the right tools to do so. Having these documents publicly available also empowers children to understand their rights and recognise inappropriate behaviour, fostering an environment where they feel safe to speak up about their experiences.
Creating a Culture of Safety
Child safety and wellbeing documents are instrumental in establishing a culture of safety within organisations. When everyone – staff, volunteers and parents, understands and prioritises child safety it creates an environment where children can thrive without fear of harm.
Reducing Risk and Liability
Organisations that prioritise child safety through comprehensive policies and procedures are taking steps to reduce the risk of incidents occurring and ensure that any incidents that do occur are investigated and responded to efficiently and in a trauma-informed manner. This not only protects children but also minimises potential legal liability for the organisation, fostering a safer environment for all.
How can Safe Space Legal Help?
The team at Safe Space Legal have extensive safeguarding experience. We have worked with many organisations across Australia to ensure they are meeting their legal obligations and frequently conduct independent safeguarding investigations. Safe Space Legal provides the following services to ensure organisations meet their legal obligations:
- Conducting independent investigations into allegations of child abuse and misconduct which are compliant with sector specific obligations and are conducted in a trauma-informed manner.
- Providing policy audits and developing safeguarding policies, procedures, and complaint handing processes.
- Providing root cause analysis to identify gaps in policy and/or practice which put organisations at risk of non-compliance with their sector-specific obligations.
- Delivering safeguarding training to ensure organisations are aware of their sector-specific requirements and obligations.
- Ensuring that complaints handling and reporting processes are compliant with legal obligations.
- Assistance and support to respond to allegations of abuse and harm.
- Provide expert legal advice on risk mitigation.
Contact office@safespacelegal.com.au or call (03) 9124 7321 to organise a complementary discussion in relation to your organisation’s safeguarding needs.