Safeguarding Services

Safeguarding involves the proactive measures that organisations implement to ensure the wellbeing and safety of children and vulnerable individuals, protecting them from potential harm from abuse and neglect. This entails the establishment of effective policies and procedures, creating a secure environment, educating staff about potential risks and recognising signs of risk or harm.

Additionally, safeguarding involves the implementation of a transparent complaints handling processes to address and rectify incidents of abuse, neglect or potential harm, and ensure duty of care is met. Through these comprehensive efforts, organisations actively work to create a protective framework that prioritises the welfare of those under their care.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse demonstrated the historical widespread failings of organisations and institutions to prevent and respond to child abuse. The Royal Commoission’s final report identified over 400 areas for changes to be made to improve the responses of those responsible for child safety. The importance of institutional responses cannot be underestimated, and this comes down to each organisation ensuring the safety of children within their care.

You can read the National Office of Child Safety’s full report here.

Organisations who are required to comply with the Reportable Conduct Scheme must ensure that they properly respond to allegations of child abuse and harm by employees of the organisation. This includes the obligation to inform the regulatory body of any reportable allegations.

Furthermore, organisations must conduct thorough investigations into such reportable allegations, ensuring a comprehensive examination of the alleged incidents. Subsequently, the findings and outcomes of these investigations must be communicated to the regulator. The Reportable Conduct Scheme establishes a framework that emphasises accountability and transparency in responding to and managing allegations within organisations.

Currently the Reportable Conduct Scheme operates in some states across Australia including Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and soon Tasmania. It is likely that in time, a Reportable Conduct Scheme in the disability sector will also be established.

In Victoria, organisations working with children must comply with the 11 Child Safe Standards to ensure they provide safe services to children and young people. The standards outline the minimum expected outcomes organisations must achieve to be considered “child safe”.

The 11 standards are based on the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.

The Victorian Child Safe Standards are:

1. Organisations establish a culturally safe environment where the diverse and unique identities and experiences of First Nation’s children and young people are respected and valued.
2. Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture.
3. Children and young people are empowered about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.
4. Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.
5. Equity is upheld, and diverse needs are respected in policy and practice.
6. People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice.
7. Processes for complaints and concerns are child-focused.
8. Through ongoing education and training, staff and volunteers have the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children and young people safe.
9. Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed.
10. Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is regularly reviewed and improved.
11. Policies and procedures document how the organisation is safe for children and young people.

All states and territories in Australia have endorsed the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations, and some states have enacted the National Principles into legislation.

At Safe Space Legal, we offer a complimentary initial half-hour consultation to discuss your safeguarding needs and how we can best support your organisation to meet those needs. Being a law firm, our consultations are confidential and subject to legal professional privilege. At the initial consultation, we will get further information about your organisation, how it operates, your role in the organisation and what you need assistance with.

From there, we will develop a Proposal for you to consider before undertaking any work, clearly setting out what services we will engage in to support your organisation. Whether by reviewing policies and procedures, providing training and support, completing audits, or conducting safeguarding investigations – we will be there to help you every step of the way, to ensure that your organisation is legally compliant and best practice leaders in safeguarding.