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Child Safe OrganisationsNational Framework - Creating Safe Environments For Children Organisations, Employees and Volunteers National Schedules for Creating Child-Safe Environments First Schedule 'Guidelines for Building the Capacity of Child-Safe Organisations' Guidelines for exclusion of persons from employment/volunteering in child related areas Guidelines for information sharing across jurisdictions Support for creating Child-Safe Organisations in the ACT Helpful links and 'Child Safe' resources National Framework - Creating Safe Environments For ChildrenOrganisations, Employees and VolunteersCreating Safe Environments For Children - Organisations, Employees and Volunteers ‘Creating Safe Environments For Children - Organisations, Employees and Volunteers' expresses commitment from Community and Disability Services Ministers to a national approach for increasing the safety of children in their dealings with community service organisations. Under the National Framework a range of the Schedules will be developed in the following areas:
This National Framework is a milestone in taking a more comprehensive national approach to creating child-safe organisations, whilst acknowledging the broad scope of community services and respecting variations between jurisdictions. National Schedules for Creating Child-Safe EnvironmentsFirst Schedule 'Guidelines for Building the Capacity of Child-Safe Organisations'Guidelines for Building the Capacity of Child-Safe Organisations This Schedule identifies nationally agreed characteristics of child safe organisations and promotes best practice, taking into account the diverse range of community services. The Guidelines explore the implementation of child safe recruitment and selection practices, the development of a workplace Code of Conduct and strategies to empower children to reduce the risk of harm. Capacity Building initiatives are grouped according to key elements, which include:
The Schedule does not state precisely what organisations should do to protect children in every situation or prescribe a series of procedures. However it will guide organisational development and a framework to assess their child-safe capacity. Second Schedule 'An Evidence guide for risk assessment and decision making when undertaking background checking' An evidence based guide for risk assessment and decision making when undertaking background checking The overriding purpose of this Schedule is to guide those involved in background checking of employees and volunteers, and to contribute to the further development and refinement of relevant legislation, policy and practice across Australia. The Schedule is not intended to provide a step-by-step guide to risk assessment and decision-making or to prescribe particular assessment processes and tools. It does express national agreement about broad principles, guidelines and key elements to promote risk assessment and decision-making that is ethical, rigorous, consistent and evidence-based. Guidelines for exclusion of persons from employment/volunteering in child related areas Guidelines for information sharing across jurisdictions Support for creating Child-Safe Organisations in the ACTSome training products are available to community services organisations for example: Child Wise Child Wise is a non-government organisation that has developed an innovative prevention program, called Choose with Care, which aims to minimise the risk of child abuse occurring within organisations working with children. Key elements of the program include:
Choose with Care Resource Kits, are available to purchase from Child Wise on their website. Alternatively the Office for Children, Youth and Family Support (OCYFS) have a number of Choose with Care Resource Kits, which organisations may wish to loan for a short period of time. Raising the Standard Raising the Standard is a manual to guide quality improvement in ACT community service organisations and is widely used across the ACT. This manual outlines a set of generic good practice standards. The content is relevant to a wide range of service delivery, community development, consumer and peak bodies in the ACT across a range of sectors. The manual contains general standards around human resource management, policy development, client rights and participation, which organisations can consider and implement within a ‘child safe’ context. Third Schedule - Guidelines for Information Sharing Across Jurisdictions This Schedule is focused upon the cross-jurisdiction sharing of information related to criminal records, and information relevant to the assessment of prospective out-of-home carers for licensing or registration purposes. It is not intended for the Schedule to encompass the sharing of information relevant to the broader dimensions of child protection or residential care systems. Support tools will be placed on this website as they become available. Helpful links and 'Child Safe' resourcesA range of useful links are provided below with helpful information, relevant templates and tools that support the aims of the Capacity Building Schedule. Australian Council for Children and Parenting (ACCAP) Australian Council for Children and Youth Organisations Inc. (ACCYO) Australian Sports Commission Child Wise Commission for Children and Young People, NSW Government Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian, Queensland Government WA Government, Department for Community Development WA Government, Department of Sport and Recreation National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) Play By The Rules Raising Children Network Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC) |
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