Implementing the Standards in the ACT

Implementing the Standards in the ACT

Organisations must apply the Child Safe Standards in a manner that is culturally safe and inclusive for all children and young people, including by respecting and valuing the diverse and unique identities and experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people (and their families).

How will the CYPC support implementation of the Standards?

The implementation provided by the CYPC will focus on:

  • raising awareness about the need to engage with and implement the Child Safe Standards through information and resources on our website, the media, and through discussion forums.
  • gathering baseline (and progressive) information from organisations through a territory-wide survey repeated year-on-year to build a picture of how effectively the Scheme is being implemented. The aggregated results of each annual survey will be published on our website.
  • building capability through information sessions, training, and resources tailored to the ACT context.
  • targeted assistance to those sectors that require additional support.
  • being responsive to identified gaps in information and resources.

Governance

Child Safe Standards Implementation Oversight Group

The purpose of the Child Safe Standards (CSS) Implementation Oversight Group is to provide guidance on sector needs, implementation challenges, intersections with related schemes, regulatory interface, and cross-jurisdictional issues.

Chaired by the ACT Children and Young People Commissioner, the group comprises senior leaders from across government and non-government sectors. This group seeks to collaborate to avoid duplication of effort while leveraging collective knowledge, actions, and opportunities to drive continuous improvement across all sectors.

Meeting communiques

Timeframes and organisational readiness

While there is no set timeframe for achieving full implementation of the Standards, all organisations should start thinking about how the Standards will change the way they do things in their service and start actioning these changes.

Transformational change needs everyone to be on board and each organisation will need to have a clear vision of what a child safe organisation looks like for them.

We encourage you to think about your readiness as an organisation and what you might need to change or introduce. For example, your organisation might benefit from creating a year-on-year action plan against each of the Standards, with new activities to show incremental changes. Alternatively, you might need to focus specifically on a few key Standards that are particularly relevant to your organisation and its specific risks.

There is no right or wrong way. The important thing is simply to get started.

Getting started

A first tangible step could be to add a public commitment statement on your organisation’s website to state your intention to promote and protect the rights, safety, and wellbeing of children and young people through implementing the Standards.

Public messaging in language that children and young people can understand sends a clear signal to them, their families, and communities that your organisation is invested in improving its practices to promote and protect the rights, safety, and wellbeing of children and young people.

When organisations apply the Child Safe Standards, they help build a culture where children and young people are valued and feel safer, and where abuse of children and young people is better prevented, reported, and responded to.

When children and young people feel safe, they are more likely to be safe, and we contribute to making the ACT safer for all children and young people.

Being child safe, child friendly and child aware

Being child safe, child friendly, and child aware is not just for organisations that deliver services to children and young people. It is about recognising and considering children and young people’s needs within the broader context of their family circumstances. We encourage organisations that provide services to adults who have care-giving roles to take a best practice approach in considering how the Child Safe Standards might apply to them within this context.

Essentially, the child safe, child friendly, child aware construct supports all services to think about families holistically. The way in which services are provided to one family member can have a ripple effect on other adults and on the children and young people they care for. The vulnerability of children and young people increases when their needs are not considered, and this can have a detrimental impact on their feelings of safety and wellbeing.

Child safe organisations seek to ensure that all executives, staff, and volunteers understand their responsibilities in helping to create environments that protect and promote the rights, safety, and wellbeing of children and young people. This requires organisations to actively implement the ten Child Safe Standards, including by genuinely engaging children and young people in identifying factors than can increase risks to them and taking active steps to mitigate those risks so that children and young people both are safe and feel safe.

Child friendly services create welcoming environments where children and young people feel valued, respected, and listened to. Child friendly services understand and genuinely demonstrate respect for children and young people’s unique and specific rights, as well as the rights that all people are entitled to. They actively look for and support opportunities to enhance the participation of children and young people by providing them with information and support that enables them to be actively involved in making decisions that impact them.

Examples may include but are not limited to: creating physical and online environments that are child-friendly and reflect the service’s understanding of the diverse developmental and cultural needs of children and young people accessing their service; providing information to children and young people in formats they can read and/or understand; including them in planning meetings about circumstances that affect their family; having accessible bathrooms for children and young people with disabilities and gender diverse children and young people; actively seeking and responding to feedback from children and young people about their experiences of service provision, etc.

Child aware services seek to ensure that all staff and volunteers consider the caregiving responsibilities of adult clients and take this into account when working with parents/carers. This may mean that the provision and timing of services needs to be adjusted to take account of broader family responsibilities and requirements. It may also require modifications to physical environments to accommodate the caregiving needs of adult clients.

Examples may include but are not limited to: having breastfeeding and baby changing facilities; not scheduling appointments at school drop off and pick up times; being aware of obligations that parents/carers may have to other services (such as court ordered supervision or attendance); income support obligations; or side effects of medication when an adult has caregiving responsibilities for children and young people.

When organisations create environments where children and young people feel and are safe and valued (including within the context of their families), supported to exercise their rights to participate, are provided with information in formats they can understand, and are genuinely involved in decisions that affect them and their families, organisations demonstrate their commitment to being child safe, child friendly and child aware.

What help can I get?

The CYPC has developed a range of resources to assist organisations to implement the Child Safe Standards.

If you are unsure where to start, please contact us – we are here to help.