Information for Staff and Volunteers

Your role in creating child safe organisations

A Child Safe Organisation is one where children and young people feel safe and are safe.

All staff and volunteers have a role to play in creating a child safe organisation. When everyone demonstrates attitudes and behaviours that uphold the rights, safety, and wellbeing of children and young people, organisations build a child safe culture.

Role of Business Owners of Very Small Organisations, Sole Traders, and Family Trusts

Very small organisations, sole traders, and family trusts where there is limited or no formal governance arrangements or business processes, may need to think a bit differently about how they will implement the Standards.

Larger organisations will often have an established leadership hierarchy, robust suite of policies and procedures, and accountability measures to moderate staff and volunteer behaviours and attitudes. In the absence of these, very small organisations will need to develop a clear plan for how they will self-monitor attitudes, behaviours, and actions to show how the Standards are being met.

As the Standards are flexible, the approach should be proportionate to your organisational context. A useful starting point for very small organisations could be placing a public commitment statement on the organisation’s website (if there is one) or displaying a public commitment statement in a visible location on the organisation’s premises. Other steps might include displaying a poster/s of the 10 Standards in a visible location/s and completing a risk assessment to consider where actions can be taken to better promote and protect the rights, safety, and wellbeing of children and young people, and increase the likelihood that they both feel safe and are safe in your organisation.

Very small organisations should refer to Role of Staff and Volunteers to learn more about ways that individuals can show they are demonstrating how they are working towards becoming child safe, child friendly, and child aware.

Role of Boards and Leadership Teams

Child Safe Standards: A Guide for Board Members and Executives

Staff and volunteers look to their Board and leadership team to set the culture of their organisation. This includes how the organisation makes sure it is child safe, child friendly, and child aware. The Board and leadership team set the rules for how everyone should behave towards children and young people and must consistently model those behaviours with staff, volunteers, and service users.

In a child safe organisation, the Board and its leadership team act as role models, make public commitments, and follow through with tangible actions. They embed strategies for upholding the rights, safety, and wellbeing of children and young people in their policies and procedures, include children, young people, families, and staff in discussions about how the organisation can continue to improve, and include these actions in their strategic and business plans.

The Board and its leadership team make sure everyone in their organisation understands what being culturally safe and inclusive means in their organisation and tangibly demonstrate their respect for and valuing of the diverse and unique identities and experiences of all children, young people, and families, notably Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people, and families.

The Board and its leadership team set expectations about the organisation’s zero tolerance for racism, bullying, or discrimination of any kind. They have policies and processes in place for managing the behaviour of others, including other service users, to make sure their organisation is child safe, child friendly, and child aware at all times. The leadership team shows how they address attitudes and behaviours that create barriers for children, young people, and families with diverse needs to make sure their organisation is a welcoming place for everyone.

The Board and its leadership team are responsible for making sure their staff and volunteers treat everyone with dignity and respect, even if the service is unable to provide direct support. When the service cannot assist, they make sure all staff and volunteers understand the policies and procedures for referring children, young people, and families to the right service for their needs.

The Board and its leadership team should be open to feedback and hearing concerns from children, young people, parents/carers, and staff and volunteers. They should have clear policies and procedures in place that everyone can read and understand.

Role of Staff and Volunteers

Staff and volunteers in child safe organisations need to understand the role they play in protecting the rights, safety, and wellbeing of children and young people.

Individuals should attend child safe training to learn how to identify risks to children and young people, as well as read and understand the organisation’s policies and procedures.

They should talk to or ask other staff about how the service can continue to improve the way it supports children and young people to participate and exercise their rights.

Everyone in the organisation has a responsibility to listen to children and young people when they have worries, and care about what they have to say, no matter how insignificant an issue may seem to an adult. When children and young people learn they can trust adults with small things, they are more likely to talk about bigger issues.

Staff and volunteers should raise issues with a member of the leadership team in their organisation immediately if they have concerns, and make sure there is a way of keeping children and young people informed about how issues are being dealt with.

Some of the ways that Business Owners, the Board, leadership team, staff, and volunteers can show children and young people they are working to make their organisation safer are:

• Identifying issues early
• Being tuned in to the safety issues that children and young people may encounter or are worried about
• Being open about how risks are being dealt with
• Actively communicating with children and young people about risks and their safety concerns
• Demonstrating their commitment to safety through their actions, including by:
  • Listening and caring
  • Acting like an adult
  • Being available
  • Being able to talk about sensitive issues
  • Doing what they say they will do
  • Checking in or following up with children and young people when something has happened
  • Not playing favourites
  • Not bullying
  • Monitoring the behaviours of others.

How much do I need to know?

The 10 Child Safe Standards are interconnected and together help to create an environment in which children and young people can feel safe and be safe.

As a business owner, staff member or volunteer, you need to know what the Standards are and what you and your organisation are doing to implement them.

Being a child safe organisation is a collective effort and everyone in your organisation needs to work together. Staff and volunteers at any level and in any role may have ideas about how the organisation can improve. Talk with a member of your leadership team about how the Standards are being implemented, and what role you can play to help children and young people exercise their rights and participate in how services are being designed and delivered for them.

All organisations are different, and the Standards can be implemented in a flexible way based on an organisation’s risk profile and priorities. If you are a staff member or volunteer in more than one organisation, you will need to be familiar with how each organisation is approaching implementation, even though the Standards are the same.