Child Safety and Privacy Policy
The Basics
We are committed to providing a safe environment for all children and young people. Our policy complies with the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017, the Child Safety (Prohibited Persons) Act 2016 and aligns with the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.
We value and respect all children and young people and welcome them regardless of their abilities, sex, or social economic or cultural background. Bullying and harassment won’t be tolerated under any circumstances.
Scope of this Policy
This policy applies to all employees, volunteers, work placement students, contractors and future board or committee members referred to throughout the policy collectively as ‘workers’. All workers are required to agree in writing to accept and act in accordance with the policy.
Communication
This child safe policy and related documents is available to all parents, children, young people and their families on our website or on request.
This child safe policy and related documents is provided to all workers as part of their induction following recruitment. We encourage and respect the views of children and young people and involve them in decision making as appropriate. We provide clear age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate explanations to children and young people including their right to safety, their right to be listened to and that they can provide feedback or make a complaint if they have a concern, to any worker or ask their parent/guardian to do this on their behalf. We will listen to and act upon complaints or concerns that a child or young person raises with us. Code of Conduct Caring for children and young people brings additional responsibilities for all workers. We are responsible for promoting and protecting the safety and wellbeing of children and young people.
Workers Must
- Stick to the organisation’s child safe policy at all times and take all reasonable steps to ensure the safety and protection of children and young people
- Treat everyone including those of different race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, sex, gender, social class, physical ability or attributes and religious beliefs with respect and honesty and ensure a safe and fair environment for all.
This list is not exhaustive and for the avoidance of doubt, all workers attending or involved with our business should create a fair, non-discriminatory, kind environment and be a positive role model to children and young people in all conduct with them.
Workers will set clear boundaries and maintain appropriate behaviours with children and young people – boundaries help everyone to understand their roles. They will listen and respond appropriately to the views and concerns of children and young people. They will be alert to bullying behaviours and respond promptly and appropriately.
Our organisation has glass doors on each teaching room to make sure that all lessons can be visually observed by other teaching staff and/or parents and colleagues.
Our Organisation
- Will Be alert to children and young people who have been harmed, or may be at risk of harm and reporting this quickly to the Child Abuse Report Line (13 14 78).
- Will Respond quickly, fairly and transparently to any complaints made by a child, young person or their parent/guardian.
- Will encourage children and young people to ‘have a say’ on issues that are important to them.
Workers Will Not
- Engage in any physical games
- Assist with toileting in any capacity other than to walk a child or young person to the exterior facilities door and then maintain a distance of 10m from the exterior door at all times.
- Develop any relationships with children and young people that could be seen as ‘favouritism’ such as the offering of gifts or special treatment.
- Do things of a personal nature that a child or young person can do for themselves, such as toileting or changing clothes.
- Discriminate against any child or young person for any reason whatsoever.
Breaches or suspected breaches of the Code of Conduct will be reported as soon as practicable to management either in person, by telephone 0491 481 416 or via email at hello@thrivetuition.com.au
Breaches or suspected breaches of the Code of Conduct will be taken seriously and dealt with quickly, fairly and transparently. Any worker who breaches the Code of Conduct will face disciplinary action and depending on severity of the breach, the worker may have their employment or contracting status terminated without pay or compensation.
Recruitment
To ensure we engage the most suitable people to work with children and young people we have the following recruitment practices in place:
- Our commitment to child safety is included in all job advertisements
- Clear position descriptions that include our commitment to child safety and wellbeing
- Face-to-face interviews that include behavioural questions to determine the applicant’s knowledge of child safeguarding.
- At least 2 referee checks and qualification checks.
In accordance with the Child Safety (Prohibited Persons) Act 2016, our organisation is registered with the Department of Human Services (DHS) Screening Unit and we link all Working with Children Checks (WWCC) to our registration.
All persons running the organisation (e.g. business owner, board/committee members, managers etc) and all workers in the organisation over the age of 14 years, even if not providing services directly to children or young people, must hold a current, not prohibited WWCC issued by the DHS Screening Unit.
All workers must provide evidence of their WWCC prior to employment and renew the WWCC every 5 years. We will immediately contact the DHS Screening Unit when we become aware of assessable information regarding any person involved with our organisation, including any serious criminal offence, child protection information, or disciplinary or misconduct information.
Training and Support
We have strategies in place to supervise, train and support workers to understand our organisation’s child safe policy, their mandatory reporting obligations, how to build culturally safe environments and their responsibilities to create a child safe and friendly environment.
Our strategies include:
- Training: as part of their induction, ensure all workers read and understand the Mandatory Reporting Information Booklet available at: https://dhs.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/103179/CSE Mandatory-notification-information-booklet.PDF
- Include child safety as a standing item on meeting agendas.
- Regular supervision sessions that include a focus on child safety and wellbeing.
- an induction process for all new workers including a copy of this policy.
- Regular performance appraisals that discuss child safeguarding.
- Appointing a child safety officer (The Studio Manager) who has an educative role within our organisation.
Reporting and Responding to Harm or Risk of Harm
We aim to ensure that children and young people are safe from harm and risk of harm.
Section 17 of the Safety Act defines ‘harm’ to mean physical or psychological harm (whether caused by an act or omission), including harm caused by sexual, physical, mental or emotional abuse or neglect.
Mandated reporters in our organisation are workers who:
- provide services to children and young people.
- hold a management position in the organisation the duties of which include direct responsibility for, or direct supervision of, the provision of those services to children and young people. Mandated reporters have a legal obligation to report direct to the Child Abuse Report Line (CARL) on 13 14 78 as soon as practicable if they have a suspicion that a child or young person has been harmed or may be at risk of harm. If the child or young person is at immediate risk, report to South Australia Police (SAPOL) on 000. Even if not a mandated reporter, any person can report harm or risk of harm to a child or young person. The non-mandated reporter who identifies the harm or risk of harm is encouraged to make the report to authorities and can request the support from another worker to do so if required.
Information about making appropriate reports of harm or risk of harm is available from the South Australian Department for Child Protection website: https://www.childprotection.sa.gov.au/reporting-child-abuse.
All adult workers (even if not a mandated reporter) have a legal obligation to report child sexual abuse by another worker to the police and to protect a child from sexual abuse by another worker.
Failure to meet these obligations may be considered a criminal offence. Following a report being made to CARL or SAPOL workers must make an internal report to management. We will be guided by the Department for Child Protection and/or SAPOL after a report has been made as to whether we can conduct an internal investigation. If a worker is reported to CARL or SAPOL for causing harm or risk of harm to a child or young person, they will be removed from any role that involves working with any child or young person until authorities have concluded their investigation.
Following a report to CARL or SAPOL we will support the child or young person by:
- referring the child, young person or their family to other appropriate services
- continuing to provide a service to the child, young person and their family and monitor their circumstances. We will document all information received regarding the report and store this securely in a separate file.
Responding to General Complaints
Providing opportunities for complaints and feedback ensures that children, young people and their families feel valued and respected and enables us to improve the quality of our service.
Children, young people and their families are informed that they can provide feedback or make a complaint at their first appointment or as part of their welcome pack when they join the organisation.
Compliments, complaints or feedback can be provided verbally to any worker or direct to management by telephone on 0491 481 416 or via email at hello@thrivetuition.com.au
We will deal with all complaints and feedback received promptly, sensitively and fairly.
We will:
- listen to the complaint/feedback
- the person receiving the complaint will make a record of it if received verbally
- advise of the time expected for an outcome
- if a worker receives a complaint, they must forward it to management as soon as possible
- management will respond to the complainant with an outcome in a timely manner
- clearly document and securely store decisions and actions taken in response to complaints and feedback
- make sure that procedural fairness is followed at all times. If the child, young person or their family is not happy with the outcome from the complaints process they can contact:
- Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner Tel: 8226 8666
- Australian Human Rights Commission Online: www.humanrights.gov.au Tel: 1300 656 419
- South Australian Equal Opportunities Commission (for complaints relating to discrimination) Online: www.eoc.sa.gov.au Tel: 08 8207 1977.
Physical Contact Minimisation
Physical contact must be appropriate to the delivery of services being provided. If physical contact is required, this is undertaken in a safe way by explaining why contact is required and what will happen, and asking the child/young person for their permission (or their family if this is more appropriate) before proceeding.Unnecessary physical contact is not allowed.
Online Communications
Appropriate supervision is provided for all online activities with children while they are in their tutoring session. Workers must not communicate with children or young people via social media or add them as ‘friends’ to any social media platform.
Transport
Transport of children and young people is forbidden by all workers.
Parent Collection
If child/young person not collected by parent/guardian at end of consult/class/training an adults is to stay with child/young person in line of sight until they are collected. This may mean they will be present for adjacent tutoring sessions as sometimes there is only one adult on premise. You are encouraged to be prompt in collecting your child.
Photos and Video
Consent of child/young person and parent/guardian required for the collection of photo or video footage. Disclosure will be made to the child/young person and parent/guardian as to how the image is to be used. Images must be presented in a way that de-identifies the child or young person Physical environment.
Information Privacy
Workers must not disclose information regarding any child or young person without written consent of the child, young person and their parent/guardian unless legally required to.
The exception to this, is that workers are allowed to discuss concerns regarding the child or educational needs with the Studio Manager or senior management. They must not disclose any personal information regarding any child or your person to anyone outside of the organisation or to fellow collogues who are not management.
Offsite Activities
Overnight and/or off-site activities are prohibited by this organisation and will not be engaged in or arranged.
Review
We will, at a minimum, review this policy and the related procedures once every 5 years as required by the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017.
We will also review this policy when new or added risks are identified for children or young people, which may require a change in the policy or procedures or a critical incident occurs where a child or young person has experienced harm through involvement in the organisation.
We will lodge a new child safe environments compliance statement with the Department of Human Services each time we review and update this policy.
Policy date: 6th November 2024
Review date: 5th November 2029