Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy
Emerge is committed to child safety and wellbeing through its Child Safety Statement. Emerge recognises the vulnerability of children who have experienced family violence and will endeavour to provide individual support to children to assist in their recovery. Every child has the right to feel safe and be safe.
Emerge has zero tolerance of child abuse and harm, and all allegations and safety concerns will be taken seriously and responded to.
Emerge will take deliberate steps to protect children from physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological abuse and neglect. Emerge will embed a commitment to child safety in every aspect of the organisation.
All children, their families and carers will be enabled and supported to disclose child safety or wellbeing concerns. Emerge has a moral and legal obligation to contact authorities when concerns are raised about a child’s safety.
Statement of Commitment to Child Safety
Emerge is committed to promoting and protecting the safety and wellbeing of children and young people by providing a child safe environment where children and young people are safe and feel safe and their voices are heard about decisions that affect their lives.
Emerge will adhere to the Child Safe Standards and take proactive measures to identify and remove risks to children.
Emerge:
- Has zero tolerance for child abuse and neglect.
- Will treat all allegations and safety concerns seriously.
- Will contact authorities when concerned about the safety of children and young people.
- Values and is committed to supporting diversity, inclusion, equality, cultural safety and safe environment for all children and young people including Aboriginal and Torres strait islander children, children from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds, LGBTIQA+ children and children with a disability.
This responsibility is understood and accepted by all Emerge employees, volunteers, contractors, and Board members.
Scope
This policy applies to all Emerge activities and all Emerge employees, volunteers, contractors, and Board members.
Responsibilities
All Emerge employees will:
- Be informed about the Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy and any procedures related to their role.
- Be aware of the Emerge Code of Conduct and the expected behaviour that relates to children.
In addition, direct service employees are responsible for:
- Putting the Child Safe Standards into practice as it relates to their role.
- Updating their skills and knowledge on engaging with children.
- Raising concerns about a child’s wellbeing and safety with their supervisor.
Supervisors are responsible for:
- Ensuring compliance with the Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy when providing services to victim survivors of family violence.
- Ensuring that employees are trained in relation to child safety and wellbeing.
- Making decisions on reporting to authorities any incidents of child abuse or harm
- Informing the CEO that a report will be made to authorities regarding child abuse or harm.
The Human Resources and Business Lead is responsible for:
- ensuring that all Emerge employees are suitably screened and appropriate to work with children or have contact with children.
The Chief Executive Officer is responsible for:
- Reporting any incidents or disclosures of child abuse or harm to the Board of Directors.
Definitions
Child abuse means:
- a sexual offence committed against a child,
- an offence committed against a child under section 49M(1) of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic), such as grooming,
- physical violence against a child,
- causing serious emotional or psychological harm to a child,
- serious neglect of a child.
Child/Children – refers to children and young people up to the age of 18 years.
Harm is damage to the health, safety or wellbeing of a child or young person, including as a result of child abuse by adults or the conduct of other children. It includes physical, emotional, sexual, and psychological harm. Harm can arise from a single act or event and can also be cumulative, that is, arising as a result of a series of acts or events over a period of time.
Concerns - refers to any potential issue that could impact negatively on the safety and wellbeing of children.
Complaint - is an expression of dissatisfaction related to one or more of the following in the context of child safety and wellbeing:
- Emerge services or dealings with individuals,
- allegations of abuse or misconduct by a staff member, a volunteer or another individual associated with Emerge,
- disclosures of abuse or harm made by a child or young person,
- the conduct of a child or young person
- the inadequate handling of a prior concern
- general concerns about the safety of a group of children or activity.
Child Safe Standards
The Child Safe Standards Victoria (2022) provide a consistent approach to keeping children and young people safe.
Standard 1 – Culturally Safe Environments
Creating culturally safe environments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
Emerge is committed to creating environments where Aboriginal culture is celebrated and Aboriginal children, families and community members are welcomed and included. Strategies to embed cultural safety for Aboriginal children include:
- an Acknowledgement of Country at all Emerge meetings, events and activities.
- consulting with families and members of the Aboriginal community to identify opportunities to promote Aboriginal culture and practices in Emerge services and activities.
- providing opportunities for children to share their cultural identity and express their culture at Emerge services and activities.
- supporting children who wish to explore their culture, including consulting with their family and relevant Aboriginal organisations.
- having a culturally inclusive workforce.
- providing training for staff and volunteers on the strengths of Aboriginal culture and its importance to the wellbeing and safety of Aboriginal children.
- celebrating NAIDOC Week and acknowledging significant events including National Sorry Day and National Reconciliation Week.
- Displaying Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags and symbols at Emerge sites.
- seeking feedback from Aboriginal children, families and communities on their experience at Emerge, particularly how safe they feel expressing their identity including their culture.
Standard 2 – Embedding Child Safety and Wellbeing
Emerge will embed child safety and wellbeing in its organisational leadership and governance. Emerge will champion and model a child safe culture. Emerges will demonstrate its commitment to child safety by:
- a statement of commitment to child safety and wellbeing,
- having policy on child safety and wellbeing and its associated procedures,
- behavioral expectations outlined in Emerges Code of Conduct,
- providing services directly to children to aid in their recovery from family violence,
- hearing children’s voices and taking appropriate actions when required,
- ensuring appropriate staff undertake ongoing training and increase their skills in working with children.
Standard 3 – Children’s Rights and Participation
Emerge will actively seek to include children’s views and ideas in organisational planning, and delivery of services.
Emerge respects the rights of children and provide them with information about their rights including the right to be safe. Emerge will actively seek to understand what makes children feel safe through our provision of service delivery to children and will regularly communicate with children about what they can do if they feel unsafe.
Emerge values the voices of children and will act on safety concerns raised by children or their families. Children’s participation will be supported in the following ways:
- Regular discussions with children, including child-led conversations on what makes them feel safe and unsafe.
- Consultation with children and their families about any proposed significant changes to the physical environment, policies, procedures, programs or staffing.
- Children’s feedback on services provided by Emerge is gathered in an age appropriate way and provided to management and considered in the decision-making process.
- Information provided to children and families about services and programs are made suitable for different age groups and diversity of the children.
Standard 4 – Involvement of Families
Emerge recognises the important role of families and involves parents and carers when making significant decisions about their child. Parents, families and communities are welcome to provide feedback and are encouraged to raise any concerns they have.
Emerge provides information to families and community about our child safe policies and practices including through:
- publishing this Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy and Code of Conduct on the website,
- providing information on services and programs,
- providing information on how be give feedback and raise concerns or make a complaint.
Standard 5 – Equity and Diversity
Emerge values diversity and equity for all children. To achieve this, will:
- provide training for employees, volunteers and Board members on understanding diversity and how to support inclusion and cultural safety,
- welcome and support participation of all children, including children with disability, children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, LGBTIQ children and Aboriginal children and their families,
- during assessment processes enable information to be collected about any specific needs to participate services and programs.
- have zero tolerance of racism and other forms of discrimination and act when discrimination or exclusion is identified,
- deliver programs and services that reflect the diversity of interests and cultures,
- strive to reflect the diversity of the community through representation in staff and Board members,
- acknowledge and celebrate important cultural dates,
- have a physical and online environment that actively celebrates diversity through designs, images, and information.
Standard 6 – Employee Suitability
Emerge will ensure that employees, contractors, and Board members are suitable and value child safety and wellbeing. Recruitment, selection, and induction processes will only recruit employees and volunteers who are appropriate to engage with children.
All Emerge employees and volunteers will require a Working with Children Check, Police Checks and referee checks. Staff who work directly with children will have appropriate qualifications for their roles.
Members of the Board must hold a valid Working with Children Check and undertake a national Police Check.
Standard 7 – Complaints and Concerns
All reports of child abuse and child safety concerns will be treated seriously, whether they are made by an adult or a child and whether they are about the conduct of an adult or a child. All complaints and child safety concerns will be responded to promptly and thoroughly.
Emerge has a complaint handling policy that includes information for staff and volunteers about how a complaint or child safety concerns will be responded to. Complaints information will be provided to Emerge clients about how to make a complaint and the complaints process.
If a complaint includes an allegation or incident of child abuse or harm, then staff and volunteers at Emerge must report it in accordance with the complaint handling policy. Emerge staff and volunteers are required to prioritise children’s safety in any response.
Standard 8 – Skills and Knowledge
Emerge is committed to ensuring that all employees and volunteers receive training to ensure they understand their responsibilities in relation to child safety and to support their engagement with children. Emerge assists its Board of Directors and employee to incorporate child safety considerations into decisions and to promote a safe environment where children are empowered to speak up about issues that affect them.
Emerge Board of Directors, employees and volunteers are required to complete child safety training.
Emerge encourages employees to increase and refresh their knowledge and skills on recognising and responding to concerns about child safety. Staff will receive supervision to support their engagement with children, identify training needs, and for compliance with the Code of Conduct and Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy.
Standard 9 – Physical Environments
Emerge recognises the importance of identifying and managing risks of child harm and abuse in the physical and online environments.
As part of service delivery Emerge conducts risk assessments and safety planning with children. Risk assessments and safety planning is regularly reviewed and updated.
Child Safety will form part of Emerge’s risk management plan and be approved and reviewed by the Board of Directors.
The physical environments in which Emerge delivers services to children will be welcoming, safe, and supervised by staff.
Standard 10 - Review
Emerge will review all child safe practices and policies at least every two years. Emerge will also review relevant practices and policies in response to a child safety incident or ‘near miss’. Findings from reviews will be reported to the CEO and relevant parties and will also inform continuous improvement of child safety practices.
Standard 11- Other Policies and Procedures
Emerge will embed in a range of policies and procedures child safe practices. Policies and procedures identified as related to the Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy will be reviewed through Emerges policy and procedure review process and undergo staff consultation.
Record Keeping
Emerge is committed to making and keeping full and accurate records about all child-related complaints or safety concerns.
All child safety complaints, concerns, incidents and near misses will be recorded in the client incident management system.
A variety of documentation will be used to assist with the investigation of a complaint or safety concern and kept as part of the record of an investigation. This documentation may include information in client files recorded on SHIP. Records will be kept even if an investigation does not substantiate a complaint.
Information Sharing
Emerge may share relevant information to promote the safety and wellbeing of children, where it is appropriate and in their best interests. Emerge will keep information about complaints confidential, except where it is necessary to share information to respond properly to a complaint or to prioritise child safety. Information may be shared about incidents or complaints with external authorities to comply with the law or to prioritise safety.
Emerge may share child information as part of the Child Information Sharing Scheme and Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme.
Legislation and Standards
Child Safety and Wellbeing Act 2005 (as amended) (Vic)
Worker Screening Act 2020 (Vic)
Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic)
Commission for Children and Young People Act 2012 (Vic)
Crimes Amendment (Protection of Children) Act 2014
Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic)
Child Safe Standards, July 2022 (Vic)
National Principles for Child Safe Organisations, 2018 (Aust Human Rights Commission)
Social Services Standards (Vic) 2024; Standard 1- Safe service delivery
Social Services Standards (Vic) 2024; Standard 2 - Service user agency and dignity