Hello there, this month we are tackling a more serious topic–Children’s Health and Safety.
You may be aware of the various outcomes from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse; one of these is the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations. These principles provide a nationally consistent approach to cultivating organisational cultures and practices that foster child safety and wellbeing across all sectors in Australia.
National Principles for Child Safe Organisations
The principles apply to all organisations that work with children, from early childhood education and care services to sporting clubs, youth groups and churches.Whilst these are not mandatory,they do set a high standard and help to promote the importance of practices and approaches that keep children safe.
Early childhood services are very well placed in regard to the national principles as our industry has been focusing on child safety and wellbeing for a long time, and we already have legislated requirements regarding the safety and wellbeing of the children in our care.
The government’s Child Safe Organisation’s website has a wide range of resources, including free e-learnings that give you an overarching understanding of the principles, and an in-depth review of each individual principle. We strongly recommend that you and your teams make time to watch and engage with the e-learnings and the various resources on the website–you will most likely find that you are doing a wonderful job in regards to these principles, and it can help you find any gaps that you might need to focus some time and energy on.
Practical Tools
We recommend visiting the ‘Practical Tools’ section of the Child Safe website for support in identifying what you are already doing to meet the principles. You can also use the wonderful self-assessment tool to take a deep dive into your approach and understanding of creating a culture that is focused on children’s safety and wellbeing.
If you have any questions about the principles check out the fantastic Child Safe Organisations’ website. If you can’t find what you need, then please get in touch–this is new for all of us and we can work together to understand what we need to do to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the children we learn alongside.
Contact us today and let our team of early years specialists work their magic.
