The Child Protection Toolkit: an invaluable resource to help organisations across Australia meet their child protection obligations

"There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” Nelson Mandela, Former President of South Africa (Child Protection Toolkit, 2016)

A crucial issue facing any organisation that works with children, whether educational, not-for-profit or otherwise, is ensuring that clear policies and procedures are in place to ensure the safety and well-being of the children in its care. The challenge faced by schools, sporting organisations and other not-for-profits providing services for minors, is keeping up with highly complex and evolving child protection legislation, whilst ensuring that staff, contractors and volunteers have the training, capability and ongoing support to understand, implement and follow up on policies and procedures designed to keep children safe.

The Victorian based organisation Our Community, in conjunction with Moores Legal Pty Ltd, has come to the rescue with a brilliant "Toolkit" which does much of the heavy lifting, in assisting organisations to meet their obligations with regard to child protection legislation (including new obligations that came into force for most Victorian not-for-profit organisations on January 1).

"The Child Protection Toolkit has been created by Moores and Our Community as part of our shared commitment to promoting child safety, and helping not-for-profit organisations ensure compliance with the complex web of legislation in this area. The toolkit is designed to be read by school council members, principals and senior teachers, as well as board/committee members and senior managers of any not-for-profit organisation that works with children, though anyone can and should take it upon themselves to ensure every organisation is acting appropriately." (Child Protection Toolkit, 2016)

Following the 2013 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the Victorian Government mandated that organisations working with children adhere to a series of standards to promote child safety, prevent child abuse and properly respond to allegations. Whilst the Toolkit has been designed with these in mind, it also sets out best practice for any organisation in Australia that is committed to child safety and looking to implement improvements to child safety policies and procedures. These include:

• Implementing a child-safe policy or statement of commitment to child safety;
• Developing strategies to promote the participation and empowerment of children
• Putting in place a code of conduct that establishes clear expectations for appropriate behaviour with children;

Extremely broad in scope, the Toolkit covers the social and legal context of recent child protection legislation; how to go about cultivating the right culture for child safety within an organisation; and child-safe recruitment processes for employees and volunteers.

There are sections on Mandatory and Voluntary Reporting Obligations and Responding to a Report.

The Toolkit includes a checklist for managers to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their organisation’s child protection strategy; their compliance with child safety legislation, and resources that may be required for the organisation to proactively implement a child safe environment.

Of perhaps most practical help, the Appendix provides a sample Child Protection Policy and sample Child Safety Code of Conduct. These can be used as a template for any organisation looking to develop appropriate policies and procedures.

Find the Toolkit here: www.ourcommunity.com.au/childprotectiontoolkit .

Please feel free to share this link with the following credit: This Child Protection Toolkit has been prepared by Moores Legal Pty Ltd and published by Our Community and is intended for you to read, utilise and share with others: if you do so, please provide attribution as follows: ‘This document is based on the Child Protection Toolkit created by Moores Legal Pty Ltd and published by Our Community.’ The Child Protection Toolkit may not be reproduced, modified or adapted, in part or in whole, for commercial purposes or for republication.

 OurCommunity: www.ourcommunity.com.au 

Moores Legal Pty Ltd: For more information on the Toolkit: https://www.moores.com.au/blog/?p=820

Note: I have no personal or commercial connection with Our Community or Moores Legal Pty Ltd. I simply think that this Toolkit is a fantastic resource that should be shared as widely as possible.

Photo credit: Santiago Nicolau Girls Cycling, Flickr