Our commitment to child safety
We are committed to the safety and wellbeing of children. We assess risks to child safety that may arise through our work and take steps to manage and mitigate them.
As a Child Safe Organisation, we embed child safety in our policy, business processes, resources and training.
We comply with the 4 requirements of the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework by:
- conducting an annual child safety risk assessment
- maintaining child safety governance arrangements
- providing staff training and awareness activities
- publishing an annual Statement of Compliance.
All staff must treat children appropriately and address or report any concerns raised by children. We train staff to identify and address child safety concerns. We are committed to ensuring no child is at risk when they interact with us.
Children may interact with us in the following ways:
- at a service centre, with or without a parent or another trusted adult
- through our staff working in the community
- when applying for a payment or using another service
- online as a customer or through social media
- by telephone
- as an employee of the agency
- when visiting an agency site with a staff member.
We undertake an annual child safety risk assessment to identify and manage risks to children who interact with the agency. Our most recent assessment found the agency had a low child safety risk rating.
A key area of risk is children attending our service centres without a parent, guardian or support person.
We mitigate child safety risks and apply our child safe commitment in the following ways:
- we have zero tolerance for child abuse and take all claims of safety concerns seriously
- we apply policies, procedures and the law when responding to claims
- we ensure every child feels safe and protected when in contact with our staff
- everyone is responsible for making a child feel safe with us
- we are committed to training and educating staff to address child safety risks
- we require appropriate checks when staff have direct unsupervised contact with a child.
In the last 12 months, we have strengthened our child safety policies, procedures, training and resources through ongoing training, communication and risk management.
Read about the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations on the National Office for Child Safety website.