How to comply with the Child Safe Standards?

Webinar Session 1

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Please Note: Today’s presentation is being recorded.

Your presenters

Catherine Brooks - Principal at Moores

Patrick Moriarty – Exec Director - Our Community

Natalie Egleton

Patrick Moriarty

Bron Belcher

We’ll be covering:• Why do we need the Child Safe Standards• What are the standards

In the next session

Well be covering• Reporting Obligations• Tips and Advice on implementing the new Child Safe Standards• Where can we go for help

This Session

• Children and young people have the right to feel safe and be safe from abuse.

• The safety of children and young people is everyone’s responsibility.

• The Betrayal of Trust Inquiry – a landmark inquiry into the handling of child abuse allegations within religious and other non-government organisations – along with other inquiries tell us there is much more we can do to keep children and young people safe.

• The introduction of compulsory, minimum Child Safe Standards for child safe organisations is part of the Victorian Government’s response to the Betrayal of Trust report, and one of the measures Victoria is taking to keep children safe from abuse.

Why do we need Child Safe Standards?

• Complementing these changes are:- a reportable conduct scheme for the centralised reporting of

abuse allegations to an oversight body- laws to protect children from sexual abuse- provisions to make it easier for victims to seek justice.

• Child Safe Standards apply to organisations operating within Victoria that provide services for children.

• All organisations that work with children, whether in scope or not, are strongly encouraged to adopt the Standards in providing a child safe environment.

• Compliance requirements are being finalised.

• Child safety doesn’t just happen. A child safe organisation takes deliberate steps to protect children from abuse.

• Having policies and procedures in place is not enough. Child safety requires a whole of organisation commitment to, and responsibility for, the protection of children and a visible child safe culture.

• Organisations vary significantly in what systems they have in place to help protect children from abuse. Minimum standards help ensure that a child’s safety is not compromised because of these inconsistencies and variations.

What does the research tells us?

Royal Commission

- 90% of perpetrators were male- Average age at time abuse started

• Girls – 9• Boys – 10

- Average time before disclosing• 22 years

moores.com.au @Moores_au

Child Safe Standards

To whom do the standards apply?Category 1Organisations that receive government funding or are covered by regulation or contractual requirements.

Work towards from 1 Jan 2016

Category 2Organisations that have little or no funding or regulatory relationship with government.

By 1 Jan 2017

Registered schools (Category 1 agencies, via a Ministerial Order). By 1 Aug 2016

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• Child Safe Standards provide a framework to help organisations keep children safe from all forms of harm.

• Standards are flexible and principle based. This enables organisations to tailor their approach based on their type of organisation, level of responsibly for children and activities involving children.

• Each of the Standards must be understood and applied in the context of:

- the cultural safety of Aboriginal children- the cultural safety of children from a culturally and/or

linguistically diverse background- the safety of children with a disability.

What do I need to know?

Implementation• Principle-based standards rather than prescriptive

standards• Compliance with the standards will initially be monitored

through existing regulatory or funding arrangements (where these exist) to help reduce burden on organisations

The child safe standardsTo create and maintain a child safe organisation, an applicable entity or individual carrying on a business to which the standards apply must have:

1. strategies to embed an organisational culture of child safety, including through effective leadership arrangements

2. a child safe policy or statement of commitment to child safety3. a code of conduct that establishes clear expectations for appropriate

behaviour with children4. screening, supervision, training and other human resources practices

that reduce the risk of child abuse by new and existing personnel5. processes for responding to and reporting suspected child abuse6. strategies to identify and reduce or remove risks of child abuse7. strategies to promote the participation and empowerment of children

Standard 1: CultureOrganisations must have strategies to embed an organisational culture of child safety, including through effective leadership arrangements.

To engage in this cultural change, organisations need to:• help leaders and managers create an organisational culture that

protects children from abuse• ensure this influences the organisation’s policies and practices • ensure that other staff and volunteers know and understand the

organisation’s commitment to child safety• ensure leadership is aware of allegations and substantiated cases of

abuse and responds in ways that protect children from abuse• commit to continuous improvement through regular reviews and

updating policies and practices, and being open to scrutiny

• Organisations must have a child safe policy or statement of commitment to child safety that covers:• what is child abuse• zero tolerance of child abuse• statement of commitment to children’s safety and statement on

prevention and risk management• description of roles and responsibilities of personnel involved in

protecting children• organisation’s commitment to the cultural safety for Aboriginal

children, cultural safety for CALD children and the safety of children with a disability.

Standard 2: Child Safe Policy or Statement of Commitment

Standard 3: Code of Conduct• Organisations must have a code of conduct that

establishes clear expectations for appropriate behaviour with children

Standard 4: Human Resources• Organisations must have screening, supervision, training

and other human resources practices that reduce the risk of child abuse by new and existing “personnel” (inclvolunteers)

Standard 5: Reporting and responding

• Organisation must have processes for responding to and reporting suspected child abuse

Standard 6: Detect and prevent (risk management)

• Organisations must have strategies to identify and reduce or remove the risk of child abuse

Standard 7: Empowering children• Organisations must have strategies to promote the

participation and empowerment of children

Recent legislative change• Only last week the Victorian Government passed the

Child Wellbeing and Safety Amendment (Oversight and Enforcement of Child Safe Standards) Act 2016 .

• This Act provides the Commission for Children and Young People to:• Request information from organisations;• Conduct site visits (sometimes without notice); and • Take the non-compliant organisations to court (maximum

penalty of $9,327.60),All to enforce compliance with the Standards.

• The Commission will initially take an educative approach to the Standards.

• The Commission for Children and Young People is responsible for helping organisations develop their processes for understanding and meeting the Standards.

• The Commission is working in partnership with government agencies, peak bodies as well as industry and sector leaders to build capacity of organisations.

• The Commission has developed a range of resources and tools including: - A guide for creating a child safe organisation- Tip sheets for organisations- Tip sheets for parents and carers- These can be accessed via the Commission’s website at

http://www.ccyp.vic.gov.au/child-safe-standards.htm .

Where can I get more information?

Where can I get help?§ Check out the Free Toolkit at

www.ourcommunity.com.au/childprotectiontoolkit§ Sign up to receive Moores’ For the Cause blog update and/or Our

Community’s Our Community Matters e-newsletter – both publications contain regular updates about legal and other changes affecting Australian not-for-profit organisations and schools;

§ NFP ASSIST - by attending you are eligible to access free legal advice until Jan 1 2017 by contacting Moores NFP Assist (A Legal Advice Line) - call (03) 9843 2119 (NOTE: These are only for calls of a legal nature if you have general enquiries call the Commission for Children and Young People)

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Questions

Disclaimer: This presentation and any related materials are for training, educational and general information purposes only and should not be relied on as (or in substitution for) legal, accounting, financial or other professional advice.Note: All MOORES Presentations are copyright and are only made available on condition that the copyright will be respected.

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Just a reminder that in the next session we’ll cover:

• Reporting Obligations• Tips and Advice on implementing the new Child Safe

Standards• Where can we go for help