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Child Safety
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The new Child Safe Standards came into force in Victoria on 1 July 2022.
The Victorian Government has introduced NEW Child Safe Standards to better protect children and young people from abuse.
The purpose of the Child Safe Standards is to prevent abuse of children by making organisations safer for children. In order for children to feel safe while at community language schools, responsibility for child safety should be understood and accepted by everyone in the organisation.
Here is a link to the official Victorian Child Safety website:
Every community language school and campus must have:
- Culturally Safe Environments
- Child Safety and Wellbeing is Embedded in Leadership, Governance and Culture
- Child and Student Empowerment
- Family Engagement
- Diversity and Equity
- Suitable Staff and Volunteers
- Complaints Processes
- Child Safety Knowledge, Skills and Awareness
- Child Safety in Physical and Online Environments
- Review of Child Safety Practices
- Implementation of Child Safety Practices
All staff, volunteers and committee members must undertake three hours of compulsory Child Safety training .
In addition, all staff, volunteers and committee members must sign a Code of Conduct annually to ensure they have read and understood its contents.
The child-safe officers must take deliberate steps to safeguard children from physical, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse and neglect.
The new Child Safe Standards came into force on 1 July 2022, and schools now need to comply with these 11 new Standards.
What has changed in the New Child Safe Standards?
Although similar to Victoria’s current Child Safe Standards, key changes include new requirements:
- to involve families and communities in organisations’ efforts to keep children and young people safe
- for a greater focus on safety for Aboriginal children and young people
- to manage the risk of child abuse in online environments
- in relation to governance, systems and processes to keep children and young people safe.
Organisations must ensure that they comply with the NEW Child Safe Standards that are now in force since 1st July 2022.
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What the Standards aim to achieve:
The Child Safe Standards aim to:
- Promote the safety of children
- Prevent child abuse
- Ensure organisations have processes in place to respond to and report all allegations of child abuse.
Child Safe Standards work by:
- driving changes in organisational culture – embedding child safety in everyday thinking and practice
- providing a minimum standard of child safety across all organisations
- highlighting that we all have a role to keep children safe from abuse
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Child Safety Standards
- Standard 1:
Organisations establish a culturally safe environment in which the diverse and unique identities and experiences of Aboriginal children and young people are respected and valued
- Standard 2: Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture
- Standard 3: Children and young people are empowered about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously
- Standard 4: Families and communities are informed, and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing
- Standard 5: Equity is upheld and diverse needs respected in policy and practice
- Standard 6: People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice
- Standard 7: Processes for complaints and concerns are child focused
- Standard 8: Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children and young people safe through ongoing education and training
- Standard 9: Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed
- Standard 10: Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is regularly reviewed and improved
- Standard 11: Policies and procedures document how the organisation is safe for children and young people
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Child Safety Trainings Presentation Slides
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Child Safety Resources, Policies and Procedures
TO ACCESS THESE DOCUMENTS IN GOOGLE FOR EDITING: https://bit.ly/CLS-Documents
Do not request edit access but instead go to File > Download > Microsoft Word Docx to edit as your own.
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Child Safety Training:
*UPDATE*
We will be releasing new Child Safety Trainings throughout the year so please keep checking this page for new dates as they become released.
All sessions will be face-to-face unless otherwise noted below.
Once you register, a confirmation email will be sent to you approximately 3-5 days before the training with the address of the venue and requesting that you RSVP your attendance.
A reminder that Mandatory Child Safety Trainings are for NEW Teachers, Volunteers or Staff Members or anyone that has not yet taken the CLV Mandatory Training.
UPCOMING TRAINING IN CALRTON
- CARLTON: Tuesday 16 July, 2024 from 6:30pm to 9:00pm (Mandatory Child Safety Training)
- CARLTON: Tuesday 23 July, 2024 from 6:30pm to 9:00pm (For Principals and CSO only)
- CARLTON: Tuesday 30 July, 2024 from 6:30pm to 9:00pm (Mandatory Child Safety Training)
Click HERE to register
UPCOMING TRAINING IN OTHER LOCATIONS
- TARNEIT: Sunday 21 July, 2024 from 9:00am to 11:30am (Mandatory Child Safety Training)
- MANOR LAKES: Sunday 21 July, 2024 from 2:00pm to 4:30pm (Mandatory Child Safety Training)
Click HERE to register
CHILD SAFETY TRAININGS OFFERED IN SEMESTER 1
- CARLTON: Monday, 18 March 2024 from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM - For Principals and CSOs only
- CARLTON: Tuesday, 26 March 2024 from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM - For Principals and CSOs only
- CARLTON: WWednesday, 10 April 2024 from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM - For Principals and CSOs only
- CARLTON: Tuesday, 16 April 2024 from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM - For Principals and CSOs only
- CARLTON: Tuesday, 23 April 2024 from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM - For Principals and CSOs only
- CARLTON: Wednesday, 01 May 2024 from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM - For Principals and CSOs only
- CARLTON: Tuesday, 14 May 2024 from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM - For Principals and CSOs only
- THORNBURY: Thursday 18 April from 6:30pm - 9:00pm
- THORNBURY: Thursday 25 April from 5:00pm - 7:30pm
- DANDENONG: Tuesday 30 April from 6:00pm - 8:30pm
- DANDENONG: Thursday 9 May from 6:00pm
- DANDENONG: Thursday 16 May from 6:00pm - 8:30pm
- DONCASTER EAST: Saturday 25 May from 2:00pm - 4:30pm
- MT WAVERLEY: Saturday 08 June from 9:00am - 11:30am
- BERWICK: Saturday 08 June from 12:00pm - 2:30pm
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2024 SELF-AUDIT TOOL
As a child-safe school, you must take deliberate steps to safeguard children from physical, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse and neglect.
Every year, we request that you complete the Child Safe Standards Self-Audit Tool.
The Self-Audit Tool is designed to help organisations assess their progress in meeting the 11 Child Safe Standards and identifying areas of strength and opportunities for improvement in becoming a child safe organisation.
Please take some time to go through the Self-Audit Tool (Principals and Child Safety Officers need to work on this together), complete it and return it to me at erjaei.neda@communitylanguages.org.au by 15 April 2024.
Instructions:
- Read each statement
- Mark whether the statement is "In Place", "Partially In Place" or "Not in Place" in the relevant columns
Before you send your completed Self-Audit Tool back, make sure you have checked the following:
- All Staff, Volunteers, and Committee Members have a valid and current Working with Children Check card.
- Everyone at your school has signed the NEW 2024 Code of Conduct. You can find it here: Click here to download Code of Conduct
- You've updated all your Child Safety Policies and Procedures: Click here for latest Child Safety Policy on our website (scroll down to Child Safety Resources, Policies and Procedures section)
- Make sure you are documenting all incidents, conducting interviews and doing reference checks when acquiring new staff and/or volunteers at your school. We have templates for each of these on our website (scroll down Child Safety Resources, Policies and Procedures section)
- Nominate the Child Safe Officer of your school for each campus on the Self-Audit Tool. This is very important as we need to know who is the CSO in each school/campus. The Child Safe Officer provides advice across the schools on all policies and procedures related to child safety and makes sure everyone at school is aware of new requirements.
- From January 2024, the Commission will expect organisations to have more comprehensively implemented the new Standards.
Click here to access your Self-Audit Tool
- Microsoft Word Doc Version (you will need to download to your computer.
- Google Docs Version (you will prompted to Make a Copy to edit in Google Docs.
- PDF Version (you will need to print and handwrite into it.
If you have any questions or need assistance with anything please contact Ms Neda Erjaei via email at erjaei.neda@communitylanguages.org.au or via phone at 0413 858 842.
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