Improving the safety of Australian children

Early childhood education and care providers have the opportunity to strengthen and improve their current child safety systems in light of recent recommendations made by the Royal Commission.

National child harm prevention charity, ChildSafe, has started an 8-month nation-wide tour to empower organisations that work with children to apply best practice when it comes to child safety.

Early childhood services, and other organisations that work with children, will have the opportunity to hear recommendations from the ChildSafe team about improving safeguards and enabling trusted environments for children.

The sessions will also provide an open Q&A session with members from the expert panel, who will take questions from the floor.

The recommendations made by the 'Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse' demonstrate the need for each and every organisation with exposure to young people to ensure they are taking an active response to reduce potential risks of harm to children.

As a part of the Commission's recommendations, institutions are urged to implement 10 Child Safe Standards which include:

1. Child safety is embedded in institutional leadership, governance and culture
2. Children participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously
3. Families and communities are informed and involved
4. Equity is promoted, and diversity respected
5. People working with children are suitable and supported
6. Processes to respond to complaints of child sexual abuse are child focused
7. Staff are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children safe through continual education and training
8. Physical and online environments minimise the opportunity for abuse to occur
9. Implementation of child safe standards is continuously reviewed and improved
10. Policies and procedures document how the institution is child safe

ChildSafe spokesperson, Neil Milton said he is excited to see what impact this will have for organisations looking to put the appropriate systems in place to protect children from harm.

"Aussie children are this nation's future, and we will be travelling around the country to spread the message that more needs to be done to protect our children," says Mr Milton.

"The recently issued recommendations from the Royal Commission have highlighted several key gaps in how we approach child safety, and every organisation needs to sit up and take notice to ensure we learn from the mistakes of others," he said.

More than 30 information sessions are being held in all Australia's major cities and in many regional centres. The road show started in March, so be sure to check ChildSafe for local information, dates, sessions and to purchase tickets.