In May 2017 School Governance reported on the NSW Office of the Children’s Guardians (OCG) releasing a consultation draft set of guidelines and principles for creating child-safe organisations.  Last week, the OCG released the final Principles for Child-Safe Organisations (Principles) to guide organisations who provide services for children, such as schools, on how to foster child-safe organisations in NSW.  However, unlike principles and standards for child safety introduced in other states and territories, compliance with the Principles remains optional.

What are the Principles?

The Principles are based on research and findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Royal Commission) regarding the ten key elements of a child-safe organisation. The ten key elements of a child-safe organisation, proposed by the Royal Commission, are:

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.

The OCG used the findings from the Royal Commission and the articles of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCROC) to create four main principles for child-safe organisations. The Principles are:

• Principle 1: Organisations focus on what is best for children.
• Principle 2: All Children are respected and treated fairly.
• Principle 3: Children’s families and communities are welcome and encouraged to participate in the organisation.
• Principle 4: Children receive services from skilled and caring adults.

"Children" are aged 0-18.  Each Principle is discussed in more detail below.

The Principles are not designed to tell organisations how to do their work but to assist them to consider characteristics of child-safe organisations and what it means to be child-safe. Each Principle has associated with it a non-exhaustive list of "signs" of what a child-safe organisation is.

The Principles in More Detail

Principle 1: Organisations focus on what is best for children. This Principle aims to ensure that children know their rights, they are listened to and their concerns are taken seriously. Schools and other child-safe organisations, such as sport clubs and kindergartens, can comply with this Principle by creating an organisational culture for a child-safe environment where everyone takes responsibility for the safety of children and places the rights of the child at the centre of their operations.

Principle 2: All Children are respected and treated fairly. This Principle aims for all children to be treated fairly, regardless or of ethnicity, culture, religion, sexuality and abilities. This is to create an organisation demonstrative of respect which welcomes children from diverse backgrounds and has zero tolerance for bullying and discrimination.

Principle 3: Children’s families and communities are welcome and encouraged to participate in the organisation. This Principle encourages families to get involved with the organisation.  Parents, carers and significant others within a child’s life have the primary responsibility for the safety, welfare and well-being of children, including making decisions about what organisations are appropriate for their child. Therefore, it encourages families to feel welcome, make child-safe strategies publicly available and for families to be involved with the organisation - such as providing feedback and being involved with the organisation.

Principle 4: Children receive services from skilled and caring adults. Compliance with this Principle will see staff and volunteers supervised and supported so that they know how to appropriately behave towards children. This includes training, having appropriate employment screening in place, making sure staff have Working with Children Checks and having procedures in place so staff know what to do if they suspect a child is at risk of harm or abuse.

Will your school comply?

These Principles describe how to implement child safety within an organisation. But ultimately, these Principles are optional and it is up to each school to decide if they want to adopt them.

If schools decide to implement and enforce the Principles they will need to reflect them in their policies and procedures. In addition, they will need to include the Principles in training and in the general culture of the school. As policies and procedures can only go so far, implementing these Principles into training and culture will ensure a higher degree of probability that staff will continually be practising child safety.

Schools may also want to adopt them in advance of the Royal Commision's final report (due 15 December 2017).

In addition to national trends in child protection and possible Royal Commission recommendations, these Principles could also be enforced by NESA through registration requirements.

Lessons for schools

The OCG also encourages organisations, such as schools, to become "high reliability organisations."  The OCG says that high reliability organisations are "organisations that provide services where the impact of risk, such as child abuse, is serious but they have strong risk management processes to reduce that chance that children will be harmed."  High reliability organisations learn from their mistakes and are constantly thinking about ways to improve safety, encourage people within the organisation to report concerns, without fear or blame, and address concerns the may seem minor or trivial but could indicate a problem.  Clearly, adopting the Principles is one way of a school demonstrating that is a "high reliability organisation."

Above all, these Principles will help create a culture where child safety, welfare and wellbeing is paramount.