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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*
Please be advised that CLV has cancelled all scheduled Child Safety Training sessions for this month.
As part of CLV’s continuous improvement approach, we are currently trialling new interactive Child Safety training modules designed to improve accessibility, flexibility, and delivery for our member schools.
This transition will allow us to provide a more scalable and user-friendly training model, particularly for schools with multiple staff, volunteers, and committee members requiring certification.
Further details regarding the new training modules, access arrangements, certification, and compliance requirements will be shared with schools shortly.
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