Child Safe Organisations

Information

Effective pre-employment screening can stop abuse before it starts.

Is your organisation child-safe?

In 2017 the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse handed down its final report recommendations. Standard 5 of the recommendations for organisations states :

People working with children are suitable and supported :

  1. Recruitment, including advertising and screening, emphasises child safety.
  2. Relevant staff and volunteers have Working With Children Checks.
  3. All staff and volunteers receive an appropriate induction and are aware of their child safety responsibilities, including reporting obligations.
  4. Supervision and people management have a child safety focus.

Our clients benefit from PsychCheck’s established and verified methodology, derived from our experience in the Royal Commission into Child Protection Systems (SA-2015), forensic psychological risk assessment techniques and established experience working with government and non-government out-of-home care providers.

Adopting a solid screening process is the first line of defence in creating a safe environment and is the minimum expectation for any organisation that serves vulnerable populations. A thorough, consistent screening process may discourage would-be offenders from targeting an organisation. Failure to define and identify risks can endanger those in your care and permanently damage your reputation, financial stability, and trust within the community.

We recommend screening all who have access to vulnerable populations. When evaluating an individual’s level of access, consider :

  • Frequency : How frequently does the individual work around or interact with consumers? Is it a one-time event or every day?
  • Duration : What is the duration of the individual’s interactions? Is it a one-time event or an entire summer?
  • Level of Supervision : Are the individual’s interactions always supervised by another adult, or are they operating alone with a consumer or a small group of consumers?
  • Nature of Relationship : Does the individual merely supervise an area during an event, or are they getting to know individual consumers and families as part of the program?

 Contact us for more details.

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