National child harm prevention charity, ChildSafe, is embarking on an 8-month nationwide tour to empower local organisations, businesses, non-profits, and churches to improve their current child safety systems, in light of the recent Royal Commission’s recommendations.
The ChildSafe team will visit each state and territory, holding information sessions in all major cities and many regional centres, including Darwin, Perth, Hobart, Ballarat, Katherine and Cairns.
More than 30 sessions will be held for local organisations to bring their questions about what they can be doing to improve their safeguards against harm to children, in line with the Royal Commission’s recommendations.
Each of these events will include a presentation from the ChildSafe team, as well as legal and insurance information to assist organisations with a holistic approach to child safety.
The sessions will also provide an open Q&A session with the panel, taking questions from the floor.
The recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse demonstrate the need for 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 includes “child safety is embedded in institutional leadership, governance and culture”; “families and communities are informed and involved”; “staff are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children safe through continual education and training”; and “policies and procedures document how the institution is child safe”.
ChildSafe Spokesperson and Business Development Leader Neil Milton is one of the driving forces behind the national.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
ChildSafe exists to serve organisations and individuals working with children and vulnerable people, with the goal of improving their well-being and safety.
As a children’s Harm Prevention Charity, ChildSafe provides practical tools and training to help community organisations transition from policy to good practice.
In ChildSafe’s 12 years of operation, it has trained over 23,000 people from more than 1,000 organisational sites and has almost 39,000 active users.
For more information about ChildSafe and the information sessions, visit childsafe.org.au.
