Child Safe Organisations including Professional Boundaries

Facilitated by Rarni Rothwell

What really makes for a child safe organisation? Put simply, a child safe organisation puts the best interests of children and young people first; it’s where their rights and needs are met. The National Principles for Child Safe Organisations (CSO) collectively show that a child safe organisation is one that creates a culture, adopts strategies and takes action to promote child wellbeing and prevent harm to children and young people.

In this session we will explore:

• Why we need CSO?
• The 10 National Principles for CSO
• NQF Review 2019
• State and Territory Considerations
• Wheel of Child Safety
• Practical Tools
• Professional Boundaries

Following on from shocking media reports like those relating to Operation Tenterfield we reflect on our broader responsibilities for keeping children safe in OSHC. Whilst ‘child protection is everyone’s business’ our role as a mandatory reporters is just one of the ways we ensure children’s safety as OSHC educators. Join us as we look beyond, drawing on the 10 National Principles for CSO for inspiration.

By honing in on these important principles we can focus on our organisations culture and values to implement and embed child-safe practices across every area of our service. This shifts the focus from responsive compliance to proactive values. In this way, being a child safe organisation becomes part of the organisation’s identity, embedded in everything that we do rather than something we have to do. The adoption and application of these national child safe principles in every institution or organisation across Australia, in which children are involved, is a significant milestone in promoting child safety and wellbeing. The children and young people of Australia deserve no less…

This session is suited to OSHC professionals at all career stages, but especially those looking to move from proficient to lead career stage.

NQS: QA2, QA4, QA5, QA7