At St Mark’s Preschool and Long Day Care Centre we believe that all children are unique and have the right to be protected, to be safe and feel safe. We are committed to providing for the safety and wellbeing of every child in our care. Our approach to preventing harm is embedded in our philosophy, policies and procedures.
Statement of Commitment
St Mark’s Preschool and Long Day Care Centre Statement of
Commitment to Child Safety.
Our Commitment to Children:
We commit to:
- Implementing the 10 Child Safe Standards.
- Providing a safe and supportive environment for all children, including First Nations children, children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds and children with disabilities.
- Ensuring that children are not exposed to any form of harmful conduct, abuse, neglect or grooming.
- Supporting and empowering children to participate in decisions that affect them and raise any issues that concern them.
- Ensuring active supervision of children is provided at all times.
- Ensuring children know who to approach if they feel worried or unsafe or have any child safety concerns, including abuse, neglect or grooming.
- Providing children with an environment where children’s voices are sought, heard, valued and advocated for.
Our Commitment to Parents, Carers, Families and the Wider Community
We commit to:
- Valuing the input of and communicating regularly with, families and carers about our expectations for providing a safe environment for children.
- Sharing information appropriately and lawfully with other organisations where the safety and wellbeing of children is at risk.
- Respecting diversity in cultures and child-rearing practices as long as child safety is paramount.
- Making sure that when family and community members interact with our organisation, they are aware that child safety is everyone’s responsibility, and that their behaviour aligns with our child safe practices.
Our Commitment to Being a Child Safe Organisation:
We commit to:
- Educating everyone involved in our organisation about what it means to be a child safe organisation, so that we can prevent, detect and effectively respond to child abuse.
- Making sure everyone involved in our organisation knows how to appropriately respond to complaints, allegations, disclosures and breaches to our Child Safe Code of Conduct and fostering a culture of openness that supports the safe disclosure of risks of harm to children.
- Reporting suspected abuse, neglect or mistreatment promptly and lawfully to the appropriate authorities.
- Making sure that when family and community members interact with our organisation, they are aware that child safety is everyone’s responsibility, and that their behaviour aligns with our child safe practices.
- Engaging only the most suitable people to work with children and having high-quality supervision and professional development for our staff and volunteers.
- Providing written guidance on appropriate conduct and behaviour towards children.
- Reviewing our policies and procedures at least annually to ensure our staff have clear and relevant guidance on appropriate behaviour with children.
- Welcoming feedback to continuously improve our child safe policies, procedures and practices.
