[Megan] Across Australia kids want to grow and
learn in safe spaces. [Girl] My favourite thing at school is playing with my friends. [Boy] My
coach is like my second dad [Girl] I get to draw pictures and make stuff. [Scout] I love being in
the scouts because of the kind of people that it produces. [Boy] All of my friends are
pretty much through sport. [School child] I have a lot of trust in my teacher. [Megan] And parents want
to know they're in good hands.
[Mother 1] Having that peace of mind and knowing
that their child is safe is absolutely everything. [Mother 2] It's like basically the most
important thing to know that your children are safe when you're not with
them. [Father 1] My son's safety when I am not at the ground, if I'm travelling for work
is paramount. [Megan] My name is Megan Mitchell and I'm the National Children's
Commissioner my role is to promote the rights and interests of all children
across Australia and part of that means keeping them safe. As a community we need
to make sure the rights of children are upheld. But the Royal Commission found
that organisations engaging with children like schools, clubs and youth
groups weren't doing enough to protect them. The Australian Government is
committed to ensuring that all Australian children are kept safe and
well to help achieve this the Commonwealth, State and Territory
governments together with the Australian Human Rights Commission have been
working to establish a nationally consistent approach to child safety and
well-being in organisations. As a result a set of national principles have been
endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments to help organisations build
safe environments and cultures for children.
The National Principles are
closely aligned with the 10 Child Safe Standards recommended by the Royal
Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, with a broader
scope that goes beyond sexual abuse and covers other forms of harm to children.
The Principles apply to organisations of all shapes and sizes across Australia
such as: early childhood services, schools, out-of-home care, sports clubs,
churches, youth groups, health services and youth detention centres. The ten
principles cover all aspects of what the organisations need to do to keep
children safe, and they cover a range of important areas.
So let's take a closer
look at these ten important measures. The first two principles focus on getting
your organisational culture right – this includes: governance and leadership and
young people learning about their rights and being active participants. [Boy Scout] A lot of
these points are making sure youth members are listened to and also how do
they report if they feel unsafe. [Girl] If something goes wrong, and I don't have anyone to tell, then it's just going to keep on bothering me. [Megan] Principles three and four are about the
role of families and communities in creating child safe spaces and the
importance of respecting equity and diversity. [Coach] It's extremely important for
the whole community to be involved in ensuring that there's safety in all
sporting codes and all community events. [Father 2] If we don't respect and embrace
diversity, we're setting our children to fail in the future. [Megan] Principles 5, 6 & 7
look at how organisations recruit the right people, handle complaints in the
best possible way, and ensure that staff have the ongoing training they need. [Coach 2] All
of our coaches and managers have working with children checks.
[Teacher] It's also really
important for us to follow policies and procedure that over-arch everything we
do in child care [Teacher] Making sure that everybody understands exactly what's
required of them and exactly what they need to do should a report come across
their desk. [Megan] Principle Eight is about creating safe spaces for children in
both physical and online environments. [Mother] Organisations need to be really, really
careful that they're using that technology in a safe and responsible way
and also that they're educating children about how to use it responsibly themselves.
[Megan] Online safety is critical — the Australian government recognises this through the
Office of the e-Safety Commissioner. You can find more information, tools and
resources on the website of the e-Safety Commissioner.
The final two principles focus on making sure that organizations have child safe
policies and procedures in place and that they review these on a regular
basis. [Scout] The review process for us like is important it's a foundation of the way
we do scouting. It's a 'plan, do and review', so we're always reviewing. [Teacher] So we can
follow the policies and procedures in place if an incident does occur.
[Megan] By
implementing these principles, organisations such as yours will
demonstrate their leadership and commitment to child safety and
well-being. Organisations that implement the principles will become organisations
of choice because children, families and communities will trust that they will
provide safe environments for our kids. The National Office for Child Safety was
established as part of the Australian Government's response to the Royal
Commission. The national office will work with government and organisations to
promote and support the implementation of the National Principles and at the
Australian Human Rights Commission we've developed a range of practical tools and
resources to help organisations put the National Principles into action.
You can
find these on the child safe organisations website. As Australia's
Children's Commissioner I am just so proud that we now have a national
benchmark for keeping kids safe from harm. [Teacher] Safeguarding children and young people is everybody's business. [Coach] Share this video
with other clubs, other community groups [Teacher] So that we can make everywhere safe for
children. [Scout] Keep Scouts safe! [Boy] Keep your club safe.
[Kids] (yelling) Keep us safe! [Megan] For more information visit the
National Office for Child Safety website, Contact the Child Rights team at the
Australian Human Rights Commission, subscribe for updates or visit the Child
Safe Organisations website. This video was produced with funding from the
Australian Government and the National Office for Child Safety. [ends].
