Implementing child safe practices

Guidance on Child Safe Standard 11: Documenting child safety practices in early childhood services.

Early Childhood

To comply with Child Safe Standard 11, you must have policies and procedures that:

address all Child Safe Standards
set out the service’s approach, practices and expectations
that staff and volunteers can understand and follow
are shared with staff and families for their input.

You must comply with all elements of Child Safe Standard 11.

Documenting child safety practices

Child Safe Standard 11 focuses on:

documenting child safety expectations, and transforming them into policies and procedures that are:

developed in consultation with staff, families and the community
written in clear language, and
embed child safety at the service.

having clear policies and procedures, which means they can be:

understood and followed by all staff and volunteers
provide consistency across the service
used as a reference in complex situations
shared with families, and
easy to update.

This ensures that:

service leaders champion the Standards
model compliance with child safe policies and procedures, and
implement all 11 Standards.

Child Safe Standard 11

Read the full text of the Standard and its elements.

Policies and procedures that document how services are safe for children

11.1 Policies and procedures address all Child Safe Standards.

11.2 Policies and procedures are documented and easy to understand.

11.3 Best practice models and stakeholder consultation informs the development of policies and procedures.

11.4 Leaders champion and model compliance with policies and procedures.

11.5 Staff and volunteers understand and implement policies and procedures.

Implement Standard 11

Start by reflecting on how your service already documents how it is safe for children.

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Incorporate child safety into service policies, procedures and practices

Document the service’s policies, procedures and statements required by the standards.
Ask families, staff and volunteers if policies and procedures are easy to understand. Make any relevant improvements.
Produce child safety material in different formats. Use child friendly and plain language and translated versions.
Maintain high visibility of child safety and wellbeing.

Discuss child safety at staff and parent meetings and assemblies.
Display posters, write articles, newsletters and staff bulletins on child safety topics.

Train staff and volunteers on service policies and their responsibilities.
Create regular opportunities to reinforce understanding and resolve any misunderstandings.
Identify formal and informal ways to track policy implementation. Analyse whether current processes achieve the outcomes for each standard.
See how staff and volunteers contribute to child safety by using:

supervision
discussions
staff meetings, and
surveys.

Nominate child safety champions to help

put in place
promote and
track the service’s child safe policies and practices.

Consult with staff and families on child safety policies

Ask for feedback when developing and implementing child safety policies.

Feedback types include:

informal feedback. Talk with parents when they pick up their children. Have staff discussions in the lunchroom.
formal feedback, such as meetings
surveys or focus groups, among staff and for families.

Include the feedback you receive in:

policy and procedure reviews, and
processes for raising concerns and handling complaints. More information:

Make policies and procedures easy to access

Publish your child safety policies in an accessible location. For example:

the service’s website, and
inside the service premises (including family day care residences and venues).

Integrate child safety into your induction processes, ongoing education, training and supervision. This applies for all staff and volunteers.
Include copies of your child safety policies in enrolment information.
Raise child safety information in all communications to families.

Make policies easy to understand

Use plain language in written materials.
Use visual aids in discussions with children and families to increase understanding.
Translate materials into the languages used by families at your service. Or organise sessions with an interpreter.
Display easy-to-read posters in various locations around the service.

Nominate a child safety champion

Nominate one or more child safety champions to:

promote
track, and
report on the service’s implementation of its child safety strategies.

Support the child safety champions. Give them time to work on child safety and the power to investigate child safety issues.

Build a culture of ongoing monitoring and review

Highlight child safety in recruitment processes.
Have child-focused complaints policies and procedures.
Review how you keep records of child safety complaints. Make sure you capture all relevant information.
Use a Child Safety Risk Register to manage risks of child abuse and other child safety risks. Or use another register or document to record these risks.

Champion and model compliance with policies and procedures

Set aside regular time for a child safety agenda item for all staff meetings.
Schedule child safety briefings at information sessions
Include a regular child safety item in newsletters to families.

Use best-practice models and stakeholder consultation

Always seek feedback on policies and procedures from staff, families, and volunteers.
Be aware of emerging law changes, research and resources in child safety. Ensure policies and procedures reflect any new developments.

NQF Child Safety Guides

The guides focus on creating, maintaining and improving a child safe culture in early childhood services. They include:

information on each Child Safe Standard
case studies
questions to guide reflection
additional reading and resources.
Download the guides and extra tools

The two NQF Safety Guides include information and practical guidance:

NQF Child Safe Culture Guide
NQF Online Safety Guide. There are also additional resources, including the:
NQF Child Safe Culture – Self-assessment and risk assessment tool
NQF Online Safe Culture – Self-assessment and risk assessment tool
Child Safety incident response template – Responding to complaints, concerns, allegations and disclosures
Reporting and Responding Schemes tool. Download all these resources at Child Safety, together with links to additional ACECQA resources about child safety.

Additional resources

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Understand the Standards

The Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) have information for all types of organisations that must comply with the Child Safe Standards. This includes:

CCYP | Resources and support for the Child Safe Standards
CCYP | Translated resources about the Child Safe Standards Note: information isn’t tailored for early childhood services.

Training

Child protection in early childhood, including Mandatory Reporting online training(opens in a new window).

Possible next steps

Read more about all the Child Safe Standards(opens in a new window) in early childhood services.

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Implementing child safe practices

Early Childhood

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Documenting child safety practices

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Implement Standard 11

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