From February 1st, the new NSW Child Safe Standards will be coming into effect.
The framework is aimed at making a cultural change within organisations, making them safer for children.
We’ve broken down the 10 Standards, and highlighted some key features that you can utilise to make sure you’re adhering to the new framework.
Standard 1 — Child safety is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture
Within the document, Standard 1 states that “Strong leadership, with a culture of transparency and accountability, can deter people who want to harm children.”
This closely relates to National Quality Standard (NQS) QA7 — Leadership & Governance, which OWNA is optimised for.
We all have good intentions when it comes to matters like child safety, but without proper communication channels we can often run the risk of creating a policy or attempting cultural change that is not upheld, as people revert back to their regular way of doing things.
Through increased communication, reflection and accountability, leaders can help to embed child safety into their workplace culture and make a lasting change.
Key Features: Staff Messageboard, Collaboration Boards, Staff Reflection, Meeting Minutes
Standard 2 — Children participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously
The aim of this Standard is to help organisations make child-safe policies that “promote children’s empowerment and participation.”
When we have conversations with so many children and adults in a day, important interactions can be lost. To combat this, OWNA allows notes to be shared within a child’s profile. These can be notes of conversations that a child has had with an educator to make sure their concerns are taken seriously and shared with the wider team.
Key Features: Child’s Profile, Child’s Notes
Standard 3 — Families and communities are informed and involved
Standard 3 encourages organisations to “actively engage with families and communities to support children.”
This is the cornerstone of OWNA, where improved communication between the service and family is paramount.
Helpful links can be added to the parent app to keep families informed externally, whilst posts and important centre informatoin help them to be informed about service-related matters. Where necessary, custom forms, commenting, parent posts and private messaging help families become more involved.
Key Features: Service Messageboard, Custom Forms, Parent Feedback, Helpful Links, Centro Info.
Standard 4 — Equity is upheld and diverse needs are taken into account
Providing children with “opportunities to participate to their full potential” is the aim of Standard 4.
With individual profiles and portfolios, children can be looked at as individuals rather than as part of the collective. This allows educators to tailor settings to help each child participate to their full potential.
Key Features: Child’s Profile, Child’s Portfolio.
Standard 5 — People working with children are suitable and supported
Organisations should “attract, recruit, supervise and support staff to keep children safe,” according to Standard 5. This is particularly important for legal requirements and compliance.
Everyone who interacts with children in a service using OWNA is recorded through signing in and out of the service. We can also record Working With Children’s Checks and any other information required to make sure they are suitable to be placed near children.
Key Features: Attendance Kiosk, Staff Matrix, Staff Inductions
Standard 6 — Processes to respond to complaints of child abuse (or other concerns) are child-focused
This standard aims to place children as “the priority when responding to complaints of abuse.”
To support the aim of Standard 6, policies and procedures should reflect this. Whereas policies in a folder may rarely be looked at, having these documents on the educator app can ensure a consistent, child-focused process whenever a complaint of abuse is made.
Key Features: Policies & Procedures
Standard 7 — Staff are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children safe, through continual education and training
Standard 7 requires that “organisations invest in building staff skills, abilities and confidence.”
The Staff Matrix is a great way to see, at a quick glance, what staff have the right qualifications and skills. Coupled with increased communication and recording of things such as Staff Reflections, leaders can assess their team’s skills, abilities and confidence with ease.
Key Features: Staff Training Matrix, Staff Messageboard, Meeting Minutes, Staff Reflections
Standard 8 — Physical and online environments minimise the opportunity for abuse or other kinds of harm to occur
The notion of reducing risk requires services to identify and minimise “risks to children in physical and online environments.”
Whilst online environments may relate more to schools, it’s important that we assess our service’s physical environment to reduce the risk of harm. When we look at the type of harm, coming mainly from adults, OWNA can help leaders in the service monitor activity through room check-ins and ratios to help identify when a child may be at risk of harm i.e. when legal requirements indicate the presence of another educator is needed.
By remotely monitoring movements of educators and children, we can see from an objective point-of-view how to deal with a risk of harm.
Key Features: Room Check-In, Ratios
Standard 9 — Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is continuously reviewed and improved
Adhering to this Standard requires organisations to “continuously improve their child safe practices.”
Reminders to do so can easily be set up in OWNA, through collaboration board items with due dates, entries in the staff communication diary or in meeting minutes. These tactics will help leaders keep on top of their requirement to review the implementation of Child Safe Standards.
Key Features: Collaboration Board, Meeting Minutes, Staff Communication Diary
Standard 10 — Policies and procedures document how the organisation is child safe
In an organisation that follows Standard 10, “Policies and procedures are championed by leaders, localised, understood by staff and clearly communicated.”
Similar to Standard 7, the accessibility of Policies & Procedures within the educator app make these documents localised no matter where the educator is. And the ease of communication means that they can be championed by leaders, clearly communicated and, if done so, understood by staff.
Key Features: Policies & Procedures, Staff Messageboard
We hope that helps you feel a little bit more confident about being able to implement these new Standards.
For more information on the NSW Child Safe Standards, you can visit the website.
If you’re not using OWNA, get in touch with us to see how we could help make running a childcare service easier than ever!
