Safeguarding Children and Young People putting child safe

Safeguarding Children and Young People putting child safe policy into practice DHHS Child Safe Standards 26 th October 2016 Olivia Brown, Governance and Child Safety Manager, YMCA Australia Lisa Giacomelli, Chief Risk Officer, YMCA NSW

Programs, Services and Participations – In 706 communities across 176 local government areas, the YMCA offers a range of programs and services that contribute to healthier and happier communities. Financial stability and sustainability – Turnover in year ending 2015 was $412, 183, 649 (8. 47% increase), with assets (owned and under management of $294, 648, 153 (10% increase) Participation – In 2015 -2016, the YMCA experienced 31. 6 million participations in our programs, services and events.

Child Safety – a holistic risk framework 60% of our participations are children and young people Understanding risk is about understanding the risk to children across all areas of ‘where’ and ‘how’ we work with communities. ‘It’s not just about child care or children’s services’ it’s about aquatics, gymnastics, camping, youth leadership, health and recreation. ‘It’s not just about our service provision staff’ it’s about our Directors and Managers understanding how to build a child safe culture within the organisation.

Child Safety – a holistic risk framework Our Commitment to Safeguarding Children and Young People Safeguarding children is a process of continuous improvement Our governance structures must embed a child safe culture Every child has the right to be safe and protected from harm A process of CULTURAL CHANGE We must have effective controls in place Child abuse in any form is intolerable and must never be ignored Child abuse is a reality of our society and all children are vulnerable Child protection is about extended guardianship

Mitigating Risk – a partnership approach We recognised we required expert help and support • We invested in a partnership with the ACF • Expertise, critical incident support, policy and practice, external accreditation and audit program We changed the way we did things • Every YMCA has a commitment to child protection • However, policies and standards varied, knowledge and understanding varied, people felt uncomfortable talking about child protection issues We implemented standards and education process • Redeveloped and strengthen our Standards, particularly relating to child protection and governance • Implemented a whole of organisation approach, child safe strategies, built knowledge and awareness

Safeguarding Children Program safeguardingchildren. com. au

7 Safeguarding Standards safeguardingchildren. com. au

Those who may abuse children… “focus on children only after the adults responsible for those children have signalled an unwillingness to monitor boundary violations, thereby having communicated that subtle cues of misconduct will be overlooked, ignored, or tolerated. . . ” (Source: van Dam, 2001 cited by van Dam, 2006, p. 3)

YMCA NSW has learnt Policies and Procedures People and Culture Promotion Perennial

Polices don’t protect children, Policies and Procedures people do • Clear and easy to understand • Understanding of responsibilities and expectations • Base level of knowledge • Support by regular training

People and Culture • Polices alone don’t protect children, people do • Embedding child protection in culture • Language is important • Lead from the top

Promotion • Letting people know that your organisation is child safe is key. • Recruitment Process • Families, parents, volunteers • Key documentation

Perennial • Must accept that it is work that is never done • Always room for improvement • Always new staff and clients