Code Blue

Code Blue is active in the Riverland. Phone Homeless Connect SA on 1800 003 308

Creating a policy

Your child safe environment policy sets out the steps your organisation takes to promote the safety and wellbeing of children and young people. Tailor it to reflect your organisation’s focus and activities. Your policy must provide evidence of how your organisation meets South Australian legislative obligations and align with the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.

Your policy can be a single document. For larger organisations, it can be part of your overall policy/procedure framework.

It is important to involve staff, volunteers and service users (including children and young people) in the development of your policy and Code of Conduct wherever possible.

Your child-safe environments policy must:

show staff, volunteers, parents, guardians, carers, children and young people that your organisation is committed to the safety and wellbeing of children and young people
set out appropriate standards of behaviour and practices for people working and volunteering with children and young people — that is, a Code of Conduct
increase staff and volunteer awareness of the risk of harm to children and young people and the strategies in place to minimise them
build staff and volunteer knowledge of how to identify if a child or young person is, or may be, at risk of harm and respond appropriately (including mandatory reporting where relevant)
be relevant to the size, nature and resources of your organisation.

Developing a policy

All organisations developing child-safe policies and procedures must:

reflect South Australian legislative requirements, and
align their policy with the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.

The South Australian content that must be reflected in your policy/ies are:

Working with Children Check requirements in line with your obligations under the Child Safety (Prohibited Persons) Act 2016
Use of the language of ‘risk of harm ’ instead of ‘abuse and neglect’ to reflect the lower threshold for mandatory reporting in South Australia
Mandatory reporting obligations and the process for making a mandatory report. For example to the Child Abuse Report Line (CARL) on 13 14 78.
Communication of policy to all relevant persons. For example, children, young people, families, paid and unpaid workers
Policy review information and requirements re lodging a new CSEC statement when a child-safe environment policy is updated.

Templates

Policy templates are available for the following types of organisations:

Sole trader with no workers – any service type
Partnership with no workers – any service type
Sole trader/partnership with workers or single organisation – not for service types described below
Club or association – sport, recreation, arts, cultural
Commercial organisation
Dental organisation
Disability organisation – health services
Disability organisation – no health services
Health organisation - including allied health organisation
Local council
Religious or spiritual organisation.

Request a template

Email us at dhs.childsafe@sa.gov.au and and advise us the template that suits your organisation.

You can also use the Guideline to help write your policy. It shows what to include to meet South Australian laws and the National Principles, and you can follow its headings and examples as a template.

Guideline to writing a policy (DOCX 146.9 KB)

Reviewing and updating your policy

Organisations must review their child safe policies and procedures every 5 years (at a minimum) and if updates are made as part of the review, lodge a new CSEC statement with us as per Section 115 of the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017.

There is no need to do this outside of your regular policy review process. For example, if you originally lodged a CSEC statement on 1 January 2023 and your organisation policy review cycle is every 2 years, you will need to review your policy by 1 January 2025.

We strongly suggest you refer to the Guideline to writing a policy (DOCX 146.9 KB) to ensure your updated policy includes all required content.