Video transcript
[Megan Mitchell, National Children’s Commissioner] 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 Mitchell, National Children’s Commissioner] 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 Mitchell, National Children’s Commissioner] 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 Mitchell, National Children’s Commissioner] 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 Mitchell, National Children’s Commissioner] 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 Mitchell, National Children’s Commissioner] 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 Mitchell, National Children’s Commissioner] 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 organisations 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 Mitchell, National Children’s Commissioner] 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 Mitchell, National Children’s Commissioner] 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]
