Child Safe Policy

Purpose

All children at Arregui.Net have a right to feel safe, protected and included. This policy is part of our organisation’s ongoing commitment to protecting the children in our care from harm and abuse. It outlines the child safe practices our organisation has put in place to minimise the risks to child safety; and sets out what is required from staff, including volunteers and others who interact with our organisation, so they know what is expected from them to keep children safe.

Our commitment to child safety

At Arregui.Net we commit to the safety and wellbeing of every child in our care. Please read our Statement of Commitment to Child Safety, which is available on our website Enter your organisation’s website and is displayed Enter physical location of your Statement of Commitment. Our organisation ensures services and activities are inclusive of all children, including children with diverse needs.

Scope and audience for this policy

The policy describes what is required from all staff and volunteers in the organisation when taking part in any activities, services and events that involve children.

Responsibilities for children’s safety

Everyone in our organisation is expected to carry out the requirements specific to their role to keep children safe.

This includes:

upholding our organisation’s commitment to child safety
reading, signing and upholding the behaviours set out in our Child Safe Code of Conduct
meeting requirements across all other child safe policies and procedures, including child safe recruitment practices and risk management
taking part in our regular reviews of our child safe documents
reporting all breaches of our policies or any allegations of child harm or abuse, and meeting all external reporting obligations
completing all child safe training.

Please contact Raul Arregui via email at [email protected] with any of your child-safety related questions or concerns.

Active participation of children, families and communities

All our child-related policies and procedures are easily accessible on our website and offline for everyone who accesses our services and events, including children, parents, carers and community members.
Children, parents and carers from diverse backgrounds and circumstances are encouraged to provide feedback on our child-related policies and procedures, including our Child Safe Code of Conduct that describes acceptable and non-acceptable behaviours and our Child Safe Risk Management Plan.
We provide opportunities for children to provide feedback to our management, board or committee on what makes them feel safe, supported and included.

Definitions of harm and abuse

General definitions

Psychological abuse (also known as emotional abuse): This includes bullying, threatening and abusive language, intimidation, shaming and name-calling, ignoring and isolating a child, and exposure to domestic and family violence.
Physical abuse: This includes physical punishment, such as pushing, shoving, punching, slapping and kicking, resulting in injury, burns, choking or bruising.
Sexual abuse: This includes the sexual touching of a child, grooming, and production, distribution or possession of child abuse material.
Grooming: This is a process where a person manipulates a child or group of children and sometimes those looking after them, including parents, carers, teachers and leaders. They do this to establish a position of ‘trust’ so they can then later sexually abuse the child.
Misconduct: This is inappropriate behaviour that may not be as severe as abuse, but could indicate that abuse is occurring and would often be in breach of an organisation’s Child Safe Code of Conduct. This could include showing a child something inappropriate on a phone, having inappropriate conversations with a child or an adult sitting with a child on their lap.
Lack of appropriate care: This includes not providing adequate and proper supervision, nourishment, clothing, shelter, education or medical care.

What the policy covers

Transporting children: Best practice is to always have two adults travelling with children. If this is not possible, a suitable arrangement must be made between the organisation and the parents of the children. If a child is alone with an adult in a car they must sit on the back seat. Every child should be accounted for at the end of a journey.
Social media use and online communication: Staff and volunteers must never communicate privately with children online or on social media. Any necessary online communication should include the child’s parent or carer in the correspondence.
Photography and the use of images: Photos and videos of children can only be taken with the permission of parents or carers. Parents and carers must also approve any images used on our social media channels. It is unacceptable for staff or volunteers to take photos or videos of children, other than their own, on personal devices, or to share images without permission.
Physical contact: Physical contact with children should be kept to a minimum. Everyone involved in the organisation is expected to have healthy physical boundaries with children.
Gifts and benefit: Staff and volunteers must never give gifts to children, or bestow benefits of any kind to a child, unless they have direct permission from the child’s parents or carers.
Illness and injury management: Injuries must be reported to the first aid officer on duty and first aid administered in a safe space within lines of sight of other adults.

Publication, communication and engagement

Our Child Safe Policy and other child safe documents can be found on our website at https://arregui.net/.

Anyone involved in our community can request a copy via email at any time. We send out regular email reminders to our community about our child safe documents and invite feedback whenever one of our organisation’s child safe documents is up for review.

Related legislation, regulations and standards

Arregui.Net complies with a number of NSW child protection laws and schemes. These include: NSW Child Safe Scheme, Children’s Guardian Act 2019, Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012, Child Protection (Working with Children) Regulation 2013, Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998.

Next review date: 31st January 2026, or earlier if there are any critical incidents.