Child Safe Standard 2 - Organisational leadership, governance and culture

Standard 2

Voice Over: Standard 2 - Organisational leadership, governance and culture.

Displayed on screen: (Standard 2 - Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture.)

Jacinda de Witts, Deputy Secretary, Regulation, Risk, Integrity and Legal Division speaking to camera: Organisations that provide a service for children have a responsibility under the Child Safe Standards to take child safety seriously and does not tolerate child abuse or harm. This can only happen with good leadership. Leaders should develop strategies that focus on identifying, preventing and reducing child safety risks. This includes ensuring effective child safe codes of conduct which staff comply with.

Voice Over (and displayed on screen): To comply with Standard 2 your organisation must meet the following six minimum requirements: 

• Your organisation makes a public commitment to child safety
• A child safe culture is championed and modelled at all levels
• Implementation of the Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy (or equivalent) is facilitated across the organisation.
• A Code of Conduct provides guidelines for staff and volunteers on expected behaviours with children.
• Risk management strategies focus on preventing, identifying and mitigating risks to children.
• Staff and volunteers understand their obligations on information sharing and record keeping.

Jacinda de Witts, Deputy Secretary, Regulation, Risk, Integrity and Legal Division speaking to camera: To know if your organisation is meeting Standard 2, ask yourself these questions:

• Have the leaders in your organisation made a commitment to keep children safe?
• Would staff, service users and families know how the leadership team works to keep children safe?
• Does the organisation continue to work and improve on creating and maintaining a child safe culture?
• And how do leaders in your organisation model their expectations of child safe behaviour?

Voice Over (and displayed on screen): For more information on Child Safe Standards visit the department’s website.