Yamma – Hello, and welcome to our presentation about the department’s Child Safe Action Plan. My name is Mitchell Ward, and I am a Child Protection Advisor in the Child Protection policy team in the Inclusion and Wellbeing Directorate, and I’ll be taking you through the Child Safe Action Plan today. Thanks for taking the time to listen to this webinar.

I acknowledge that land was never ceded, and Australia was, is, and always will be Aboriginal land. I acknowledge the Ongoing Custodians of the lands across Australia and pay respect to Elders past and present of the land I live and work in – Awabakal Country, as ongoing teachers of knowledge, song lines and stories. I admire the resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and celebrate their connection to the lands and waters of NSW as one of the longest-living cultures in history.

The purpose of today’s presentation is to:

• Update you on the department’s Child Safe Action Plan;
• Raise awareness of the Child Safe Action Plan; and
• Demonstrate the department’s ongoing commitment to child safety by ensuring that all students are known, valued and cared for.

You may be wondering why we need a Child Safe Action Plan and what is it?

The Child Safe Action Plan, or CSAP for short, meets multiple recommendations from the Royal commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

• The Royal Commission recommended ten Child Safe Standards as a framework for making organisations safer for children.
• The Children’s Guardian Amendment Act was passed in November 2021. This requires child-related organisations to implement the ten Child Safe Standards through their systems, policies and procedures.
• Some NSW Government agencies had to develop a child safe strategy for their child-related services and those they fund or regulate. This is known as the Child Safe Action Plan.

Under the Child Safe Scheme, the department needs to demonstrate our commitment to child safety by having child safe systems, policies and processes based on the Child Safe Standards.

The Child Safe Action Plan is the NSW Department of Education’s strategic plan to implement the Office of the Children’s Guardian’s Child Safe Standards. Education Support Staff are responsible for implementing and monitoring the plan.

Here are the key things you need to know:

• The CSAP is legislative requirement of the department.
• It highlights the work schools do already to meet the Child Safe Standards.
• There are no changes to school workload including reporting.
• The plan aligns with the NSW Plan for Public Education.
• Education Support Staff are responsible for implementing and monitoring the plan.

Let’s look at the Child Safe Standards, the Child Safe Action Plan and how they work together.

The Child Safe Standards is a framework owned and managed by the Office of the Children’s Guardian and is based on extensive research and consultation from the Royal Commission. They are designed to:

• provide clear guidance for organisations on how to create cultures, adopt strategies and act to put the interests of children first to keep them safe from harm.
• drive cultural change to create, maintain and improve child safe practices.

When organisations apply the Standards, they build a culture where abuse of children is prevented, responded to and reported.

Child Safe Action Plans are strategic plans that clearly detail how agencies will influence change across their sectors. CSAPs are intended to promote sector-wide reform, building awareness of child safety and embedding the Child Safe Standards in existing department regulations. across existing regulatory schemes.

The department has developed two four-year Child Safe Actions Plans. The department wide plan which we’ve just covered, and the other is specific to the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector. Both plans were published in Term 4, 2023 and are publicly available on the department website.

If you have questions about the Early Childhood Child Safe Action Plan, you can use the email in the pink box to get into contact with the right people in the department.

There are three key objectives of the Child Safe Action Plan.

1. Build awareness in the community on the importance of child safety in child safe organisations
2. Building capability of child safe organisations to implement the Child Safe Standards,
3. Improve the safety of children by implementing the Child Safe Standards.

These objectives aim to see:

• children and young people in NSW safe in the organisations that they learn, play and live in
• a reduction in child abuse in organisational settings and
• improved responses and reporting of child abuse

Now that we’ve covered the plans and the standards, let’s look at the process that we took and some key information about the Child Safe Action Plan.

The department was one of 7 organisations named as a ‘prescribed agency’ under the Children’s Guardian Act. This Act requires all Prescribed Agencies to develop Child Safe Action Plans.

The department:

• collaborated closely with the Office of the Children’s Guardian and
• collaborated and consulted with both internal and external stakeholders to develop the CSAP.

The OCG approved our Child Safe Action Plan in September 2023, and it was published in November 2023.

Our next phase includes implementation and monitoring of the actions outlined in the CSAP. This will be led by the Teaching, Learning and Student Wellbeing Division in collaboration with other Education Support teams across the department.

The department’s Child Safe Action Plan further strengthens the work that is already happening in NSW schools around child safe practices.

ongoing communication will continue to raise awareness and build capability across the department A dedicated webpage on the Child Protection hub has resources about the Child Safe Standards and the CSAP.

As a child safe organisation, the department is committed to the adoption and implementation of the ten Child Safe Standards and keeping all children and young people safe from harm. This includes embedding a culture that prioritises child safety and the wellbeing of our students in our organisation and work.

Have a question or want to provide feedback? As the final part of this webinar, let’s look at how you can get in touch and share your thoughts.

For more information on things mentioned in this webinar, click on the relevant link on this slide.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the Child Safe Action Plan and what we can do to improve this webinar. Use the QR code on this slide to complete a quick survey and provide your feedback.

You can also give any advice or feedback by emailing the Child Protection mailbox, details are on the screen.

Thank you for your time today. Yaluu – goodbye. Have a great day!