At St Joseph’s Early Childhood Service (SJECS), we are unwavering in our commitment to the safety, protection, and well-being of every child in our care. We strive to create inclusive and respectful learning environments where all children are valued, supported, and empowered to reach their full potential.
All aspects of our service are underpinned by the Child Safe Standards, which provide clear guidance to help organisations cultivate a strong child safe culture. These standards ensure that the interests and rights of children are prioritised, and that proactive measures are in place to protect them from harm.
As a Child Safe Organisation, SJECS embeds robust child protection practices across all areas of our service. These practices apply to all educators, staff, students, volunteers, visitors, and any individuals representing SJECS, ensuring a collective responsibility for maintaining a safe and supportive environment for children.
SJECS is committed to Child Safety
To keep children safe, we commit to:
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- Implementing the 10 Child Safe Standards
- Providing a safe and supportive environment for all children
- Making sure that children are not exposed to any form of harmful conduct or abuse
- Empowering children to participate in decisions that affect them and share any concerns they may have
- Making sure children know who to approach if they feel unsafe or have any child safety concerns.
As a child safe organisation, we commit to:
- Educating everyone involved in our organisation about what it means to be a child safe organisation, so that we can prevent, detect and effectively respond to child abuse
- Making sure everyone involved in our organisation knows how to appropriately respond to complaints, allegations, disclosures and breaches to our Child Safe Code of Conduct
- Welcoming feedback to continuously improve our child safe policies, procedures and practices
- Making sure that when family and community members interact with our organisation, they are aware that child safety is everyone’s responsibility, and their behaviour aligns with our child safe practices.
SJECS is committed to Child Safety
- We support and respect all children, as well as our educators, staff, students, and volunteers.
- We have zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns will be treated very seriously and consistently with our robust policies and procedures.
- We have legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we have concerns about a child’s safety, which we follow rigorously.
- SJECS is committed to preventing child abuse and identifying risks early and removing and reducing these risks.
- SJECS has robust human resources and recruitment practices to reduce the risk of child abuse by new and existing educators, staff, students, and volunteers.
- SJECS is committed to regularly training and educating our educators, staff, students, and volunteers on child abuse risks.
- We are committed to the cultural safety of Aboriginal children, the cultural safety of children from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds, and to providing an inclusive and safe environment for children with additional needs.
- We have specific policies and procedures in place that support our educators, staff, students, and volunteers to achieve these commitments.
