Child Safe Policy

Erudite Tuition’s Child Safe Policy is guided by the following principles:

• Recognise children’s rights and interests.
• Build and maintain a child safe culture and environment.
• Provide support and protection to staff and subcontractors who report incidents under this policy.

For the purposes of this policy, the definition of child-related work is being engaged in:

• a)work activities where contact (physical, face-to-face, oral, written or electronic contact) between a staff member and a child would reasonably be expected as a normal part of the work and such contact is not occasional (infrequently or irregularly) and incidental (occurring by chance) to the work; or
• b)work that requires a Working with Children Check (WWCC) in the state or territory jurisdiction in which the work is being undertaken.

All Staff and tutors working with children, or who come in contact with children in the workplace must:

• a)Comply with relevant legislation including WWCC and mandatory reporting requirements.
• b)Professionally introduce themselves to the student(s) and their parent/guardian(s) when meeting for the first time.
• c)Wherever possible, ensure another adult is present when working with or near children.
• d)Not use any computers, mobile phones, video cameras, cameras or social media to exploit or harass children, or access child exploitation material through any medium.
• e)Not use child-related data held by the Commonwealth to exploit or harass children.
• f)Not use language or behaviour towards children that is inappropriate, harassing, physically or emotionally abusive, sexually provocative, demeaning or culturally inappropriate.
• g)Not have any online contact with a child or their family unless necessary, for example emailing parents or students.
• h)Promote the cultural safety, participation and empowerment of children with culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds (for example, by having zero tolerance for discrimination).
• i)Listen and respond to, and where necessary, escalate the views and concerns of children, particularly if they are telling you that they or another child has been abused and/or are worried about their safety or the safety of another child.
• j)Not have contact with children outside of the work environment if that contact has arisen in the course of their duties.
• k)Immediately report to their manager concerns or allegations of child exploitation and abuse and any failure to comply with this policy.
• l)Immediately disclose to the department all charges, convictions and other outcomes of an offence that relate to child exploitation and abuse, including those that occurred before or during association with the Organisation.

All Staff and tutors working with children must not:

• a)Develop relationships with children that could be seen as favouritism (for example, the offering of gifts or special treatment for specific children).
• b)Exhibit behaviours with children which may be construed as unnecessarily physical.
• c)Undertake actions which may be misconstrued as malicious (e.g., isolating children via locking doors or other physical obstructions).
• d)Do things of a personal nature that a child can do for themselves, such as toileting or changing clothes. If such actions are requested by the child, the tutor is to report this to their tutor manager.
• e)Engage in open discussions of a mature or adult nature in the presence of children (for example, personal social activities).

Erudite Tuition will:

• a)Annually review and, if necessary, publish amendments to the Organisation’s Child Safe Policy.
• b)Undertake an annual risk assessment in relation to child safety activities, to identify the level of responsibility for, and contact with, children and young people, evaluate the risk of harm or abuse, and put in place appropriate strategies to manage identified risks. The results of the assessment will inform any revisions to the Child Safe Risk Management Plan.
• c)Maintain a record of relevant child safe complaints.
• d)Where possible, carry out due diligence and record keeping to protect all staff and children. This includes storing recordings for all online lessons after obtaining consent from all recorded parties.

All staff of the Organisation are expected to:

• a)Ensure child safety is considered and implemented throughout any activities carried out for the Organisation.
• b)Complete Child Safety training as directed.
• c)Appropriately report potential risk to their direct manager or tutor manager including any breaches of this policy.
• d)Ensure that they have an up-to-date Working with Children or Vulnerable Persons Check (however described) and comply with the appropriate legislative requirements of the jurisdiction, including reporting a change in circumstances and mandatory reporting requirements.

Should any staff member, community member, child, client or related party raise any concerns, allegations, or complaints related to child safety as discussed in the above subsections, the Organisation will endeavour to ensure that the issue is dealt with in a private, thorough and just manner while adhering to the following principles.

• a)Privacy and confidentiality of all involved parties except disclosures as required by the law.
• b)Escalation and reporting in line with Mandatory Reporting Requirements and industry standard practices.
• c)Impartiality and fairness to all parties including tutors, staff, clients and children.
• d)Anonymised documentation and prevention of future incidents.