Make sure you meet the Principles of Child Safe Organisations

The Council of Australian Government is expected to endorse the National Principles of Child Safe Organisations by the end of the year. Child Family Community Australia (CFCA) and Emerging Minds are partnering to deliver a webinar to discuss how organisations that work with children can uphold these principles.

The 10 principles outlined aim to foster safe, happy and engaged children. The principles are underpinned by the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and extend on the recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Principle 2 is about creating an organisational culture that supports children and young people to know about child safety and child wellbeing, to be informed of their rights and to participate in building a culture that is safe for them. It is underpinned by Article 12 of the UNCRC which outlines that “children have the right to give their opinion, and for adults to listen and take it seriously” (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018).

CFCA and Emerging Minds are partnering for the second time to deliver a free webinar that will “discuss practices that can contribute to practitioners creating genuine partnerships with children and their families.” CFCA recognises that enabling children and young people to have a genuine input to decisions which affect their lives can be challenging, but equally, that the practice contributes to their safety, supports their mental health and their wellbeing.

In the webinar, experienced practitioners will discuss practices that they have used to create genuine partnerships that support mental health and wellbeing of children, young people in their families. The webinar is for practitioners who work with children or adults and are looking to enhance their skills for engaging with children.

The announcement from CFCA states that the learning outcomes for the webinar include:

• An understanding of the key intentions and purposes of building genuine partnerships with children and families in service provision and the ethics that inform these endeavours;
• An exploration of some ideas and practices to support practitioners to build genuine partnerships with children;
• An introduction to some of useful tools and processes that can be readily implemented by organisations to support practice.

The webinar will take place on 12 December 2018 between 1pm and 2pm AEDT.