Childsafe tool to help organisations protect children

MEDIA RELEASE
22 September 2011

Childsafe tool to help organisations protect children

“Organisations who work with children should stop talking and get serious about keeping these children safe,” says Anthea Simcock, Chief Executive of Child Matters. “There are still many child focused agencies who need to improve practices and procedures around protecting children.”

“We know that many organisations are concerned about how to protect children, but too many of the simple things are still not being done such as making sure the environment the children spend time in is safe and staff are appropriately trained to deal with all their needs,” she says.

Child Matters - New Zealand’s only charitable trust solely focused on child abuse prevention - launched the Childsafe Guide for organisations today. It has been designed to help organisations working in the social services, education, sport and health sectors who are involved with children.

“This Guide is a free, online tool to help these agencies assess how Childsafe their organisations are. The website then steps them through how to develop policies and practices to ensure they have the ability to keep children safe from abuse.

“We have been supported by Trust Waikato to create this online Childsafe Guide and in the future I hope it will provide a benchmark for organisations to demonstrate their commitment to keeping children safe,” says Mrs Simcock.

“Protecting children involves more than simply reporting child abuse, and the guide, which is relevant to schools, sports clubs, churches and all groups involved with children, offers step by step advice about ensuring that the organisation employs Safe Staff, follows Safe Practices, and has appropriately Trained Staff”, she says.

“With the development of the Childsafe Guide, there’s no longer an excuse for being uneducated, uninformed and unprepared around what action people need to take to keep children safe while under their care,” explains Mrs Simcock.

The Childsafe Guide has a range of ‘topic sheets’ on such things as recruiting and vetting new staff, bullying, cybersafety, responding to the signs of child abuse, and more.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett commented that "This tool has real value; Child Matters has once again done a great job of providing clear, practical guidelines to help communities protect children."

My ultimate goal is that Child Matters can award organisations an accreditation - a ‘Childsafe tick’ - when they have completed all the steps to become child safe and can provide evidence of this,” says Mrs Simcock.

’As a parent or caregiver, you would be able to ask your GP, kindy or soccer club, for example, if they have the ‘Childsafe tick’ and be certain that they have appropriate Childsafe policies in place to protect your child while under their care.

“Launching our Childsafe Guide is one of the many ways Child Matters supports and inspires communities in protecting New Zealand children,” she says.

Child Matters’ Childsafe Guide can be found at www.childsafeguide.org.nz or via the Child Matters website.

-ENDS-

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