Non-school providers - suitable staff and volunteers

About the Standard

A child safe culture is built and maintained by leadership, staff and volunteers that understand and value their role in protecting children from harm.

Non-school providers ensure children are safe by only employing staff that are suitable to work with children. Do this by ensuring recruitment, referee checks and pre-employment screening are focused on child safety. Provide staff and volunteers with induction and training about the child safety policies and procedures they must uphold.

How to comply

The minimum standards for non-school provider registration already require providers to maintain registers of staff and volunteers':

Working with Children clearance or
Victorian Institute of Teaching registration (Victorian Certificate of Education teachers).

Be clear about staff and volunteers that work with children.

If in doubt about whether staff or a volunteer works with children, assume they do.

Ensure relevant staff and volunteers and members of the governing body receive an induction that includes:

the Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy
the Child Safety Code of Conduct
record management, information sharing and reporting obligations
policy and procedures for managing complaints and concerns.

Make sure job advertisements have clear statements about:

the job’s requirements, duties and responsibilities regarding child safety and wellbeing
the job occupant’s essential or relevant qualifications, experience and attributes in relation to child safety and wellbeing.

Ensure all volunteers working with children have a current Working with Children clearance.

Sight, verify and record the person’s Working with Children clearance or equivalent such as a Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) registration.

Ensure there are procedures for ongoing supervision and monitoring of staff and volunteers. This includes evaluating staff for compliance with the Child Safety Code of Conduct and a focus on child safety at performance appraisals.

Examples of compliance

A non-school provider complying with this Standard may:

develop or review existing recruitment procedures to ensure they focus on child safety and require pre-employment screening and references relating to a person’s suitability to work with children
maintain a register of Working with Children and Victorian Institute of Teaching registrations and have procedures for maintaining the currency of the register
provide induction to all new staff, volunteers and members of the governing body, which includes:
- their responsibilities to children
- record keeping, information sharing and their reporting obligations
develop questions about child safety in job interviews. Plan interview questions which aim to:
- uncover applicant’s understanding of child safety
- any red flags
screen volunteers that work with children.

In complying with Child Safe Standard 6, an organisation must, at a minimum, ensure:
- recruitment, including advertising, referee checks and staff and volunteer pre-employment screening, emphasise child safety and wellbeing
- relevant staff and volunteers have current working with children checks or equivalent background checks
- all staff and volunteers receive an appropriate induction and are aware of their responsibilities to children and young people, including record keeping, information sharing and reporting obligations
- ongoing supervision and people management is focused on child safety and wellbeing.
- The Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP)(opens in a new window) — provides support for the Child Safe Standards including a 'Guide for creating a Child Safe Organisation' which has extensive guidance on recruitment and selection processes, screening, supervision, training, development and performance monitoring of staff and volunteers that support child safety.
- The Department of Education provides guidance for schools on selecting and supporting people working with children(opens in a new window).

Education

Updated 13 January 2023