CHILD SAFEGUARDING

Springfield Lakes Netball Club (SLNC) is committed to creating a safe, inclusive and supportive environment for all children and young people involved in our club. We are committed to implementing Queensland’s Child Safe Standards by embedding child safety and wellbeing in our leadership and culture, listening to and respecting the voices of children, partnering with families and our community, upholding equity and diversity, and maintaining safe physical and online environments.

We support clear, child-focused pathways for raising and responding to concerns and complaints, provide guidance and training for volunteers and members, and regularly review our policies and practices as part of continuous improvement. SLNC also aligns with Netball Australia’s safeguarding and member protection policies to help ensure everyone can enjoy netball in a safe and respectful setting.

Child Safeguarding policies and procedures at SLNC are subject to continuous review and improvement.

INTRODUCTION TO THE CHILD SAFE STANDARDS

The 10 Child Safe Standards are one of two components of Queensland’s Child Safe Organisation system and must be implemented by businesses or organisations working with or providing spaces and facilities for anyone aged 17 years and under.

Around 40,000 organisations will need to show they are child safe through meeting these Standards. This includes small volunteer and community groups and sole traders, through to large and well-established organisations, such as hospitals, schools and churches.

Compliance has already commenced for some sectors, with the law taking effect in stages. Visit the Queensland Family & Child Commission webpage for more information.

Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in the entity’s organisational leadership, governance and culture.

Every organisation should be a model of children’s safety and wellbeing. Leaders set the tone and example by embedding children’s safety and wellbeing into policies, procedures and culture and ensuring these are followed and reviewed. Leaders also ensure there is a healthy reporting culture and they support people to report concerns, take reports seriously and act to investigate and make improvements to ensure children’s safety and wellbeing is protected.

The aim is to create an environment where everyone in the organisation understands their role and responsibilities to protect children, and that they act accordingly. All members of an organisation are accountable for providing a safe environment for every child.

Children are informed about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.

Creating spaces where children are knowledgeable about their rights and confident in their ability to express concerns, provide input, and participate in meaningful ways is an important aspect of being child safe.

The adults who support children in your organisation need to understand and respect children’s agency and take steps to ensure they are treated as competent and capable. This means adults tailor their approach based on the age, developmental stage, culture and any other specific needs of the child. Decision-making processes should centre on the perspectives of children and demonstrate genuine respect for their views.

Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.

Child safety and wellbeing are strengthened when families and communities are informed, engaged and are active partners in promoting safe environments. Organisations should foster strong, transparent relationships with families and communities as valued contributors to the shared responsibility of protecting children. Open communication, trust and mutual respect are the foundation for collaborative and inclusive child-safe practices.

Equity is upheld and diverse needs respected in policy and practice.

Upholding equity and diversity helps build environments where every child feels valued, respected, supported and culturally safe. Equity should be reflected in every policy, decision and action, to ensure that all children have fair access to a safe, nurturing environment and healthy future. Equity requires that the unique needs of every child are met. This includes children from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, children who are refugees or asylum seekers, children with disability and children who identify as LGBTIQA+.

Challenge yourself to go beyond compliance and actively ensure that the unique needs of children from diverse cultures, backgrounds, abilities and identities are recognised, respected and met.

People working with children are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice.

The suitability and capability of staff and volunteers is pivotal to creating safe environments for children. Organisations must recruit and maintain a workforce of individuals who are not only qualified but are deeply committed to upholding children’s safety and wellbeing. Staff and volunteers should be supported with ongoing professional development and clear guidance, empowering them to model safe and respectful practices in every interaction.

Processes to respond to complaints and concerns are child focused.

Effective, child-focused complaint and concern processes are essential for protecting children. Children, families, carers, staff and volunteers involved in your business or organisation should feel safe and supported to speak up about concerns. Complaints must be managed in a timely, transparent, trauma-informed and respectful way, with the child’s wellbeing and safety at the centre of every response.

Staff and volunteers of the entity are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and awareness to keep children safe through ongoing education and training.

Staff and volunteers are the backbone of child safe organisations.

It’s important that staff and volunteers are not only screened and qualified/trained, but also receive ongoing education, training, mentoring to build the knowledge, skills and awareness required to proactively safeguard children in all interactions. Training should be tailored to specific roles and equip your staff and volunteers to identify risks or harm, respond appropriately, and create environments where children feel safe and supported.

Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing and minimise the opportunity for children to be harmed.

Creating safe environments, both physical and online, is a cornerstone of children’s safety and wellbeing.

Physical and online environments must prioritise the physical, social, spiritual, emotional, and cultural safety and wellbeing of all children. This requires a holistic, strengths-based approach to safety and wellbeing. It includes designing physical spaces to minimise risks and maintaining online platforms that are safe, well-monitored, and aligned with the Child Safe Standards.

Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is regularly reviewed and improved.

Ensuring children’s safety is a core priority means building an organisational culture that is responsive to challenges and new situations and is willing to learn and change.

Continuous improvement is a dynamic process where constant reflection on what is working and where challenges or gaps exist is prioritised. A child safe organisation ensures that progress and outcomes are set, measured and monitored based on a range of different success indicators, not just the normalised standards and methods. Continuous quality improvement processes contribute to a culture of accountability and a commitment to ongoing quality assurance and elevated practices.

Policies and procedures document how your organisation is safe for children.

Staff and volunteers at all levels of your organisation need to understand their individual responsibility to ensure transparency of all aspects of service delivery in a child safe organisation.

This means your organisation’s policies and procedures should clearly prioritise the safety and wellbeing of children and adequately equip staff and volunteers with a working knowledge to identify and prevent harm.

The Universal Principle is about creating environments that make Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children feel culturally safe, which broadly means welcome, safe, valued, included and respected.

In culturally safe organisations:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples define cultural safety and how it is measured
workers develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes to recognise and address biases and stereotypes, and
systems are transformed so they work better for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

CHILD SAFEGUARDING - STORY OF SPORT

Sports Integrity Australia - Safeguarding for sporting associations and clubs

Sporting associations and clubs must make sure their members feel safe and protected from abuse, harm and neglect in sport.

All sporting organisations should have practices and processes in place to ensure they are providing a safe and inclusive environment for children and young people participating in their sport.

Sporting organisations can show they are committed to protecting or 'safeguarding' their members by having:

fair and clear ways to handle complaints
clear rules and policies to keep people safe
risks managed in a consistent and safe way
processes and policies regularly reviewed and improved
leaders who set the tone for safety in sport and lead by example
volunteers and employees carefully chosen and properly trained.

Sports Integrity Australia's eLearning platform offers more than 25 free online courses about sport integrity topics.

Sports Integrity Australia - Safeguarding for children and young people

When you play sport, you should feel safe and included at all times. Your sport should be a fun and safe place for you. If something makes you feel scared, hurt or uncomfortable, that’s not okay. Everyone has a role to keep you safe, like coaches, parents and helpers.

Your sport follows special rules called the Children and Young People Safeguarding Policy. These rules help make sure sport is safe and fair for everyone. These rules explain:

How people should treat you.
What behaviour is okay and what’s not okay.
What you can do if someone hurts you or makes you feel unsafe.

How can adults keep you safe?

People like your parents, carers, coaches and volunteers all have a job to make sure you’re safe and respected when you play sport. They must:

Treat you with respect
Treat you fairly
Keep you safe and not hurt you in any way
Respect your privacy
Listen to you
Follow the rules of their jobs at all times
Support you and protect you from harm
Not treat you badly because you told someone about being hurt
Be allowed to work with children and young people.

There are many other things that might make you feel upset, scared or embarrassed that are not mentioned here.

You have a right to tell someone about anything that makes you feel unsafe or upset.

You have rights that help keep you safe and happy:

You have the right to feel safe. No one should hurt you in any way.
You have the right to privacy. Your body belongs to you. No one should touch you or take photos that make you feel uncomfortable.
You have the right to be treated fairly. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from, or what you can do – everyone should be treated with respect.
You have the right to speak up. You can share your thoughts and feelings, and adults should listen and take you seriously.

You can learn more about your rights on the Children's Rights Queensland website.

Your rights come with responsibilities too.

That means:

You should respect other people’s rights.
You shouldn’t hurt others or stop them from feeling safe and happy.
Following the set of rules your sport has that says what kinds of behaviour is and isn't allowed in sport.

If you ever feel unsafe or someone isn’t respecting your rights, tell an adult you trust – like a coach, parent, carer or teacher.

If they don’t help, keep telling someone until you feel safe!

POLICIES LINKED TO CHILD SAFEGUARDING

Springfield Lakes Netball Club has adopted the following policies from Netball Australia:

Netball Australia Member Protection Policy
Netball Australia Safeguarding Children & Young People Policy
Netball Australia Netball Integrity Policy Framework, Conduct and Disciplinary Policy

Springfield Lakes Netball Club has in place the following club policies:

SLNC-PO-001 Code of Conduct
SLNC-PO-005 Digital Communications Policy
SLNC-PO-006 Photography Policy (coming soon)
SLNC Child Protection Officer Position Description (coming soon)

You will find a full list of all relevant Netball Queensland, WDNA and SLNC policies, forms and position descriptions on our website's Policies page.

ACCESS SUPPORT SERVICES FOR KIDS

If you think a child is in immediate danger, call Triple Zero (000) or your local police. If you prefer to report anonymously, you can visit Crime Stoppers or call their toll-free number.

000

Emergency - Police, Fire, Ambulance

1800 333 000

Crime Stoppers Queensland is a registered charity and community volunteer organisation with a vision of a safer community, a safer Australia. Report non-urgent crime and suspicious activity to Crime Stoppers via this site.

3155 3456

White Cloud Foundation was founded in 2011 to change the way mental health services are delivered in Australia. Our goal is to remove the barriers to accessing treatment and support and make it as easy as possible to get the right help when you need it, from wherever you live.

1300 224 636

Beyond Blue is here to help all people in Australia achieve their best possible mental health.

headspace is Australia’s National Youth Mental Health Foundation, providing early intervention mental health services to 12-25 year old.

13 11 14

Lifeline is a national charity providing all Australians experiencing emotional distress with access to 24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention services.

1300 642 255

Queensland Health's Mental Health Access Line confidential mental health telephone triage service that provides the first point of contact to public mental health services to Queenslanders.

13 92 76

13YARN Aboriginal or Torres Straight Islander Crisis Support - if you, or someone you know, are feeling worried or no good, we encourage you to connect with 13YARN on 13 92 76 (24 hours/7 days) and talk with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Crisis Supporter.

1800 55 1800

Kids Helpline is Australia’s only free (even from a mobile), confidential 24/7 online and phone counselling service for young people aged 5 to 25. Qualified counsellors at Kids Helpline are available anytime and for any reason.