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Non-school providers - suitable staff and volunteers

People working with children are suitable and supported to understand child safety and wellbeing.

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.

Updated