Child Safety Responsibilities

College Council is Wesley College's “school governing authority” and “school boarding premises governing authority” for the purposes of Ministerial Order 1359.

College Council is responsible for:

• acquiring and keeping up to date knowledge of child safety issues;
• understanding the nature of the College’s operations and the child safety risks associated with these operations;
• ensuring that the College has appropriate resources to effectively implement its Child Safety Program;
• ensuring that the College has appropriate processes for receiving and considering information regarding child safety issues and is able to respond in a timely way to that information;
• approving and reviewing the College’s Child Safety Program to ensure that it has and implements processes to comply with its child safety legal and regulatory obligations; and
• ensuring that the College has developed and implemented ongoing monitoring processes to verify the provision and use of the resources that have been allocated to manage child safety obligations within the College and evaluate their effectiveness.

College Council has delegated its functions relating to the operational management and implementation of the Child Safety Program to the Principal.

College Council has delegated operational day-to-day management of the College and implementation of the Child Safety Program to the Principal.

The Principal is ultimately responsible, and will be accountable for, taking all practical measures to ensure that:

• the College effectively implements the Child Safety Program, and effectively deploys all available resources for that purpose;
• one or more Child Safety Officers are appointed and trained;
• a strong and sustainable child safe culture is maintained within the College, including by;
  • modelling the Child Safe Code of Conduct, and reinforcing high standards of child safe behaviours between adults and students and between students;
  • facilitating the participation of students, families, staff and other members of the College community in promoting and improving child safety and wellbeing at the College;
  • promoting regular and open discussion of child safety and wellbeing issues within the College community; and
  • facilitating regular professional learning for staff and relevant volunteers and contractors about child safety, cultural safety, student wellbeing and preventing and responding to child safety incidents and concerns;
• an environment is created where child safety incidents, concerns and complaints are readily raised with the College and where no one is discouraged from reporting child safety incidents or concerns to relevant external authorities;
• any child safety incidents or concerns are dealt with professionally and in a timely manner;
• College Council receives regular reports with respect to child safety matters at the College;
• all staff and Direct Contact Contractors, as well as relevant volunteers are aware of the College’s Child Safety Program and trained in implementing the Program’s processes and procedures, and
• the College is complying with its legal and regulatory obligations with respect to child safety and wellbeing.

The Principal may, when appropriate, call on the College Executive Team for advice and support in the management and implementation of the College’s Child Safety Program.

For the purposes of the Reportable Conduct Scheme, the Principal is the “head” of the College and is responsible for reporting and investigating Reportable Allegations under our Reportable Conduct policies and procedures, unless the allegations involve the Principal in which case the Associate to the Principal undertakes these responsibilities.

Each member of the College Executive Team is required to ensure that appropriate resources are made available in their area of operations to allow the College’s Child Safety Program to be effectively implemented within the College, and to support the Principal in the practical application of the College’s child safety strategies, policies, procedures and work systems.

The key responsibilities of College’s Child Safety Officers are;

• having a good working knowledge of the College’s Child Safe Policy and Child Safety Program;
• acting as “Child Safety Champions” and contributing to the embedding of a strong and sustainable child safe culture within the College;
• promoting child safety issues within the College community and responding to general queries with respect to the College’s Child Safety Program;
• being a point of contact for staff, or other members of the College community, raising child safety concerns within the College as appropriate;
• communicating the College’s child safety policies and procedures to stakeholders including students, parents/carers, staff, volunteers and contractors as required;
• responding appropriately to and providing support and assistance for students and their families following child safety incidents, concerns, complaints and disclosures; and
• offering assistance and support when other members of the College community receive or make a disclosure of abuse or other harm.

All staff, including full-time, part-time, casual, teaching and non-teaching staff are required, as a condition of their employment at the College, to comply with our Child Safety Program, including the Child Safe Codes of Conduct, and their legal obligations with respect to the reporting of child safety incidents or concerns and regarding Working With Children Checks.

It is each individual’s responsibility to be aware of key indicators of child abuse and other harm, to be observant, and to raise any and all child safety incidents or concerns with a Child Safety Officer and with external agencies where required.

To meet these obligations, all staff must;

• participate in child safety and wellbeing induction and ongoing training provided by the College;
• always follow the College’s child safety and wellbeing policies and procedures in the Child Safety Program;
• act in accordance with the Child Safety Codes of Conduct;
• identify and raise child safety incidents and concerns in accordance with College procedures;
• ensure students’ views are taken seriously and their voices are heard when making decisions that affect them; and
• implement inclusive practices that respond to the diverse needs of students.

Direct Contact Volunteers

Direct Contact Volunteers are those volunteers that are involved in providing support, guidance and supervision directly to students and could potentially have direct contact with students during the normal course of providing the volunteer service.

The Worker Screening Act 2020 (Vic) defines “direct contact” as any contact between a person and a child (aged under 18) that involves:

• physical contact;
• face to face contact;
• contact by post or other written communication;
• contact by telephone or other oral communication; or
• contact by email or other electronic communication.

Direct Contact Volunteers may have:

• limited supervision by College staff in their role
• significant amounts of 1:1 time with students
• supervisory responsibility for a group of students with only broad and indirect oversight of a College staff member
• full supervisory responsibility for one or more students, such as in a sports coaching role or learning support role.

Examples of Direct Contact Volunteer activities may include volunteers involved in College camps or excursions, coaching sporting teams or assisting in learning activities.

All Direct Contact Volunteers are required to adhere to our Child Safe Policy, and our Child Safety Program.  All Direct Contact Volunteers are required to have a valid Working with Children (WWC) clearance before commencing work at the College.  They must also be aware that they too have legal obligations with respect to the reporting of child abuse.

It is each individual’s responsibility to be aware of key risk indicators of child abuse, to be observant, and to raise any concerns they may have relating to child abuse with one of the College’s Child Safety Officers and/or with external agencies where required.

Indirect Contact Volunteers' Responsibilities

Indirect Contact Volunteers are those volunteers who are involved in providing support and services whilst not directly assisting a specific group of students.

Examples of Indirect Contact Volunteer activities may include assisting with College administrative functions.

All Indirect Contact Volunteers are responsible for contributing to the safety and protection of children in the College environment.

All Indirect Contact Volunteers are required by the College to be familiar with our Child Safe Policy and our Code of Conduct.

All Third Party Contractors engaged by the College are responsible for contributing to the safety and protection of children in the College environment.

Third Party Contractors include, for example, maintenance and building personnel, consultants, casual teachers, tutors, sports coaches and College cleaners.

This also includes music teachers and other extra-curricular teachers and instructors who are engaged by students and their families directly, rather than the College, but have an agreement with the College to use the College’s facilities.

In this Child Safety Program, Third Party Contractors are classified as either “Direct Contact Contractors” or “Indirect Contact Contractors”.

Direct Contact Contractors

Direct Contact Contractors are:

• those who have direct contact with students during the normal course of their work
• those who may be in a position to establish a relationship of trust with a student
• any contractors that the College is legally required to screen.

The Worker Screening Act 2020 (Vic) defines “direct contact” as any contact between a person and a child that involves:

• physical contact;
• face to face contact;
• contact by post or other written communication;
• contact by telephone or other oral communication; or
• contact by email or other electronic communication.

All Direct Contact Contractors are required to adhere to our Child Safe Policy, and our Child Safety Program.  All Direct Contact Contractors are required to have a valid Working with Children (WWC) clearance before commencing work at the College.

Indirect Contact Contractors

These are contractors who have no contact with students as part of their role or undertake roles where students are not reasonably expected to be present, for example, those contractors who complete work during school holidays.

All Third Party Contractors engaged by the College are required by the College to be familiar with our Child Safe Policy and our Code of Conduct.  Where Third Party Contractors are engaged at short notice, making it impractical to undertake normal screening and/or briefing sessions, the College should take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of children at the College while the work is being completed.

The College may include this requirement in the written agreement between it and the Third Party Contractor.

An External Education Provider is any organisation that the College has arranged to deliver a specified course of study that is part of the curriculum, to a student or students enrolled at the College.

The delivery of such a course may take place on College premises or elsewhere.

All External Education Providers engaged by the College are responsible for contributing to the safety and protection of children in the College environment.

All External Education Providers engaged by the College are required by the College to be familiar with our Child Safe Policy and our Code of Conduct.

The College may include this requirement in the written agreement between it and the External Education Provider.