Commitment to a ‘speak up’ culture
Wesley College is committed to maintaining a safe environment for our Wesley community including students, staff and families supported by a culture of ethical behavioural standards, compliance and good corporate governance.
The College recognises that any genuine commitment to a truly safe environment requires a commitment for open and frank conversations enabling a safe environment to ‘speak up’ and ‘call out’ unacceptable conduct or misconduct and must include an appropriate mechanism whereby students, past students, parents, employees, volunteers, and members of the wider school community
(collectively referred to as “members of the school community”) can report their concerns freely and without fear of repercussion and with confidence that they will be listened to and that an appropriate response and action will be taken.
There are different legislative requirements in relation to Wesley’s responsibilities in protecting individuals making a whistleblower disclosure. As such, Wesley has created two sets of reporting guidelines for its approach to whistleblowing obligations to accommodate the following groups:
- The Employees and Service Providers Guidelines should be used by employees, service providers and contractors; and
- The Students and Parents Guidelines are for parents and students.
Both sets of Guidelines outline the process by which Wesley manages the reporting of actual, planned or suspected ‘wrongdoing’ which cannot be reasonably managed through internal reporting procedures. Wesley has extensive internal reporting procedures for matters relating to a variety of topics, including:
- Child protection (Child Safe Code of Conduct, Child Protection Policy, Child Protection Incident Notification etc.)
- Health & Safety (Workplace Health and Safety Policy)
- Complaints (Complaints Handling Policy and Program)
- Internal Grievances (Code of Conduct, Sexual Harassment, Discrimination and associated policies)
The existing Wesley reporting procedures should be used in the first instance to raise a concern. We recognise some people may not feel comfortable or safe openly reporting an issue under these procedures and in those circumstances, the Whistleblower Protection Policy and Guidelines should be used.
Wesley College Council, the Principal and College Executive are committed to a WesleySAFE program which promotes a ‘speak up’ culture within the school community for:
- Students
- Parents and Carers
- other key stakeholders
Internal reporting
Any student or family member of the school community may raise an issue. A person considering raising an issue should first consider whether the issue may be more appropriately addressed through the College’s existing internal reporting procedures.
Where a person has reservations about raising the issue through internal reporting procedures (for example, in the case that the issue relates to serious misconduct) and/or prefers to remain anonymous, a report should be made through the College’s external and independent WesleySAFE service.
External reporting – introduction to Your Call
Wesley College has contracted Your Call to provide the WesleySAFE reporting solution to receive and manage your report with impartiality and confidentiality. This option allows you to:
- Remain completely anonymous;
- Identify yourself to WesleySAFE only; or
- Identify yourself to both WesleySAFE and the College
The Your Call reporting options include:
- Online at yourcall.com.au/report 24/7
- Telephone 1800 718 514 between 9am – 12am AEST, Mon – Fri, excluding public holidays
When making a report use the organisation ID: WESLEYSAFE
