SCCE is committed to child safety with the Key Standards underpinning our Child Safety & Quality Management Policy being:
Organisational Culture
- An organisational culture that promotes child safety at all levels including through effective leadership arrangements.
- Screening, supervision, training and other human resources practices that reduce the risk of child abuse by new and existing personnel.
- An open, supportive and professional work environment.
Policies and Procedures
- Policies and procedures that provide clear direction to staff & volunteers in the conduct of their work.
- A code of conduct that establishes clear expectations for appropriate behaviour with children.
- Clear processes for responding to and reporting suspected child abuse.
Problem Resolution
- Resolve student, parent and partner queries promptly, professionally and in a friendly manner.
- Continually engage all stakeholders in meaningful consultation and communication.
- Give our students, parents and partners the utmost confidence in our services and ability to meet their needs.
Compliance Systems & Program Evaluation
- Meeting all statutory and regulatory requirements and agreed customer requirements.
- The continual development of compliance systems that enable staff to easily monitor the compliance status of all aspects of our programs.
- The continual development of program evaluation systems that provide data that can be used for quality improvement purposes.
Partners & Suppliers
- Working only with partners and suppliers who share our commitment to child safety and quality.
- Establishing working practices that are open, honest and professional.
Our Child Safety & Quality Management Policy is applicable to directors, employees, volunteers and partners and to any person or organisation that represents us, as well as all suppliers in the conduct of their activities for and on our behalf. This policy expresses the ongoing commitment by SCCE’s management and staff to understand, regularly review and continually implement these actions.
SCCE’s commitment to safety applies to all exchange environments (inclusive of physical environments such as school and host family locations, and online environments such as social media, chat forums and websites).
Child safety must be considered in the recruitment, screening, selection and management of staff, host families and volunteers in order to reduce risk of child abuse. Details about how to raise a concern about child safety are available in our Reporting Instances or Allegations of Abuse policy.