Our Commitment to Child Safe Standards

Heritage House Childcare & Early Learning is committed to providing a safe environment for children and young people.

We understand our responsibilities and statutory duty of care to implement the National Child Safe Principles and embed the Child Safe Standards to build our capacity as an organisation to prevent and respond to allegations of child abuse.

Our Service is committed to implementing and abiding by our Child Safe Environment Policy, incorporating the Child Safe Standards which accentuates our zero tolerance for child abuse and raising awareness about the importance of child safety in our Service and the community.

We are dedicated to protecting children from abuse and neglect and, promoting a child-safe environment, maintaining children’s well-being. We ensure all staff engaged are suitable to work with children and young people through rigorous employment procedures and Working with Children Checks. We adhere to our comprehensive Child Protection Policy, standing by our mandatory reporting responsibilities to protect children from physical, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse and neglect. Information is shared with other organisations appropriately and lawfully to protect children.

Not only do we know and understand our legal responsibilities of being mandatory reporters at Heritage House we feel it’s more than this. We are committed to keeping children safe and protected ensuring they gain a strong sense of wellbeing and outcomes needed for school and life. This statement is more than meeting compliance requirements, at Heritage House we promote children’s languages and the rights of each child that attends
our services.

We work to ensure there is a clear awareness between appropriate and inappropriate behaviour concerning adults and children. We require clear distinctions between children and employees, volunteers, and the community to maintain children’s safety.

We are dedicated to promoting cultural safety for all children and young people, including First Nations children, children from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds, and to providing a safe and inclusive environment for all children and young people. We believe all children are unique and have the right to be protected.

We value diversity and do not tolerate any discriminatory practices.
We are committed to ongoing professional development for employees to maintain their ability to distinguish and respond to situations of abuse and neglect, ensuring employees are responsive to their responsibilities in keeping children safe.

We work in collaboration with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and have confidence in educating children about their right to be safe. We believe in teaching children what to do if they feel unsafe and encouraging them to express their view and thoughts on matters that directly affect them.

We seek, listen to and value children and young people’s ideas and opinions and as educators we are attuned and responsive to children in a play-based environment with an emergent curriculum.

As educators we listen to and empower children to act on any concerns, they or others may raise which is reflective in our policies and procedures in keeping children safe. We value the input of and communicate regularly with families and carers and review our policies and procedures at least annually to ensure continuous improvement to child safe practices.