Advocating for children and prioritising their safety and wellbeing is paramount at St Luke’s Preschool in Dapto – and a driving force behind the service’s commitment to being a child safe organisation. Child safety is embedded in all aspects of the service’s operations, from leadership and their management of the preschool, to how staff educate and care for children every day.

Creating a child safe culture

St Luke’s Preschool's approach to governance and leadership is guided by the Child Safe Standards. As a result, child safety is at the core of the service’s decision-making, policy and procedure, and culture setting.

“Implementing these Standards should not be an additional burden, but rather an effective way to embed child safety in the attitudes, behaviours and practices of all those working at St Luke’s Preschool,” the team shared.

Supporting staff to understand their role and shared responsibility in preventing and effectively responding to harm to children is a priority for the service, as is building respectful, trusting relationships with children and families.

Together, this enables the St Luke’s team to foster a child safe community where children feel heard, valued and supported to contribute and raise concerns.

Applying a child safe lens to recruitment

Located on Dharawal Country, St Luke’s Preschool has thoughtfully developed its recruitment processes to make sure it attracts and engages safe, skilled and suitable staff.

“Our job application and recruitment processes have a child safe focus, which role models the culture they are applying to step into,” St Luke’s Preschool shared.

The service’s commitment to child safety is made clear from the outset.

“In our advertisements, we mention that we are a child safe organisation to deter anyone applying who may not be a child safe person,” the team said.

Child safe induction

All employees at St Luke’s complete a thorough induction process, which includes reading all service policies and procedures, and understanding the Child Safe Standards.

New staff are also required to complete the SAFE Series Protective Behaviours Program training by the NSW Office of the Children’s Guardian (OCG). Embedded in the service’s program daily, the SAFE Series focuses on age-appropriate ways to build children’s understanding of personal safety, their rights and their confidence to speak up if they feel unsafe.

Prioritising continuous improvement

Creating a culture and budget that values ongoing learning helps ensure your service maintains a child safe environment and best practice, St Luke’s explained. Its leadership is vigilant about ensuring staff have completed current child safe training, including training on mandatory reporting requirements and obligations relevant to NSW.

This year it was their priority for all permanent staff to upgrade their qualification to the latest Child Protection Certificate. Staff complete annual child protection refresher training every April during the school holidays.

Every 2 years, the preschool also organises formal training with the OCG on the Child Safe Standards for its team and invites other preschools and long day care services in the local community to attend.

After staff engage in professional development, service leaders ensure any learnings are applied and embedded within service practice and documentation, such as the Child Safe Code of Conduct and Child Safe Risk Management Plans.

Informal learning opportunities, such as modelling child safe behaviours, also support staff to uplift their child safe capabilities.

“We use consistent reflection opportunities during staff meetings to create a safe environment for staff to explore a range of scenarios to identify and discuss appropriate ways to respond to disclosures,” St Luke’s added.

Driving continuous improvement at an organisational level, St Luke’s management committee has, over the past 2 years, reviewed and reflected as a group on each of the OCG’s Reportable Conduct fact sheets.

The activity aims to ensure the service uses a child safe lens when making organisational decisions and setting the organisational culture, particularly around employment, training and the use of technology.

Effective policies and procedures

St Luke’s policies and procedures have been developed using a child safe lens to ensure service practice aligns with the Child Safe Standards. The preschool has also developed a separate Child Safe Standards Policy to support implementation of the Standards and compliance with the Child Safe Scheme.

The service reviews policy and procedure documents annually to check they are effective, meet current legislative requirements and reflect the latest best practice guidance. Reviews are undertaken earlier if any incidents, disclosures or allegations are made, so the team can reflect on the practices that occurred and proposed improvements.

Children’s experiences and feedback also inform service policy, procedures and practice. “When concerns are raised, we actively listen to the child and let them know how important it was that they shared their concern with us and together we can work out a solution,” St Luke’s shared.

When there is a change to policy or procedure, staff are required to confirm they have reviewed the changes, which is recorded in Staff Policy review documents. Parents are also given 2 weeks’ notice of proposed changes, and the opportunity to review the documents and provide feedback via a password-protected webpage.

Students, volunteers, allied health professionals and those working in partnership with the preschool are also required to read and agree to select policies and procedures that align with their visit.