CHILD SAFE AUSTRALIA

ChildSafe Limited exists to serve organisations working with children and young people, with the goal of improved child safety. The funds we receive from our resources and web system are applied solely to this goal.

ChildSafe resources are suitable for all types of community organisations. We are an initiative of Scripture Union Australia, who conceived and developed ChildSafe as an internal project before creating ChildSafe Limited as a separate entity in 2007. ChildSafe actively partner with many church organisations, churches, schools and other community organisations.

Why set up ChildSafe?
Children and young people deserve the best endeavours of an organisation towards their safety. This involves more than good intentions, or the assumption that harmful incidents will not happen. Organisations working with children are under increased community scrutiny in relation to screening workers, risk management and the quality of care they offer.

Many organisations do not currently have adequate systems in place to ensure that sound policies are translated into practice. Governments are increasingly legislating standards and requirements for organisations working with children. The availability and affordability of insurance is an issue for community organisations working with children. Insurers are rightly expecting organisations to have effective risk management processes in place to minimise claims.

Our Structure:
ChildSafe Limited is a Public Company limited by guarantee. The company has a sole member, Scripture Union Australia. We have applied to and been entered on the Register of Harm Prevention Charitable Institutions, maintained by the Australian Government Department of Social Services. We are endorsed as a Deductible Gift Recipient, for funds provided to the ChildSafe Foundation Fund.

Governance functions are fulfilled by our Board of Directors, who are drawn from various states of Australia. The CEO manages operational affairs, with Project Officer staff and a Webmaster assisting clients. We engage suitable contractors to assist us with financial management, compliance, professional and legal advice, web development, and writing and production for our resources.

Regional Partners:
In New Zealand, the ChildSafe materials, systems and service are provided by the SafeHere Trust (established by Scripture Union New Zealand). Click here for the New Zealand site.

Our Objectives:
The objective of ChildSafe Limited, as defined in its constitution, is...
"to be a harm prevention charity for the promotion of the prevention and control of behaviour that is harmful or abusive to children and young people when in the care of an organisation."

To achieve this objective, our constitution specifies that ChildSafe Limited will:

Resource and train the staff and volunteers of organisations in the implementation of quality safety management at the core of their organisation. Facilitate collaboration between organisations in the sharing of systems for the safety and care of children and young people, reducing duplication of effort and creating more efficient use of community resources.

Apart from the Safety Management Online portal, ChildSafe Australia has:

Note: CCCVAT covers CSA's annual licence fee for all CCCAust churches in Australia using its Safety Management Online application [SMO]. In addition to the annual licence fee, CSA also charge an annual active user fee ie: those actively engaged in children's ministry and recorded in the system. [It is therefore important you archive all non-active users to avoid any unnecessary active user fees]. ​CCCVaT covers the annual active user fees for all churches listed on its website in Victoria and members churches listed on its website in Tasmanian.

CCCVAT will invoice other users each year for the annual user fee and number of active users on each user's site.

DISCLAIMER: CCCVaT MINISTITIES LTD [CCCVAT] is the national licensee for Child Safe Australia's Safety Management Online [SMO] program. Churches that elect to use the SMO are not accountable to CCCVAT, CCCAust and the association's representative state bodies, and CCCVAT, CCCAust and the association's representative state bodies are not responsible for the conduct of active and archived users.

The sole role of CCCVaT and the association's representative state bodies, is to appoint a Coordinator for each approved user, to enable the Coordinator to populate and appoint Team Leaders and Team Members in the user's SMO. CCCVaT, CCCAust or the representative state bodies do not manage other active or archived users on the SMO.

The applicant will need to reassign the responsibilities expected of the Risk Management Officer [RMO], under the Child Safe Australia's SMO management protocols, to the Coordinator. 

CCCVaT, CCCAust and the association's representative state bodies' will not act or report on any failure to manage the SMO in accordance with it's protocols, legal requirements, capabilities of the SMO and the organisation's expectations, and accordingly accept no responsibility for the management of any incidents that may occur, or failure to report incidents to the relevant authorities.

CCCVaT, CCCAust and the association's representative state bodies, accept no responsibility or liability for the functionality of the SMO, users of the SMO do so at their own risk.