Mount Alexander Shire Council is required by law to implement the Victorian Child Safe Standards to protect children from harm.
The legislation that created the Child Safe Standards is the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005
The Standards address sexual, physical, emotional and psychological abuse and the serious neglect of children under the age of 18 years.
The eleven Child Safe Standards seek to create and maintain child safe environments.
The Child Safe Standards aim to:
• Promote the safety of children
• Prevent child abuse
• Ensure effective processes are in place to respond to and report all allegations of child abuse
• Encourage children and young people to ‘have a say’ especially on issues that are important to them or about decisions that affect their lives
The Child Safe Standards work by:
• Driving change in organisational culture - embedding child safety in everyday thinking and practice
• Providing a minimum standard of child safety across all organisations
• Highlighting that we all have a role to keep children safe from abuse
Further information about the Victorian Child Safe Standards, including translated resources, can be found on the Commission for Children and Young People at www.ccyp.vic.gov.au.