The Child Safety policy relates to all staff, Board of Directors, program participants, volunteers and contractors working at The Push on behalf of the organisation.

• DFFH - Department of Families, Fairness and Housing

• WWCC – Working with Children Check completed by the relevant authority in each state.

• Staff - Employees, including full-time, part-time and casuals as well as volunteers.

• Child - The words ‘child’ and ‘children’ in this guide refer to children and young people up to the age of 18 years. This definition is consistent with the national framework, Creating Safe Environments for Children – Organisations, Employees and Volunteers, the Commission for Children and Young People Act 2012, the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005 and the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005.

• Young People - Any person between the ages of 18 and 25.

• Aboriginal - The term ‘Aboriginal’ in this policy is inclusive of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The Push has obligations to safeguard children and provide an environment that fosters child safety and wellbeing under National and State-based legislation, regulations, principles and guidelines.

National Principles for Child Safe Organisations have been developed by the National Children’s Commissioner to provide a nationally consistent approach to creating organisational cultures that foster child safety and wellbeing. Australian organisations are not legally required to adopt the National Principles, however, are considered best practice for fostering child safety and wellbeing culture and practice.

The 10 National Principles are set out in the ‘Principles and Standards’ section of this policy.

The Push complies with each of these 10 National Principles.

Victorian Child Safe Standards

Victoria has compulsory minimum Child Safe Standards that The Push is required to comply with. Under the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005 (Vic) organisations that exercise care, supervision or authority over children, whether as part of its primary function or not are required to comply with the Victorian Child Safe Standards.

The 11 Child Safety Standards are set out in the ‘Principles and Standards’ section of this policy.

Working With Children Checks

All employees of The Push, board members and volunteers over the age of 18 are required to hold a valid Working with Children Check.

Children as Participants

The Push regularly engages children across a range of roles including, but not limited to, program participant, performers, spokespeople and advisory group members.

Where a Child is engaged for any activity, The Push must obtain a permission form from their appropriate parent and/or guardian.

Each child engaged must receive written correspondence outlining the rights and responsibilities of both the child and The Push with relation to important dates, attendance, recording and media activity, insurance and indemnity.

Each child will receive information on The Push’s Child Safety policy and complaints handling process, written in easy-to-understand language.

Sometimes, The Push brings together children both over and under the age of 18, to participate in our programs. If there are people over the age of 18 working with people under the age of 18, those over the age of 18 must hold valid volunteer Working with Children checks.

Children as Audiences

The Push creates opportunities for children to participate and thrive in Australian music. One way that children can participate is to be part of an audience for a live music event, workshop or networking gathering.

As we value the opportunity for children to engage with their community, events programmed by The Push will be focussed on children but welcome friends, family and the community who may be over 25 years old.

In these cases (and in accordance with Victorian government advice), we do not require audience members over the age of 18 to hold Working with Children checks when engaging as audience members.

Risk assessments should always prioritise the safety and wellbeing of children, with appropriate mitigations in place to ensure that our events are safe spaces for our community, both young and young at heart.

Children with Diverse Needs

The Push is committed to providing equity and inclusion for all children.

We value equity for all children.

To achieve this, we:

• welcome and support participation of all children, including children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, children from low-socio economic backgrounds, children with disability, those who are unable to live at home, LGBTIQ children and First Nations children.

• offer students and families through our enrolment processes the opportunity to provide information about themselves, including any specific needs to participate fully in our programs.

• have zero tolerance of racism and other forms of discrimination.

• deliver programs that reflects the diversity of our students, their interests and cultures.

• strive to reflect the diversity of our community through representation in our staff and Board membership.

Mature Minors and Decision Making

Parents, guardians and carers play an invaluable role in supporting a child’s learning and wellbeing through being actively informed and involved in decisions about a child’s life. However, children under 18 may ask to make decisions on their own behalf without the involvement of their parents or carers. There are a range of reasons why this could be the case, including where a child is living independently, or has a history of family conflict or family violence.

The law recognises that as children become older and more mature, they are more capable of making their own decisions about a wide range of issues including decisions about their education, healthcare and wellbeing. The law recognises that a young person may reach this stage before they turn 18 years old, but there is no specific age when a young person may be sufficiently mature and capable of making their own decision. These young people are referred to as ‘mature minors’.

Where a child under 18 asks to give consent or make a decision on their own behalf instead of their parent, guardian or carer, a team member can decide that the person is capable of making their own decision (i.e. that they are a mature minor for the purpose of making a particular decision).

To be considered a mature minor, The Push team must be satisfied that the child has sufficient maturity, understanding and intelligence to understand the nature and effect of their particular decision. A child can be considered capable of making some decisions but not others.

The Push team will undertake an assessment for each ‘mature minor’ request.

Recording, Marketing and Social Media

The Push is committed to protecting the privacy of children involved in our programs.

The Push does not record, share or publish images, video or any other media depicting children engaged in The Push’s programs activities on any platform without written consent from appropriate parents/guardians, generally through a program permission form.

In the case of a public event and capturing audience images and videos, signage must be present at all events notifying young people and children that the event is being captured and to notify an event staff member if they do not want their image used.

This helps ensure that images are not recorded of children who may be involved in child protection, family court or criminal proceedings.

Where The Push does share or publish imagery depicting children involved in The Push’s activities it is solely for the promotion of The Push’s programs, events or related activities.

Online Environments

The Push engages with children across Australia and relies on online communication channels to deliver elements of our programs.

To maintain a safe online environment, the following two things will be observed:

1. Employees should only engage with children using official channels of The Push.

2. There should always be more than two people involved in an online communication.

The Push has a range of social media channels and email addresses that employees utilise when a program requires online communications.

To ensure that there are always two people in an online communication, different strategies will be required depending on the communication channel.

For example, if you need to email a child individually, please CC in your manager or hello@thepush.com.au. If there is ever the event of only one person attending an online video conference, another employee should be invited to attend the conference. One-to-one communication between an employee and a child should always be avoided.

Personal social media channels will never be used to communicate with a child. Additionally, friend requests or follow requests to personal accounts will be denied.

The Push is a child safe organisation and does not tolerate incidents of child abuse.

If you form a belief on reasonable grounds that a child needs protection from physical injury or sexual abuse, you must report it to a nominated contact person (see below) to refer to the Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services Child Protection Intake Line (1300 664 977) as soon as is practicable.

A belief is a “belief on reasonable grounds” if a reasonable person, doing the same work, would have formed the same belief on those grounds.

If you believe that a child needs protection or believe there has been an incident of child abuse, please contact one of our nominated contacts:

Kate Duncan
CEO
kate@thepush.com.au
03 9380 1277

Craig Rogers
Head of Programs
craig@thepush.com.au
03 9380 1277

These contact people are responsible for referring reports of child abuse made by staff to the Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services Child Protection and will be contacted in the event a staff member becomes barred from child-related employment.

Where required, The Push will also make a report directly to the Police.

Follow any report, The Push will follow the reporting process outlined in the full Child Safety and Wellbeing policy.

This policy will be reviewed on a two-year cycle. In the case of an allegation or occurrence of child abuse, or a breach of this policy, will trigger a review of this policy outside the regular review schedule.

The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) provides accessible and translated resources to help understand the Child Safety requirements. These resources can be found on the DFFH Child Safe website.

National Principle

National Principles for Child Safe Organisations have been developed by the National Children’s Commissioner to provide a nationally consistent approach to creating organisational cultures that foster child safety and wellbeing.

The National Principles are as follows:

1. Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture.

2. Children and young people are informed about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.

3. Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.

4. Equity is upheld and diverse needs respected in policy and practice.

5. People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice.

6. Processes to respond to complaints and concerns are child focused.

7. Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children and young people safe through ongoing education and training.

8. Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed.

9. Implementation of the national child safe principles is regularly reviewed and improved.

10. Policies and procedures document how the organisation is safe for children and young people.

Victorian Standards

Victoria has compulsory minimum Child Safe Standards that The Push is required to comply with.

• Standard 1: Organisations establish a culturally safe environment in which the diverse and unique identities and experiences of Aboriginal children and young people are respected and valued.

• Standard 2: Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture.

• Standard 3: Children and young people are empowered about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.

• Standard 4: Families and communities are informed, and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.

• Standard 5: Equity is upheld and diverse needs respected in policy and practice.

• Standard 6: People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice.

• Standard 7: Processes for complaints and concerns are child focused.

• Standard 8: Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children and young people safe through ongoing education and training.

• Standard 9: Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed.

• Standard 10: Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is regularly reviewed and improved.

• Standard 11: Policies and procedures document how the organisation is safe for children and young people

For more information on the 11 Child Safe Standards, please visit the Commission for Children and Young People website.