Little Zak’s Academy is committed to providing a safe environment for children and young people. We understand our responsibilities and statutory duty of care to comply with the Child Safe Standards and to build our capacity as an organisation to prevent and respond to allegations of child abuse.
Our services are committed to implementing and abiding by our Company and Service Philosophies, Child Safe Environment Policy and Child Protection Policy, whilst incorporating the Child Safe Standards (2022), which accentuates our zero tolerance for child abuse and raising awareness about the importance of child safety in our services and the community.
We are dedicated to protecting children from abuse, neglect and promote a child safe environment and maintaining children’s wellbeing. We stand by our mandatory reporting responsibilities to protect children from abuse such as physical, sexual, emotional, psychological and neglect.
We work to ensure there is clear awareness between appropriate and inappropriate conduct and behaviours concerning adults and children ensuring our employees are aware of their legal responsibility. Further to this, children’s interactions with each other are also deemed appropriate.
We value diversity and do not tolerate any discriminatory practices. 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 children with a disability.
We are committed to ongoing professional development for our teams to maintain their knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children safe. Continual and current learning, including the Child Safe Series provided by Office of Guardian is key. We ensure our employees have suitable qualifications for child safety and our human resources department reference check for any concerns or prior reportable conduct incidences.
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.
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.
