Commissioner’s commitment to protecting children continues
The office of the Commissioner for Children and Young People held its 23rd Child Safe Organisations WA seminar today during National Child Protection Week.
The Commissioner Colin Pettit said more than 500 staff of agencies working with WA children and young people will have participated in this training by the end of the 2017, which establishes a strong foundation for improving the child safety focus of organisations across the State.
“National Child Protection Week is a reminder that all children and young people should feel safe and respected, wherever they are,” the Commissioner said.
“It is the responsibility of every WA organisation to set the highest level of child safety, and continually make an effort to improve its standards.
“This means children and young people not only know they can speak out and will be listened to, but that they will be taken seriously and their concerns acted upon in a meaningful way.”
“Child safety doesn’t just happen through well-written policies and this why the Child Safe Organisations WA program includes a focus on agencies embedding child safety within an organisation’s culture, which is understood and accepted by everyone who works there,” the Commissioner said.
In addition to the office’s Child Safe Organisations WA program, the Commissioner said his office is closely monitoring the outcomes of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and will soon commence a project to consider organisational responses to harmful sexual behaviours of children and young people.