Keep Children Safe in Organisations

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People and Culture

Check whether potential employees have any sexual conviction record.
Understand the candidate’s attitudes and capabilities towards child safeguarding during recruitment to determine whether he / she is suitable to work around children.
Provide child safeguarding training and support to employees, volunteers and partners.
Designate at least one staff member to be responsible for “child safeguarding” work in order to promote the implementation of the policy within the organisation.
Create an environment and culture in the organisation where child safeguarding issues could be openly discussed.

Plan International Hong Kong has conducted the first-ever Situation Analysis Research on Child Safeguarding Policy (CSP) in the sports sector. With 20 proposed child safeguarding policy standards developed with comprehensive literature review, this study attempts to benchmark the implementation of child safeguarding policy in local sports organisations against the global standards. It also aims at analysing the factors influencing the level of CSP implementation, including the understanding on child abuse, attitudes towards CSP and if any barriers exist which affect the level of CSP implementation. For more details, please see the executive summary and research summary.

If you are interested in reading the full research report, please kindly contact us.

3. Has your organisation established a Code of Conduct to protect children?

Clear code of conduct allows staff to identify appropriate and inappropriate behaviors towards children and protect the safety of children. For example, requiring staff to avoid staying alone with children for a certain period of time and forbidding them to engage in any sexual relations with children can prevent children from falling victim into sexual abuse in the organisation. Setting up the rule of ‘no abusive or derogatory language’ can also help prevent children from suffering psychological abuse.

7.How will the organisation handle complaints about suspected child abuse?

The usual and standard reply of many institutions would be: “The organisation will handle and follow-up the complaints of suspected child abuse seriously.” However, to understand whether child safety is really the top priority of the institution, you may ask the following questions:

Does the organisation have a whistleblowing mechanism, allowing the staff to report suspected child abuse in a way that they will not need to worry about retribution or discrimination at work?
After receiving the complaint of suspected child abuse, will the organisation clearly record and document the content of the incident or complaint?
Does the organisation clearly state the time scale for case conclusion of suspected child abuse? If so, how long?
If a staff member is alleged to have abused children in the organisation, how will the organisation ensure that the involved staff member does not make contact with children until the end of investigation?

Policy

Commit to child safeguarding and state what measures are to be taken to guarantee children’s safety.
Establish a clear code of conduct describing appropriate and inappropriate behaviors towards children.
Keep the policy public and accessible to the public, including children and parents.
Ensure the policy applies to all employees, volunteers and related partners by signing an acknowledgement

Procedure

Provide clear guidelines to employees, parents and children on complaint procedures
Clearly record all incidents, allegations and complaints about children’s injuries
Establish a clear time scale for complaint case conclusion and ensure children are well-protected during investigation
Establish a whistleblowing policy to allow employees to report suspected child abuse incidents in the organisation without fear of retribution or discrimination.
Identify, manage and minimise potential risks of children being harmed in daily operation
Respect and protect children’s privacy, and seek children and parents’ consent before disclosing their personal information or pictures.

Accountability

Actively and regularly consult with children and families to review the effectiveness of children safeguarding measures.
Managers or heads of each unit should take the responsibility to implement Child Safeguarding Policy in unit operation and staff supervision

1. Does your organisation have a Child Safeguarding Policy?

To understand how the organisation ensures the safety of children, the most simple and direct way is to know whether it has a Child Safeguarding Policy in place and makes a pledge on putting the safety and welfare of children in their top priority. Of course, even if some organisations may not have clear policies on safeguarding children, it does not mean that they don’t have any relevant practices or procedures. If you want to know more about how the organisation protects the safety of children in different aspects, the following questions may serve as a reference for you.

2. Have your staff gone through the Sexual Conviction Record Check?

Since 2012, employers offering positions which involve direct contact with children can check the sexual conviction record of prospective employees to ensure they are suitable for the job. You may ask if the organisation requires all its staff to go through the Sexual Conviction Record Check. One point to note is that the use of this mechanism is not a mandatory requirement by law, and it does not cover volunteers, private tuition tutors and existing employees under permanent contract.

4. Does the organisation provide child safeguarding training to all staff?

The organisation needs to provide assistance and training to staff and anyone working around children so that they will know how to protect children in daily operation. When asking about child protection training, you may want to know if the staff understand the safety risks involved when children come into contact with the organisation, and whether they have the same standards and practices around issues related to child safety. For example, how do the staff handle the situation of bullying among children? Does the organisation put in place sufficient risk management measures to ensure the venue and every aspect of the organisation activities are safe for children?

5. Apart from the staff, does the Child Safeguarding Policy apply to volunteers, partners and associates of the organisation as well?

Apart from staff, volunteers, partners and associates of the organisation may also come in contact with children and bring harm to them. You may want to know whether the Child Safeguarding Policy applies to all personnel who come in contact with children in the organisation with an acknowledgement of signature. You may also ask if all personnel have received assistance and training provided by the institution, and whether they have clear understanding of the Safeguarding Code of Conduct.

6. How can children or parents make complaints to the organisation?

Children are the primary users of the services provided by the organisation. If they feel uncomfortable with any personnel or have safety concerns with the operation of the institution, they need to know who to turn to in order to reflect their concerns. Parents will also need to know how the organisation will keep in touch with them and keep them informed on their children’s situation in the organisation.

8. How will the organisation deal with personal information of children?

The organisation should store the personal information and photos of the child appropriately, respect and protect the privacy of the child by seeking the consent of the child and parent before disclosing personal information or photos of the child to the public.