National Principles for Child Safe Organisations: Are your board members onboard? 

National Principles for Child Safe Organisations: Are your board members onboard? 

Children thrive in organisations where the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations are embedded at every level from the boardroom to the front line. That’s why NAPCAN has developed a free condensed online Child Safe Organisations Briefing (just 1.5 hours) specifically for board members and executives. 

NAPCAN’s briefing provides essential information for all leaders in organisations whose work concerns children or young people. It covers:

• the ten National Principles for Child Safe Organisations developed by the Australian Human Rights Commission
• steps that leaders can take to embed a child-safe culture
• ways to engage the whole organisation in keeping children safe. 

What leaders have said about the briefing: 

• “Made the information relatable and relevant and able to be put into practice in our workspace.”
• “Certainly helped me in my board role to provide effective governance in regard to the safety of children.”
• “A good set of policies and procedures is only part of what is needed to be a child-safe organisation. It needs to be ingrained in the culture.”
• “The overview provided the broader legislative, government and community contexts within which Child Safe organisations can – and should – exist and how this can be practically achieved.”
• “Gave me clarity on the ten National Principles and how important it is to keep children safe as an organisation and leader.”

Thanks to funding from the Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women, the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) is offering ‘Child Safe Organisations – Briefing for leaders, management and board members’ as free online training for Queenslanders. 

Many organisations find it valuable to have NAPCAN run a dedicated session to brief the full board or executive all at the same time. This provides the opportunity to discuss the needs of your particular organisation in more detail with a CSO expert, and to ensure that all leaders are on the same page. To discuss options for a fee-for-service organisation-specific session (either online or face-to-face), please register your interest via this form. 

Note: The briefing can be made available in other states/territories but – apart from in Northern Territory – will need to be delivered as fee-for-service.

NAPCAN also offers a more comprehensive 4-hour Child Safe Organisations workshop for people working with children.