Child Safe Policy

Kiewa Valley Dance’s committed to child safety:

We want children to be safe, happy and empowered.

We support and respect all children, as well as our staff and volunteers.

We are committed to the safety, participation and empowerment of all children.

We have zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns will be treated very seriously and consistently with our robust policies and procedures.

We have legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried about a child’s safety, which we follow rigorously.

Kiewa Valley Dance is committed to preventing child abuse and identifying risks early, and removing and reducing these risks.

We are committed to the cultural safety of Aboriginal children, the cultural safety of children from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds, and to providing a safe environment for children with a disability.

 

Child Safety Strategies:
– Child Safety Strategies are developed and enhanced through ongoing review of the effectiveness of practice
– Child Safety is a standing discussion at staff meetings
– Reporting any allegations of alleged child abuse to KVD Child safety Officer (Jen Dean – Studio Director) and ensure any allegation is reported to the police or child protections services.
– Our studio communicates with our dance community about the child strategies and their implementation
– Listening and responding to the views and concerns of children, particularly if they are telling you that they or another child has been abused and/or are worried about their safety or the safety of another

Kiewa Valley Dance Staff are committed to:
Ensuring staff are aware of child safety strategies and the allocated rolls and responsibilities. Pre-employment reference checks, criminal background checks and a current working with children check is required before employment.

Staff are encouraged to report inappropriate behaviour, and to avoid using inappropriate language in front of children.

Staff must not discriminate against any child because of culture, race, ethnicity or disability.

Staff must not have contact with a child or their family outside of our organization without our child safety officer’s knowledge and/or consent (for example no babysitting).

Staff must not have any online contact with a child or their family (unless necessary for example booking private lessons).