Child Safe Organisations

At Telethon Speech & Hearing the well being and safety of children and young people is our highest priority. As an organisation that adheres to the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations as developed by the Australian Human Rights Commission, we undergo an ongoing cycle of assessment, action and review to ensure we are continually reflecting on the effectiveness of our implementation of the child safe principles and are always striving for excellence in this area.

We have recently completed an audit of our organisation and will continue to review this every two months to ensure we are continually reflecting on the key actions, culture and behaviours that are essential to sustain our child safe and friendly focus as an organisation.

Some examples of actions we have now taken include:

• training more of our Outpost staff in Youth Mental Health First Aid

• review of our induction processes for all volunteers and casual staff to ensure they have all necessary training in child safety

• a commitment to begin working on a Reconciliation Action Plan for Telethon Speech & Hearing

• a review of our Behaviour Support processes and procedures to ensure they are reflective of best practice and meeting standards reflecting current understanding of child behaviour

• revisiting our Student Code of Conduct and Child Complaint processes to give our Youth Leadership group and others in our High School programs the opportunity to have direct input.

Our focus on child safety will not stop with these initiatives. Child safety is at the centre of all decisions we make and, as part of our improvement processes, we will continue to review and update what we do.

Please feel free to get in touch with me directly if you would like more information on this comprehensive and valuable process -

Janene Hall

Principal, Telethon Speech & Hearing