The certification is a unique, voluntary accreditation for service providers and builds the capacity of organisations to keep children and young people safe from abuse and exploitation by staff, volunteers or other relevant related individuals.
Eighteen months in the making, the accreditation process involved updating and creating new policies and procedures, adding child safe checks in recruitment processes and online training for all staff.
CEO Drew Beswick was delighted with the announcement.
“After the initial audit last October, our Quality staff, Board Director Dr. Julie Rimes and I participated in the last step of the accreditation process – a panel interview with Australian Childhood Foundation (ACF) Committee members. During this interview the ACF commended Oak Possability on our dedication to being a child safe organisation, describing it as ‘inspiring’.
Certification to the Safeguarding Children Standards demonstrates to governments, funding bodies and other stakeholders Oak Possability’s commitment to best practice and quality improvement in relation to the protection of children and young people. It is also closely aligned with our organisational purpose ‘to be catalyst for change’ and we will continue to advocate for changes to laws and policies that help make all children safer.
While it requires constant vigilance to keep children in our care safe, we can be justly proud that we are one of the first community organisations in Tasmania to gain this accreditation.
I would like to thank our Quality Assurance team for their fantastic efforts and leadership which paved the way to this accreditation. I also acknowledge the many other staff across the whole organisation who have contributed to this achievement. Most importantly, all this work has strengthened our capacity to be a child safe organisation.”
If you would like to seek further information about our Safeguarding Children and Young People Program please contact us.
To find out more about the Safeguarding Children program, visit the official website.
Image from The Australian Childhood Foundation website.