ATTACHMENT 1 Child protection risk assessment A child protection risk assessment process helps in the identification of the potential for child abuse in the service, and enables appropriate strategies to be developed to minimise risk. It is important to create awareness among employees, contractors, visitors and volunteers of possible risks to children from abuse, and how to implement a range of strategies to protect children from these risks. Risk factors Level of risk Strategies to Evaluation to children reduce risk e.g. Appointment of a sex High Recruitment Recruitment processes have offender processes been developed that include running all relevant criminal history and working with children related checks. Opportunities for a child to be isolated within the program/premises Opportunities for a child to be taken away from the program/premises Close physical contact with an adult other than an educator Physical environment High staff turnover Limited staff turnover (with little outside scrutiny of the program) Unauthorised access by other people to the service (such as strangers or non-custodial parents) Staff not recognising signs of abusive behaviour Staff not raising concerns/suspicions of abuse Low levels of awareness of child protection issues Low levels of commitment to preventing abuse by management/staff Lack of appropriate incident management procedures Access to multimedia and information technology
ATTACHMENT 1 Child protection risk assessment A child protection risk assessment process helps in the identification of the potential for child abuse in the service, and enables appropriate strategies to be developed to minimise risk. It is important to create awareness among employees, contractors, visitors and volunteers of possible risks to children from abuse, and how to implement a range of strategies to protect children from these risks. Risk factors Level of risk to children Strategies to reduce risk Evaluation e.g. Appointment of a sex offender High Recruitment processes Recruitment processes have been developed that include running all relevant criminal history and working with children related checks. Opportunities for a child to be isolated within the program/premises Opportunities for a child to be taken away from the program/premises Close physical contact with an adult other than an educator Physical environment High staff turnover Limited staff turnover (with little outside scrutiny of the program) Unauthorised access by other people to the service (such as strangers or non-custodial parents) Staff not recognising signs of abusive behaviour Staff not raising concerns/suspicions of abuse Low levels of awareness of child protection issues Low levels of commitment to preventing abuse by management/staff Lack of appropriate incident management procedures Access to multimedia and information technology
Child_Safe_Environment_Policy-2012.docx