• Create and maintain an environment that is both child safe and child friendly
• Meet the legal requirements of the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 and the Child Safety (Prohibited Persons) Act 2016
• Lodge a child safe environments compliance statement with the Department for Education

Note: State sporting and recreation organisations may have lodged a Statement on behalf of their affiliated clubs. If you are unsure of whether you are covered by your governing body Statement, contact them directly.

Under the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 a compliance statement will need to be lodged whenever relevant policies and procedures are adopted, varied or substituted.

The Act also requires organisations to review their child safe environment policies and procedures at least once every 5 years. Further information can be found here.

Applying the Principles of Good Practice

Organisations/clubs must:

• develop a risk management plan addressing the safety of children with respect to other people within the organisation
• have a child safe policy or a member protection policy  which addresses the child safe obligations
• have guidelines and procedures that support the policy
• have codes of conduct for adults and children
• understand and adhere to Working with Children Check obligations
• adopt clear recruitment procedures for staff and volunteers e.g. referee checks, qualification checks if applicable
• provide staff and volunteers with information or training around child safe environments, and provide support in their roles
• encourage the participation of children in decision making (let them have a say or provide feedback)
• ensure that all staff and volunteers are aware of their mandated notification obligations

For more information view the Department of Human Services: Child Safe Environments Principles of Good Practice.

The Child Safe Officer (CSO) is a person who can deliver advice and awareness within their organisation or club around developing a child safe environment.

Training is provided to support people taking on this role and is delivered as a 3 hour face to face session held at various locations around Adelaide and regional areas.

What does a Child Safe Officer do?

The training provided by ORSR assists the CSO to:

• understand the importance for organisations to adopt appropriate screening processes for members working with young children and young people and the requirement for Working with Children Checks
• understand how and why child protection needs to be included in an organisation's Member Protection Policy (MPP), or for a separate Child Protection Policy to be implemented if they do not have a MPP
• understand the definitions and indicators of child at risk
• acquire knowledge and understanding of the legal responsibilities of staff and volunteers working with children.
• have a broad knowledge of the Child Abuse Report Line processes and procedures.

The CSO may work with an organisation’s Committee to develop procedures specific to their environment to assist with minimising risk to children, provide education to coaches, administrators and volunteers working with children and promote the organisation’s policies and procedures to all members.

Benefits of having a CSO in your organisation PDF, 73.07 KB

The Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing is currently working on updating the resources on this page. To access unlinked documents and discuss the update timeframe please phone 1300 714 990.

Keeping Children Safe in Recreation and Sport booklet PDF, 9770.88 KB

Mandatory Reporting Guide

Codes of conduct for junior sport template DOCX, 83.17 KB

New 10 National Child Safe Principles: https://www.playbytherules.net.au/got-an-issue/child-safe-sport/create-a-child-safe-organisation.

Play by the Rules provides:

Online training in Child Protection and Harassment and Discrimination is recommended for all involved in delivering services and activities to children. Coaches and Team Managers in particular should complete this and be required to present the certificate to the club for recording.

Resources including coach guidelines, chaperone information, junior team selection policy template and more.

The government introduced the new Working with Children Check (WWCC) on 1 July last year to help keep children safe in our communities.

From 1 July 2020, organisations will no longer be able to assess a National Police Certificate to allow people to work or volunteer with children in South Australia.

All South Australians in relevant roles using a National Police Check need to apply for a WWCC by 1 July 2020, if they haven’t already.

Engaging a person in paid or volunteer work with children without a valid WWCC is an offence, so this is also an important reminder to organisations to ensure their staff and volunteers have the correct check.

Certain transitional arrangements are still in place to make it easier for people to move into the new scheme. Previous Child-Related Employment screenings are recognised as a WWCC and remain valid until they expire.

Working with Children Checks are valid for five years, transferable across jobs and remain completely free of charge for volunteers. For paid employment, the check costs $113.30.

The updated Working with Children Check Information Kit provides further details and resources for you to share this information with your networks and staff.

Full details, including applications for a WWCC, are available at screening.sa.gov.au/wwcc or call the DHS Screening Unit on 1300 321 592 with any general enquiries.