National Principles for Child Safe Organisations Consultation Report – Children and Young People with Disability

Phase 1: consult

This consultation report outlines key findings and recommendations to inform the development of resources that will support organisations to better keep children and young people with disability safe.

We engaged Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) in mid-2022 to develop this report. The consultation was phase 1 of the Resources Project.

The report involved extensive consultation with a range of stakeholders, including children and young people with disability, organisations that work with children and young people with disability, and state and territory children's commissioners and guardians.

Key recommendations of the consultation report include:

• using a co-design framework to inform the design and development of resources
• paying particular attention to the report’s 5 key messages to ensure the areas for action are fully understood and addressed. The 5 key messages are:
  1. Organisational culture: knowledge and attitudes towards disability
  2. Organisational culture: safety
  3. Organisational culture: inclusion
  4. Systems, practices, processes and governance
  5. Accommodating smaller and medium sized organisations.

Each of the key messages have a range of resource suggestions which embed the National Principles for child safe organisations. These include:

• toolkits and checklists for staff including volunteers and casual staff
• templates with key information and steps that must be taken
• training videos and webinars that cover a range of topics.

Phase 2: develop educational resources

In phase 2 of the Resources Project, we partnered with CYDA to develop educational videos to support organisations, staff and volunteers understand how to create safe organisations for children and young people with disability. Through this partnership we also created a video for children and young people with disability and their caregivers to explain their rights and what to expect in a child safe organisation. 

All 3 videos were co-designed with children and young people with disability. They are available in a range of accessible formats. 

Watch the videos and find out more about the project.

Phase 3: develop further resources

Phase 3 of the Resources Project is currently in progress. We are developing more resources.