Intro
If you have an urgent concern about the safety, health or welfare of a child, contact emergency services on 000.
If you are a child or adult who has been the victim of child abuse, or if you have information about someone else being abused, you can contact police anytime on 131 444 and can request to speak to a member of the Child Abuse Squad.
If you have concerns for a child’s wellbeing, contact the Department of Communities on 1800 271 889.
The Child Safe Awareness Policy template has been developed in response to Recommendation 6.12 from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Royal Commission) and its recognition of the important role that local governments play in building a community approach to child safety.
In 2018, the State Government accepted, or accepted in principle, all 310 Royal Commission recommendations applicable to WA, including Recommendation 6.12.
The Royal Commission identified the opportunity to utilise the established responsibilities of local government within their broader role of supporting their community to protect the safety and wellbeing of children and young people.
The template is focused on the role of local governments in WA in building and maintaining child safety awareness and knowledge by providing information for the organisations and individuals that operate in their communities.
The Child Safe Awareness Policy template has been developed through several rounds of consultation since 2020 and requires local governments to commit to several policy principles and complete 2 policy functions being:
The current version of the template was developed through co-design sessions with local governments, the Commissioner for Children and Young People, and the WA Local Government Association in 2022.
The first tranche of child safe messages to be delivered have been developed by DLGSC and are based on the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations. Further messaging is being developed, and local governments are also encouraged to develop messages tailored to their communities to complement those already produced.
The template includes instructions for how it can be adapted to each local government and contains sections which can be edited and sections that should not be changed. The template is a minimum requirement to meet Recommendation 6.12 and local governments are encouraged to expand on the policy principles and functions if they have capacity to do so.
The DLGSC Child Safeguarding Implementation Unit can be contacted by email childsafeguarding@dlgsc.wa.gov.au to help local governments adopt the template and implementing their policy.
The DLGSC has developed a number of resources to support local governments in adopting the template and implementing their child safe awareness policies. The resources can be downloaded and adapted as required to suit each local government and the community they serve.
The resources may be updated over time and local governments are encouraged to ensure they are equipped with the most up-to-date versions.