Victoria’s new Child Safe Standards

Stations in Victoria who have staff or volunteers under 18 will need to comply with Victoria's new Child Safe Standards starting 1 July 2022.

Victoria’s Child Safe Standards are a mandatory framework to protect children and young people from harm and abuse. The Child Safe Standards commenced in Victoria in January 2016 and will be updated as of 1 July 2022. The new Standards have stronger obligations around: empowering children and young people to understand their rights, encouraging greater involvement of families and communities, ensuring staff and volunteers receive training about their obligations, creating a culturally safe environment for First nations children and young people and considering the needs of LGBTIQA+ children and young people.

Victorian community broadcasters are covered by the Standards and will need to comply with updated Standards. 

Where to find help:

The Victorian Commission for Children and Young People has produced a range of resources to help you comply with the new Standards.

Moore's has put together a webinar to help organisations comply with the new standards, you can register your details and get the link for the webinar here. 

Our friends at SYN have kindly said that Victorian stations can use their Child Safe Policy and Code of Conduct as a guide when preparing or updating their own policies and procedures. SYN's Child Safe Policy and Code of Conduct will be updated over the next couple of months and can be found page 73 of SYN's Policies and Procedures. SYN has an excellent and carefully considered culture around child safety. They conduct regular child safety inductions and trainings with staff and volunteers - with different training sessions for those over 18 and those under 18. They work to empower children and young people to be involved in decision making about them. They value and care for those with all backgrounds and identities. They are renew and rethink their procedures to ensure there are easy and visible ways to report incidents. Child safety is embedded in their leadership and they are undertaking a rigorous review of child safety at SYN to ensure the wellbeing of children and young people at SYN and comply with the new Standards.

For more information please see our Child safety resource page. 

For advice specific to your station, please feel free to call the CBAA’s Member Services team on 02 9310 2999 or email [email protected]

You can contact the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People on 1300 782 978 or (03) 8601 5281, or by email at [email protected]