Under Requirement 4 of the Framework, Commonwealth entities are required to publish an annual statement of compliance with the Framework including an overview of the entity’s child safety risk assessment.
The Annual Statement of Compliance for Safe Work Australia (SWA) has been endorsed by the Chief Executive Officer, Marie Boland, and solidifies SWA’s commitment to ensuring child safety and wellbeing is factored into all levels of our operations.
Commonwealth Child Safe Framework Annual Statement of Compliance
Date: October 2024
SWA is committed to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children and young people, and considers this in our approach to all aspects of work and employee interactions, in alignment with the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework. The Agency is compliant with all four requirements of the framework.
Due to the nature of the work undertaken at SWA, specifically development of national policy to improve WHS and workers’ compensation arrangements, there are minimal interactions with children and young people as part of our operations.
In accordance with the requirements of the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework, SWA has undertaken an annual risk assessment and identified five risks - noting that the likelihood of the events identified in the risks is rare or low. The assessment determined that the overall child safety risk rating for SWA is 'low'. Our staff generally have little or no interaction with children, however contact may occur where:
- a child is present during a worksite visit
- a child accompanies their carer to the workplace
- staff engaging in work in the presence of children e.g. home-based work
During the 2024 financial year, we acted to further strengthen our compliance with the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework by implementing a Child Safety Policy. SWA will continue to demonstrate our commitment to creating a safe and supporting environment for children and young people by:
- mandatory training for all staff to build and embed their knowledge on their responsibilities under the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework
- monitoring and reporting on completion rates of the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework training
- completing an annual risk assessment and implementing identified treatments and/or strategies that improve the safety and wellbeing of children and/or young people
- ensuring SWA office is safe for children and that children visiting the workplace are accompanied by a parent or guardian
- adopting and embedding the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations to ensure we continue to build a child safe culture and practice, and
- taking all complaints and or allegations of abuse seriously and report on these in accordance with SWA’s complaints handling process.
SWA recognises that managing child safety is an ongoing process and will regularly review the risks, impacts and controls we have in place to eliminate and manage risks appropriately.