Child Safety
Officer & Policy

In response to new legislation in effect as of 2017, all clubs are required to have a nominated Child Safety Officer. Any grievances or incidents regarding child safety should be reported to the Child Safety Officer.  All members of the Oakleigh Dragons should be responsible for leading the club towards safer practices, a more robust plan for the protection of the children at the club, and establishing a culture of safety and growth for children.

Introducing your Child Safety Officer: Janine Bird.

Janine has been involved with the Dragons for a number of years, more recently has Team Manager for her daughters team for the past few seasons. Janine works in government employment understanding policies involving children and their safety.
Playing footy is an experience that should be fun. You should be able to make friends, learn and grow, and enjoy everything that a team sport has to offer. You also have a right to be treated properly so that going to training, games or other trips with your club are happy experiences.

That means that if someone is doing something that stops you from enjoying being at footy, you also have the right to speak up and tell someone.

What should I speak up about?

  • Bullying
  • Violence
  • Being picked on or excluded because of your skin colour, religion or something else
  • Someone posting photos or comments about you online
  • Someone at the club making you feel uncomfortable or unwelcome
  • Parents on the sideline saying hurtful things to you
  • Someone touching you in a way that makes you uncomfortable
  • Anything else that bothers you enough to enjoy footy less

Who should I tell?

You should speak up to someone you feel comfortable telling, and who you trust. There are several people you can talk to about a problem, such as:

  • Your parents, coach, team manager, club president or secretary.
  • The club Child Safety Officer

You should also speak up about other things that change your experience playing football. If you have ideas for how something can be done to make footy more enjoyable it is important you say something. Footy is your game too, and you have a right to tell someone what you think and feel about how it is run.

Contact Details: 

childsafetyOYCFC@gmail.com

ph: 0419 311 269

Child Safety Policy

Purpose

This policy was written to demonstrate the strong commitment of the committee and volunteers of Oakleigh Dragons Junior Football Club to child safety and to provide an outline of the policies and practices the Club has developed to keep everyone safe from any harm, including abuse.

Commitment to Child Safety

All children who are a part of the Club have a right to feel and be safe. The welfare of the children in our care will always be our first priority and the Club has a zero-tolerance to child abuse. The Club aims to create a child-safe and child friendly environment where children feel safe and have fun and the Club’s activities are always carried out in the best interests of the children.

Application of this Policy

This policy was developed by the Club and in collaboration with the committee, volunteers and players and their parents.

This policy applies to all individuals involved in our organisation including, but not limited to:

  • Committee
  • Coaches
  • Participants
  • Parents
  • Spectators

All of the people to which this policy applies have a role and responsibility in relation to child protection. They must all:

  • understand the indicators and risks of child abuse;
  • appropriately act on any concerns raised by children; and
  • understand and follow all applicable laws in relation to the protection of children and reporting or management of child safety concerns.

Child Abuse

Child abuse can take a broad range of forms including physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional or psychological abuse and neglect. People to whom this policy applies need to be aware that child abuse can occur whenever there is actual or potential harm to a child, and these are circumstances that the Club is committed to reducing the risk of occurrence.

Children’s Rights to Safety and Participation

The Club encourages children to express their views about their safety. We listen to their suggestions, especially on matters that directly affect them. We actively encourage all children who use our services to ‘have a say’ about things that are important to them.

We teach children about what they can do if they feel unsafe. We listen to and act on any concerns children, or their parents, raise with us.

We encourage players to contact the Child Support Officer if they have any concerns or feel uncomfortable in a situation.  We will ensure the player’s privacy is respected and deal with issues confidentially.

Valuing Diversity

We value diversity and do not tolerate any discriminatory practices. To achieve this we:

  • promote the cultural safety, participation and empowerment of Aboriginal children and their families;
  • promote the cultural safety, participation and empowerment of children from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds and their families;
  • welcome children with a disability and their families and act to promote their participation;
  • seek out appropriate staff from diverse cultural backgrounds; and
  • treat players equally and fairly.

Recruiting coaches and volunteers

The Club takes the following steps to ensure best-practice standards in the recruitment and screening of staff and volunteers:

  • Interview and conduct referee checks on all staff and volunteers
  • Require Working with Children Checks for relevant positions
  • Our commitment to Child Safety and our screening requirements are included in all advertisements and as part of the induction process for new staff or volunteers

Supporting volunteers

The Club seeks to attract and retain volunteers. We provide support and supervision so people feel valued, respected and fairly treated. We have developed a Code of Conduct to provide guidance to our staff and volunteers, all of whom receive training on the requirements of the Code.

Reporting a child safety concern or complaint

The Club has appointed Janine Bird as Child Safety Officers with the specific responsibility for responding to any complaints made by volunteers, parents or children.  They can be contacted at childsafetyOYCFC@gmail.com or on 0419 311 269

Risk Management

We recognise the importance of a risk management approach to minimising the potential for child abuse or harm to occur and use this to inform our policy, procedures and activity planning. In addition to general occupational health and safety risks, we proactively manage risks of abuse to our children. To reduce the risk of child abuse occurring, adults to whom this policy applies should avoid direct, unsupervised contact with children. For example, this should be a consideration when:

  • using change room facilities;
  • using accommodation or overnight stays;
  • travel; or
  • physical contact when coaching or managing children.

Coaches are strongly discouraged from engaging with players on social media such as Facebook or Instagram.   All communication with players must be visible to their parents.

Reviewing this policy

This policy will be reviewed every two years and we undertake to seek views, comments and suggestions from children, parents, carers, staff and volunteers involved in the Club.