Child protection policies and safety checking of workers
We have been updating you regularly on the Vulnerable Children Act (‘the Act’) and its implications for early childhood education (ECE) services and kōhanga reo.
The Act requires state sector agencies who work with children, and the organisations they fund, to have child protection policies. The Act will also require all paid children’s workers to be safety checked in a consistent way, and this will be phased in over time.
As ECE services and kōhanga reo are funded by the Ministry of Education, you will need to work towards meeting these requirements.
This update is to give you more information about the requirements, tell you about new guidelines that have been launched to help with this, and let you know when we will be in touch with more information.
Child protection policies
All ECE services and kōhanga reo need to put a child protection policy in place that meets the requirements of the Act. The policy needs to contain provisions on the identification and reporting of child abuse and neglect.
New guidelines have just been launched to help you with this. The guidelines include a review tool to help you identify gaps in current policies, information about what to include in a new policy, and example policies. You can download the guidelines, ‘Safer Organisations, Safer Children’ from the Children’s Action Plan website.
Currently, under the Ministry of Education’s Licensing Criteria, ECE services and kōhanga reo need to implement a process for the prevention of child abuse and a procedure for responding to suspected child abuse. Alongside this, some ECE services and kōhanga reo may also have a child protection policy.
The Act requires a policy to be put in place as soon as practicable. Now that the guidelines are available, it is timely to review your processes, procedures and policies to ensure that you are meeting the new requirements. The guidelines will help you do this.
The Ministry will be reviewing the Licensing Criteria to align them with the new requirements. You can expect more information about this in a future edition of He Pānui Kōhungahunga – The Early Learning Bulletin.
Having a high-quality child protection policy is part of building good practices to keep children safe, and to ensure that suspected and potential abuse and neglect are identified and responded to appropriately.
Safety checking and workforce restrictions
Over time, new safety checking requirements for paid children’s workers will be phased in. This means that eventually all ECE services and kōhanga reo will need to safety check all children’s workers they employ or engage. This includes contractors. The date from which safety checking will start is yet to be confirmed.
As part of the safety checking process, anyone convicted of a specified offence cannot be employed or engaged as a core worker, unless they have an exemption. Again, the implementation date for this, and how the exemption process will work, is yet to be confirmed.
The safety checking requirements and timeframes for putting these in place will differ depending on the type of worker. We will let you know in a future edition of He Pānui Kōhungahunga – The Early Learning Bulletin what all of this means for ECE services and kōhanga reo.
Currently, under the Ministry of Education’s Licensing Criteria, ECE services and kōhanga reo need to have suitable human resource management practices in place, and ensure all employees and contractors are police vetted.
Although the new safety checking standards are not yet a legal requirement, now is a good time to start reviewing your selection policies and processes to see if they meet the new requirements. This will ensure you are ready when the changes become law.
New guidelines have been launched to provide advice on selecting safe people to work with children. You can download the guidelines, ‘Safer Recruitment, Safer Children’ from the Children’s Action Plan website.
Further information
We will provide more information about this in a future edition of He Pānui Kōhungahunga – The Early Learning Bulletin.
In the meantime, you can find information on the Vulnerable Children Act, including child protection policies and safety checking, on the Children’s Action Plan website.
If you have any questions, please email ece.info@minedu.govt.nz.