Child safety

Swinburne has zero tolerance for child abuse and all forms of harm to children. Concerns or allegations are treated very seriously and acted upon.

As an education institution, we embrace the role we play in the lives of our young people. We support and respect the participation and empowerment of all children and want children to feel safe and valued. We seek to protect any child associated with a university-related activity.

If you have a concern about child safety at Swinburne, report it to Safer Community Swinburne by emailing safercommunity@swinburne.edu.au.

Our commitment

We commit to implementing the Victorian Child Safe Standards. To achieve this, we have: 

• developed strategies to embed an organisational culture of child safety and promote the empowerment of children 
• embedded child safety in our policy framework and recruitment practices 
• implemented strategies to remove or reduce risks to children and processes for responding to and reporting suspected child abuse
• Swinburne upholds an inclusive culture and is committed to:
  • cultural safety of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children
  • cultural safety of children from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds
  • safety of children living with a disability or having diverse needs

Responsibilities

It is the shared responsibility of our university community to protect children and prevent child abuse. Our organisational culture aims for all members of the Swinburne community — including children and their parents or guardians — to feel confident and comfortable in discussing any allegations of child abuse or child safety concerns. 

To support this:

• All staff, contractors and visitors are required to complete compliance training relevant to child safety. The Child Safety training slides provide an example of the information that staff, contractors, visitors and volunteers must understand. 
• Identified staff, volunteers, contractors and students on placements are required to undertake a Working with Children Check. 
• The Swinburne Safer Community team develops resources for students and staff and headlines university-wide primary prevention initiatives to create a safe and respectful university community. Refer to the safety through prevention webpage for further information
• Our Child Safety Statement of Commitment and Practice has been established as a procedural guideline for the Swinburne community. This resource includes a code of conduct, guidance on recognising child abuse and reporting requirements. 
• A system is in place to report and respond to child safety concerns through Swinburne Safer Community as displayed in the Responding to Child Safety Concerns Framework [PDF 654KB] and Child Safety Reporting Process Flowchart [PDF 101KB].
• Swinburne complies with the national legislative framework requiring welfare arrangements for international students aged under 18.
• A summary of child safety related policies, procedures and information is displayed in the Child Safety factsheet [PDF 284KB].
• A strategy is in place to engage with children, young people and families around Swinburne’s child safety policies, procedures and decisions as displayed in the Children, Young People and Families Engagement Strategy [PDF 129KB].

Swinburne is committed to gathering and reporting accurate information to help make informed changed to keep our children safe. The following table (Table 1) includes data on the number of formal reports, including anonymous reports, made to the university.