Child Protection

St Patrick's School aims to ensure the safety and security of all children by practising open and accountable child-centred decision-making. We recognise the importance of involving family/whānau in decision-making about their children, and will involve children in decision-making about themselves in age-appropriate ways. We acknowledge that child protection is everyone’s responsibility and we promote our child protection policies to our school community.

"Child", in the context of our school's child protection policies, means a child or young person aged under 18 years (who is not married or in a civil union) - Vulnerable Children Act 2014.

We take concerns about the safety of students seriously, and respond to them quickly. Prevention and early intervention is important, and we support the principle of applying the least intrusive intervention possible to protect vulnerable children.

We share information with appropriate agencies if sharing that information will protect or improve the safety, health, or well-being of a child. By law, we can share information with Child, Youth and Family, and the police.

Schools are subject to the Vulnerable Children Act 2014, and must have child protection policies which are readily available. As required by the Act, child protection practices are incorporated into our policies and procedures. St Patrick's School has a designated person responsible for child protection policies. Our designated person is the principal, and is the primary point of contact for concerns about a child, including concerns about abuse or neglect. Our child protection policies apply to school staff, contractors, and volunteers.

Key child protection related policies and procedures can be found on our SchoolDocs site and include:

Reviewing our child protection related policies and procedures

Our child protection policies are reviewed every one to three years. St Patrick's School's designated person for child protection is involved in reviewing any child protection related policies and procedures.

The following policies are reviewed yearly as part of the school’s Implementation Audits and Reports:

• Vetting requirements for non-teachers
• Abuse reporting procedure
• Teacher registration and police vetting
• Appointment procedure

The following policies are reviewed every three years as part of the SchoolDocs review cycle:

• Appointment Procedure
• Behaviour Management
• Complaints
• Education outside the classroom
• Employer responsibility Harassment
• Health, Safety, and Welfare
• Privacy
• Protected Disclosure
• Students with Special Needs
• Visitors

Legislation

• Vulnerable Children Act 2014

Resources

• Children’s Action Plan: Home
• Children’s Action Plan: Safer Organisations, Safer Children – Guidelines for child protection policies to build safer organisations (PDF)
• Child, Youth and Family: Working Together to Keep Children and Young People Safe (PDF)
• Child Matters: Child Protection Policy (offers a policy advisory service & an Organisation Health Check tool)
• Ministry of Education: Reporting of Suspected or Actual Child Abuse or Neglect (2009 Protocol) (PDF)
• Ministry of Health: Is that Child OK?
• Ministry of Health: Family Violence
• Ministry of Social Development: Youth Workers and Social Workers in Schools
• Safeguarding Children Initiative: Home (e-learning and seminars)