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Early childhood services - child and student empowerment

Guidance on Child Safe Standard 3: Children are empowered about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.

Overview

Standard 3 focuses on creating a culture that:

  • values and promotes child participation
  • informs children about their rights including to safety
  • encourages the importance of friendships.

It will require very different approaches for children in school aged services compared to services for children under school age.

All information and engagement should be age-appropriate. However, this does not mean young children can be forgotten. Just like adults, all children have rights.

All but the very youngest children can be supported and encouraged to participate. Include it in your programming using visual aids, posters, infographics and videos as appropriate.

Implementing this standard

Implementing this standard includes:

  • engaging children and explaining their rights and responsibilities in an age-appropriate way
  • recognising the importance of friendships and peer support
  • enabling children to actively participate in creating a culture that is safe for them and their peers
  • ensuring all staff and volunteers:
    • are attuned to signs of harm
    • facilitate ways for children to express their views, participate in decision-making and raise their concerns.

Benefits of empowering children

Empowering children improves child safety. Policies and practices shaped by children's views can better prevent the risk of harm. And children are more likely to speak up when they feel respected and confident they will be heard.

Supporting friends and peers

Children benefit from strong friendships. They often view their friends as their main source of support, information and advice, and will go to them for help.

Support children to raise concerns about the safety or wellbeing of their friends.

Actions services must take to comply with Standard 3

Standard 3: Children are empowered about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.

Early childhood services must comply with all the following elements of this Standard:

  • Children and young people are informed about all of their rights, including to safety, information and participation (3.1).
  • The importance of friendships is recognised and support from peers is encouraged, to help children and young people feel safe and be less isolated (3.2).
  • Where relevant to the setting or context, children and young people are offered access to sexual abuse prevention programs and to relevant related information in an age-appropriate way (3.3).
  • Staff and volunteers are attuned to signs of harm and facilitate child-friendly ways for children and young people to express their views, participate in decision-making and raise their concerns (3.4).
  • Services have strategies in place to develop a culture that facilitates participation and is responsive to the input of children and young people (3.5).
  • Services provide opportunities for children and young people to participate and are responsive to their contributions, thereby strengthening confidence and engagement (3.6).

How to comply - examples and ideas

Start by reflecting on how your service already involves and empowers children.

The way children are informed, included and empowered will look very different depending on their age and temperament. Use a variety of approaches including images on posters, infographics, flowcharts, and videos.

Resources

Updated