Child Safeguarding

Sutherland Shire Football Association

Public Commitment to Child Safety

The Sutherland Shire Football Association is committed to safe, supportive, and friendly environments where children and young people are valued and enjoy sport.

We will prioritise and focus on the physical, mental, emotional, and cultural wellbeing of children and young people to unlock their full potential within our sport.

The Sutherland Shire Football Association has adopted the NSW Office of Children’s Guardian Child Safe Standards and is committed to implementing them into our systems, policies and processes ensuring that child safety is reflected in everything we do.

We are committed to keeping children and young people safe

We have zero tolerance to child abuse and neglect.
Through our Child Safe Policy, we document our clear commitment to keeping children and young people safe from abuse and neglect.
We publicly communicate our commitment to all stakeholders.

We encourage the involvement of children and young people

We involve and communicate with children and young people in developing a safe, inclusive and supportive environment.
We give all children and young people access to information, support, and complaints processes.
We actively listen to children and young people and ensure that they are informed about their rights, including their right to safety and their right to be heard.

We involve families and the community in promoting child safety and wellbeing

We provide information to families and communities about:
- our commitment to keeping children and young people safe and communicating their rights;
- the behaviour we expect of our employees, contractors, volunteers and of themselves; and
- our policy about responding to child abuse.
We seek feedback and have a process for responding to concerns.

We promote equity and respect diversity

We consider the needs of children and young people; particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children with a disability, children who identify as LGBTQI+ and children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
We respect the rights of children who identify as LGBTQI+ to be recognised for their gender identity, sexual orientation, or intersex status and to feel safe and respected when participating in sport.
We respect diversity and seek to create culturally safe sporting environments.

We ensure that our people are suitable and supported to work with children and young people

We require all staff to undergo mandatory screening prior to commencement, including Working with Children Checks.
We have embedded child safety into our recruitment processes, to minimise the likelihood that we will recruit employees, contractors or volunteers who are unsuitable to work with children.

We encourage reporting of all complaints and concerns

We actively encourage reporting of any allegation, disclosure or concern regarding child abuse, neglect, or harm.
We respond to all allegations, disclosures or concerns and act to ensure that processes are fair, transparent and child focused.
We will meet the requirements of legislated mandatory reporting requirements,

We equip our staff, contractors, volunteers, and site users with ongoing education

We have developed a Child Safe Code of Conduct that outlines our expectations for behaviour towards children and young people.
We provide all stakeholders with information and ongoing education about our commitment to child safety including Football Australia’s Child Safe Policy, SSFA’s Child Safe Code of Conduct and how to report a concern.
We promote awareness of the Child Safe Standards to staff, contractors, volunteers, and stakeholders.

We ensure that environments are safe

We will identify and implement improvements to our physical and online environments to minimise opportunities for abuse to occur.
We actively seek to create environments where children and young people feel safe.

We maintain and improve our policies and practices

We are committed to maintaining and improving our systems, policies, and processes to keep children and young people safe from abuse or neglect.
We have appointed Member Protection Information Officers (MPIOs) who are responsible for promoting child safety and the implementation of the Sutherland Shire Football Association Child Safe Policy.
We undertake an annual risk assessment to identify and document the potential risk of harm to children and young people in our sporting environment.
We actively seek feedback from all stakeholders to provide feedback to ensure our systems, policies and processes remain current and applicable.

Note: The applicable SSFA policies and codes of conduct will be under constant review throughout 2024.