Site Search

AlburyCity - A Child Safe Organisation

AlburyCity is working towards being a child safe organisation because we are committed to and believe in supporting, empowering and protecting children and young people.

We are working to embed child safety in everything we do because every child has a right to feel safe; children are our legacy and our future, and we play an important role in helping them to reach their full potential in environments free from harm.

In line with the NSW Child Safe Standards we’re progressing work that enables us to become a child safe organisation, an organisation that “creates a culture, adopts strategies and takes action to promote child wellbeing and prevent harm to children and young people”.

We are enhancing our commitment to keeping children and young people safe by publicly stating that AlburyCity:

  • upholds the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
  • will actively seek to listen to and empower children and young people
  • has a ZERO tolerance to child abuse, harm and neglect and actively works to eliminate them
  • is improving systems and processes to protect the physical, emotional, cultural and social wellbeing of children
  • takes child safety concerns very seriously and responds to them professionally, with care and empathy
  • will promote safe environments for all children and embraces diversity and leverages inclusion

We will demonstrate our commitment by:

  • working together, with children, young people and their families, to create safe and accessible environments
  • listening to and respecting children's and young peoples’ views
  • providing ways for them to share ideas and give feedback on our services, especially the ones they use
  • actively involving children and young people in decision making, especially in decisions that directly affect them
  • creating safe spaces and providing platforms for their voices to be heard
  • making sure the people who work for us are suitable, knowledgeable and well trained

We will also be improving ways in which our community and our children can raise and/or report concerns, how we share and seek information about child safety and how we better embed child safety in our organisational leadership, governance and culture.

AlburyCity plays a critical role in keeping our children safe but protecting children is everyone’s responsibility.

Why we have Child Safe Standards

The NSW Child Safe Standards are an outcome of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse. They provide a framework for creating child safe organisations and are designed to drive cultural change to create, maintain and improve child safe practices.

10 Child Safe Standards explained in an infographic

The Standards are based on extensive research and consultation undertaken by the Royal Commission and when organisations apply the Standards they build a culture where abuse of children is prevented, responded to and reported.

The 10 Child Safe Standards provide clear guidance for organisations to create cultures, adopt strategies and act to put the interests of children first to keep them safe from harm.

A Guide to the Child Safe Standards

  • The Standards have been designed to:

    • help drive cultural change in organisations
    • be principle-based and outcome-focused
    • be flexible enough that they can be adapted by organisations of varying sizes and characteristics
    • avoid placing undue burden on organisations
    • help organisations address multiple risks
    • balance caution and caring
    • be a benchmark against which organisations can assess their child safe capability and set performance targets
    • be of equal importance and interrelated
  • A Child Safe Organisation:

    • Puts the best interests of children and young people first.
    • Creates an environment where children’s safety and wellbeing is at the centre of thought, values and actions.
    • Places emphasis on genuine engagement with and valuing of children and young people.
    • Creates conditions that reduce the likelihood of harm to children and young people.
    • Creates conditions that increase the likelihood of identifying any harm.
    • Responds to any concerns, disclosures, allegations or suspicions of harm.
    • If a child is in immediate danger, call the Police on 000 (triple zero).
    • If you think a child/ren or young person is at risk of harm from abuse or neglect, contact the Child Protection Helpline on 132 111.
    • If you have a child protection concern involving an AlburyCity Councillor, employee, contractor or volunteer please:
    Phone Call 02 6023 8111 between 8.30am-5pm Monday to Friday and ask to speak with AlburyCity's Child Safe Delegate.
    Email TBC
    Mail Write to our team:
    Child Safe Delegate
    410 Kiewa St
    Albury, NSW 2640
    In person Organise a meeting with our Child Safe Delegate by contacting us using one of the methods listed above to request a meeting.
  • Albury City Council takes complaints and allegations involving children and young people seriously. Where appropriate, complaints and concerns can be made directly to the service that your child/ren is involved in or contact Council.

  • A child protection allegation is a suspected or confirmed concern or complaint involving a Council staff member or Council representative and a child/ren or young people (under 18 years of age). This is where the child or young person’s care, safety or protection may have been compromised as a result.

    For more information visit: Office of the Children's Guardian, Reportable Conduct Scheme.

  • The following online safety tools and resources are available for parents, caregivers, children and young people.

  • Confidential counselling is available for people of all ages by telephone or online.

    Children or young people services
    All ages services
  • We’ll be updating our Child Safe webpage regularly as well as seeking input from children, young people and their families about safe and empowering environments.