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Keeping children safe through better recruitment practices

Best practice guidance on embedding robust recruitment and induction processes to ensure children are kept safe from harm.

Keeping children safe through better recruitment practices

In order to recruit a high-quality workforce, and keep children safe from harm, it’s vital that long day care services, kindergartens, out of school hours care, family day care services, vacation care, occasional care and limited hours care services deeply reflect on, improve and embed robust recruitment and induction processes.

Strengthening child safe recruitment practices

Creating and maintaining a child safe culture starts with the people you employ. Approved providers and nominated supervisors should always reflect upon and strengthen recruitment and induction processes and practices. In doing this, they ensure the safety, rights and best interests of children are of paramount consideration in all decision making.

To protect children from abuse and harm, approved providers must take the necessary steps to ensure that predators don’t have access to the early childhood system. This will deter unsuitable people from applying and robust processes will screen out applicants who are unsafe and not appropriate to work with children.

Effective recruitment practices act as an important safeguard at two stages. Firstly, a strong child safe culture and clear expectations about working with children can deter unsuitable people from applying. Secondly, robust recruitment and screening processes can identify and exclude applicants who may pose a risk to children or who are not suitable to work with children.

What does this mean for approved providers?

The Victorian Early Childhood Regulatory Authority (VECRA) expects approved providers to regularly reflect on, review and strengthen their recruitment practices, in line with Child Safe Standard 6. This will deter unsuitable people from applying and robust processes will screen out applicants who are unsafe and not appropriate to work with children. Approved providers to regularly reflect on, review and strengthen their recruitment and induction processes and practices.

This includes considering whether recruitment practices:

  • clearly communicate the service's commitment to child safety;
  • assess an applicant's suitability to work with children, beyond simply checking qualifications;
  • include appropriate screening, reference and background checks;
  • explore an applicant's understanding of children's rights, safety and wellbeing;
  • identify and appropriately respond to any concerns or gaps in an applicant's employment history;
  • provide comprehensive induction into the service's child safe culture, policies, procedures and expectations; and
  • ensure staff understand their obligations to recognise, respond to and report concerns about children's safety and wellbeing.

Recruitment should not be viewed as simply filling a vacant position. Every recruitment decision is a child safety decision. VECRA will be discussing recruitment and induction practices with approved providers, nominated supervisors and educators at various points of regulatory engagement, including monitoring and compliance visits, assessment and rating visits, and investigations.

A strong child safe culture begins before a person is employed

Providers should be prepared to demonstrate to authorised officers how their recruitment and induction practices contribute to a strong child safe culture and how they identify and manage risks associated with unsuitable staff or volunteers. This is also an opportunity for approved providers and services to look beyond whether they are meeting minimum regulatory requirements and ask:

"How do our recruitment and induction practices actively contribute to keeping children safe?"

Regular reflection, evaluation and continuous improvement can help ensure that child safety is embedded throughout the employment lifecycle - from the development of the role, first job advertisement and interview, through to induction, supervision and ongoing professional development.

In future editions of the VECRA sector newsletter we will go into greater detail on best practice recruitment, including drafting position descriptions, advertising, selection panels and interview panels.

Further information:

Updated

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