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March 12, 2015 at 10:37 AM

This week Social Development Minister Anne Tolley launched two new guidelines for agencies and organisations working with children as part of the Government’s Children’s Action Plan.  The Guidelines advise on how employers of the children’s workforce can consistently recruit safe people to work with children, and how to develop good child protection policies that enable their workers to better identify and respond to the needs vulnerable children. 

Under the Vulnerable Children Act 2014, all organisations who provide services to children or services to adults that will impact on the wellbeing of children are required to develop child protection policies and to ensure that all paid staff are safe to work with children. 

If you provide services as described above AND are funded directly or indirectly (wholly or in part) by government then the Act will apply to your organisation. 

The following guidelines have been developed to assist your organisation in understanding its obligations under the Act and to develop robust and effective policies to keep children safe. 

Safer Recruitment, Safer Children is not a regulatory document and is being released in advance of changes in the Vulnerable Children Act 2014. It gives organisations good practice advice on selecting safe people to work with children. It has been developed in partnership between the Ministry of Education on behalf of the Children’s Action Plan Directorate and Child Matters, a Hamilton-based NGO with child protection expertise.

Safer Organisations, Safer Children is a set of good practice advice to help organisations draft high quality child protection policies for identifying and responding to child vulnerability in response to the new requirements in the Vulnerable Children Act 2014. It is a living document, and will evolve as our understanding of how to best respond to children at risk of harm changes.

Read the full media release here:

Find out more about the Children's Action Plan and the Vulnerable Children Act 2014 here: