KIS Academics Child Protection

Policy
KIS Academics has a child protection policy as our students are mostly high-schoolers under
the age of 18, and thus are classified as children in the eyes of the law. It is important that
you take your role as a tutor very seriously and understand the responsibility you have
teaching your students, regardless of their age. We will take any allegations of misconduct
extremely seriously

Our Commitment to Child Safety

KIS Academics is committed to child safety.
👪
● We want children to be safe, happy and empowered. We support and respect all
children, as well as our staff and tutors.
● We are committed to the safety, participation and empowerment of all children.
● We have zero tolerance of child abuse, and all allegations and safety concerns will
be treated very seriously and consistently with our robust policies and procedures.
● We have legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried
about a child’s safety, which we follow rigorously.
● Our organisation is committed to preventing child abuse and identifying risks early,
and removing and reducing these risks.
● Our organisation has robust human resources and recruitment practices for all staff
and tutors.
● Our organisation is committed to training and educating our staff and volunteers on
child abuse risks.
● We support and respect all children, as well as our staff and tutors. We are
committed to the cultural safety all children from any culturally and/or linguistically
diverse backgrounds, and to providing a safe environment for children with a
disability.
● We have specific policies, procedures and training in place that support our
leadership team, staff and tutors to achieve these commitments.

If you believe a child is at immediate risk of abuse phone 000

Our Students
This policy is intended to empower students who are vital and active participants at KIS
Academics. We involve our students when making decisions, especially about matters that
directly affect them. We listen to their views and respect what they have to say.
We promote diversity and tolerance in our organisation, and people from all walks of life and
cultural backgrounds are welcome.
Our Tutors
This policy guides our staff and tutors on how to behave with children in our organisation.

All of our staff and tutors must agree to abide by our Child Protection Policy and Code of
Ethics which specifies the standards of conduct required when working with students. All
staff and tutors, as well as children and their families, are given the opportunity to contribute
to the development of the Code of Conduct.

Training
Training and education is important to ensure that everyone in our organisation understands
that child safety is everyone’s responsibility.
Our organisational culture aims for all staff and tutors (in addition to families and children) to
feel confident and comfortable in discussing any allegations of child abuse or child safety
concerns.
New employees and volunteers will be screened and trained to ensure they understand our
commitment to child safety and that everyone has a role to play in protecting children from
abuse, as well as checking that their behaviour towards children is safe and appropriate
(please refer to KIS Academics’ Code of Ethics to understand appropriate behaviour
further). Any inappropriate behaviour will be reported through appropriate channels,
including the Department of Health and Human Services and Victoria Police, depending on
the severity and urgency of the matter.

Recruitment
KIS Academics takes all reasonable steps to employ skilled people to work with children. We
develop selection criteria which clearly demonstrate our commitment to child safety and an
awareness of our social and legislative responsibilities.
Our organisation understands that when recruiting staff and tutors we have ethical as well as
legislative obligations.
We actively encourage applications from any and all eligible tutors, including Aboriginal
peoples, people from culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds and people with a
disability.
All tutors engaged in child-related work are required to hold a Working with Children Check
and to provide evidence of this Check. Please see the Working with Children Check website:
www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au for further information
Fair procedures for personnel
The safety and wellbeing of children is our primary concern. We are also fair and just to our
staff and tutors. The decisions we make when recruiting, assessing incidents, and
undertaking disciplinary action will always be thorough, transparent, and based on evidence.
We record all allegations of abuse and safety concerns using our incident reporting form,
including investigation updates. All records are securely stored.

If an allegation of abuse or a safety concern is raised, we provide updates to children and

families on progress and any actions we as an organisation take.

Privacy
All personal information considered or recorded will respect the privacy of the individuals
involved, whether they be in place to ensure any personal information is protected. Everyone
is entitled to know how this information is recorded, what will be done with it, and who will
have access to it.

Legislative responsibilities
Our organisation takes our legal responsibilities seriously, including:
● Failure to disclose: Reporting child sexual abuse is a community-wide
responsibility. All adults who have a reasonable belief that an adult has committed a
sexual offence against a child under 16 have an obligation to report that information
to the police.
● Failure to protect: People of authority in our organisation will commit an offence if
they know of a substantial risk of child sexual abuse and have the power or
responsibility to reduce or remove the risk, but negligently fail to do so.

Risk Management
Organisations are required to protect children when a risk is identified, and KIS Academics is
no different. In addition to general occupational health and safety risks, we proactively
manage risks of abuse to our students.
We have risk management strategies in place to identify, assess, and take steps to minimise
child abuse risks, which include risks posed by physical environments (for example, avoiding
tutoring in closed bedroom spaces), and online environments.

Regular Review
This policy will be reviewed every two years and following significant incidents if they occur.
We will ensure that families and children have the opportunity to contribute. Where possible
we do our best to work with local Aboriginal communities, culturally and/or linguistically
diverse communities and people with a disability.

Allegations, Concerns and Complaints

KIS Academics takes all allegations seriously and has practices in place to investigate
thoroughly and quickly. Our staff and tutors are trained to deal appropriately with allegations.

We work to ensure all children, families, staff and tutors know what to do and who to tell if
they observe abuse or are a victim, and if they notice inappropriate behaviour.
We all have a responsibility to report an allegation of abuse if we have a reasonable belief
that an incident took place.

If an adult has a reasonable belief that an incident has occurred then they must report the
incident. Factors contributing to reasonable belief may be:
● a child states they or someone they know has been abused (noting that sometimes
the child may in fact be referring to themselves)
● behaviour consistent with that of an abuse victim is observed
● someone else has raised a suspicion of abuse but is unwilling to report it
● observing suspicious behaviour.

Signature ✅
I, __________________________________ have read and understood this document and
The policies and procedures outlined in it.

Tutor’s signature: __________________________________ Date: ____/____/____

Incident Reporting
Any incidents of child abuse or suspected child abuse must be reported
immediately. If you have any questions about the incident reporting process,
please immediately contact Manoj Arachige (CEO, Founder) on 0426213600

All incident reports will be kept confidential and stored securely

Incident Details
Date of incident:

Time of incident:

Location of incident:

Name(s) of child/children
involved:

Name(s) of staff/tutor
involved:

If you believe a child is at immediate risk of abuse phone 000.

Does the child identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander?

🔲 Yes
🔲 No
Is the child from a culturally and/or linguistically diverse background?
🔲 Yes
🔲 No
Does the child have a disability?
🔲 Yes
🔲 No
Please categorise the incident
Physical violence

Sexual offence

Serious emotional or psychological abuse

Serious neglect

Please describe the incident

When did it take place?

Who was involved?

What did you see?

Other information

Parent/carer/child use
Date of incident:

Time of incident:

Location of incident:

Name(s) of child/children
involved:

Name(s) of staff/tutors
involved:

Office use:
Date incident report received:

Staff member managing incident:

 Follow-up date:

Incident ref. number:

Has the incident been reported?

Child protection

Police

Another third party (please specify):

🔲
Does the incident reporter wish to remain anonymous?

🔲
Yes
No

Further Information
Further information on child safe standards can be found on the Department of Health and
Human Services’ website:
www.dhs.vic.gov.au/about-the-department/plans,-programs-and-projects/projects-and-initiati
ves/children,-youth-and-family-services/creating-child-safe-organisations

Additional resources for organisations in the child safe standards toolkit can be found on the
Department of Health and Human Services website:
www.dhs.vic.gov.au/about-the-department/documents-and-resources/policies,-guidelines-an
d-legislation/child-safe-standards

In particular, An Overview to the Victorian child safe standards, has information to help
organisations understand the requirements of each of the child safe standards, including
examples of measures organisations can put in place, a self-audit tool and a glossary of key
terms.
www.dhs.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/word_doc/0005/955598/Child-safe-standards_overview.d
oc