ACFID’s Guidelines for the Development of a Child Safeguarding Policy has been revised and is now available to members and aspiring members via the free online Good Practice Toolkit. The Guidelines were initially developed in 2008 and revised in 2016, and this current revision ensures the Guidelines support the current Code requirements, which have been strengthened since the implementation of the revised Code of Conduct in June 2017.

The ACFID Code of Conduct addresses safeguarding at a number of levels, but the Commitment at 1.4. targets child protection policies and processes in its entirety. It requires our members to “advance the safeguarding of children”.

The Guidelines have been produced to provide guidance to ACFID members on how to develop, implement and review their child safeguarding policies and procedures. They are considered to be an example of good practice in safeguarding children and have been developed in a way that reflects both international and domestic good practice child safeguarding standards and the compliance expectations of the ACFID Code of Conduct.

The new Guidelines shift focus from child protection to child safeguarding, to reflect the shift in approach and language within our sector. There is increased alignment with DFAT’s child protection requirements and DFAT’s Professional Behaviours. They have also had a design make-over, easing navigation through such a rich resource.

Commenting on the new Guidelines, ACID’s Standards & Code Lead, Sophie Seck said:

“Being a child safe organisation means proactively implementing child protection measures that safe guard children and building the capacity of all stakeholders so that they understand what child safeguarding is and are committed to their responsibility for keeping children safe.The Guidelines certainly provide a solid foundation for developing these measures, although we can’t stress enough the importance of extending these requirements downstream to implementing partners and practices in the field.”

The Guidelines are one of a number of mechanisms which ACFID uses to help support members achieve compliance in advancing the safeguarding of children. The Code Secretariat are also calling in members child safeguarding policies for assessment as part of the 3-year assessment cycle. All ACFID members are required to have their child safeguarding policy available on their website.

If you have any feedback or question, please contact the ACFID Code team at [email protected].