resources

breaking the silence - what's new

Jan’10:: New Mandatory Reporting threshold in NSW
From late January 2010 reports to the Child Protection Helpline in New South Wales will need to meet a new threshold. This is being called “risk of significant harm” instead of the present threshold which is “risk of harm.” In New South Wales, all ministers and paid church workers are mandatory reporters under legislation and must report to the appropriate external agency, such as the Department of Community Services or the Police. All those involved in ministry with children and young people are considered to be mandatory reporters within the church. In the church it has been agreed that any person with a position of authority within the church, be it paid or unpaid, or any person working with children or young people in any capacity will consider themselves to be mandatory reporters, even where this may not be the case under legislation.

You can find more information at http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/news/december09/mrg.htm and http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/kts/guidelines/documents/make_report_factsheet.pdf or contact the Child Protection Unit.

 

Dec ’09:: BTS3 Accredited under the NCCA Safe Church Training Agreement
Many people will not know that since 2005 the Child Protection Unit has been working with a number of other denominations on something known as the Safe Church Training Agreement (SCTA). The agreement is our way of working towards quality safe church awareness and refresher workshops in the Australian Christian church through a set of national standards for programs and presenters.

Safe church training is awareness-level training in things like duty of care, child protection, safe leaders, and safe programs. The new Breaking the Silence Basic Training is our safe church programme and since its launch earlier this year it has received much praise.

"We completed new BTS3 Basic Training several weekends ago and it was great. The DVD and booklet were very helpful and stimulated excellent discussion. It also helped us see some areas we can improve on. I was very encouraged that as a church we have such a thorough policy that will help, by God's grace, to protect the vulnerable and weak and to ensure that the ministry of the church is conducted with the highest integrity before watching world. I think it would be of great benefit for BTS3 Basic Training to be completed by all those involved in serving at church so that our churches can be the safe and loving environment they should be" said, Victor Shaw - Epping Presbyterian Church.

Many pastoral charges are now completing the Breaking the Silence Basic Training using a training presenter rather than the familiar DVD and workbook.

BTS3 Basic Training has now been endorsed. "Endorsement means a few things," Elizabeth McClean, Director Child Protection Unit explains, "First, it is a public way of acknowledging that BTS3 Basic Training meets the national standards set by the SCTA, so that we know that we are delivering quality training. Second, it means that people from outside PCNSW can attend BTS3 Basic Training when it is conducted by a presenter and receive recognition for that training within their own denomination. This is particularly important in areas where BTS3 Basic Training may be the only abuse prevention training available. Another practical outcome of having consistent, endorsed training across denominations is that it removes the necessity for people to complete several lots of training in different denominations when they are participating in an interdenominational event."

An added benefit that will be further explored by the CPU in 2010 is that the SCTA gives endorsed programmes access to the training information tracking system within Safety Management Online provided to by ChildSafe™. "This is an already widely-used online system for risk management," Elizabeth said, "and while we will not be using all of the components the training information system provides information about when and what type of training people have attended."

"Ensuring abuse prevention training programmes across Christian denominations meet a high standard and enable people to access training wherever they are with confidence is an important part of making churches safe," Elizabeth said, "and I'm pleased that BTS3 Basic Training is part of that."

Mar' 09: NEW Basic Training now available
Our new Basic Training course is now available. Basic Training is to be completed before a person commences in a position of authority or working with children or young people. Once completed we recommend that the full basic training course is completed again every three years. In the years in between a shorter form of training may be completed, however it must include coverage of the Code of Conduct. This training may be ministry specific, such as the Simply Safe training for people working with children and young people.

Basic Training is provided in two formats:

•  Self-paced training using a workbook and DVD, and

• Facilitated training run by a trained presenter using video components and workbook.

The DVD can be ordered from the Child Protection Unit. The DVD Workbook and the Presenter's Kit can be downloaded from this website. Just click here.
 

Jan' 09: Auditing continues
Mrs Gillian Gilchrist, the internal auditor for the Child Protection Unit, is continuing to audit pastoral charges in 2009. Pastoral charges to be audited will be contacted directly. Gillian can be contacted on 02 4754 5096.

 

Oct' 08: Breaking the silence website goes live!
With the release of Issue 4 of Breaking the Silence we have streamlined some of the resources, but more importantly we are no longer providing the huge 400 page manual to every pastoral charge. The most used parts of the manual are now available online as are many of the resources.


This new web site give everyone access to general information, copies of commonly used documents like the Code of Conduct, training workbooks, information sheets and much more. For example, if a church is looking to employ someone to work with kids there is a section on what is required, that includes the steps to go through, the legislative requirements and even interview techniques. There is also information about how we look after our volunteers, sample permission notes for youth group excursions and lots of other useful material. Let us know what you think!