Child Safe sport Commitment

1. Purpose

Gymnastics is a sport involving children and young people between the ages of 1 and 70 years. The sport operates across Singapore and engages children and young people through several programmes, such as KinderGym, the National Proficiency Awards and the respective discipline Singapore Gymnastics Levels programme.

Karpenko Gymnastics Academy take seriously the responsibility to deliver a sporting environment that is caring, nurturing and safe.

Karpenko Gymnastics Academy promote equity and respect diversity by:

actively anticipating children’s diverse circumstances and responding effectively to those with additional vulnerabilities
by giving all children access to information, support and complaints processes, and
paying attention to the needs of children with a disability and children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Our Singapore Gymnastics approves and endorses Karpenko Gymnastics Academy commitment to keeping children and young people safe from abuse and neglect.

It is the responsibility of all at Karpenko Gymnastics Academy, from the Management, to staff and volunteers, to:

protect children and young people from all forms of abuse, bullying and exploitation by our people;
be alert to incidents of child abuse and neglect occurring outside of our sport that may have an impact on the children and young people; and
create and maintain a child safe culture that is understood, endorsed and put into action by all the individuals who work for, volunteer or access our programs and services.

We expect all within our sport, regardless of their role or level of responsibility, to act to keep children safe from such harm by:

adopting the practices and behaviour we have set as our standard when carrying out their roles, and reporting any abuse or neglect of which they become aware to our management and/or to external authorities responsible for child protection or to police, regardless of whether that abuse is being perpetrated by staff and volunteers within our sport, or by those outside our sport including those from the child’s family, extended family, their family’s extended network or strangers.

2. Responsibilities

The Management, Staff and volunteers within the sport is responsible for the development and endorsement of the Karpenko Gymnastics Academy Child Safe Sport Commitment. The role of each entity in relation to the development and compliance of the Karpenko Gymnastics Academy Child Safe Sport Commitment is detailed in the table below.

Management

Promote the commitment to this policy and its expectations.
Support policy review on an annual cycle as a minimum or at a time governed by legislation, regulations, or organisational learnings that promote a change to the policy and all relevant procedural guidelines.
Ensure compliance to the policy via an inbuilt review mechanism.
Ensure adequate resources are allocated to allow for the development and effective implementation of this policy.
Develop opportunities for regular discussion at all levels to support a culture of openness and continued improvement and accountability to child protection and member welfare.
Advocate and promote child rights, empowering and engaging children and young people in support of this policy and its expectations.

Management

Ensure all staff and volunteers understand their obligations in accordance with the Child Safe Sport Commitment and any relevant policy and procedural documentation. This includes induction, a minimum of one compulsory training session, and regular discussion and guidance at supervision and team meetings.
Ensure the development and implementation of required internal policy/work procedures and guidelines are in place to support child protection practice in accordance with the expectations of the Child Safe Sport Commitment.
Ensure adequate resources are allocated to allow effective implementation of the suit of child safe policies.
Ensure to support staff and volunteers in a joint way with a decision to initiate any form of action to protect a child from abuse, neglect, grooming or exploitation.
Ensure appropriate supports, such as counselling and formal debriefing, are provided for any staff and volunteers involved in a matter relating to responding to a concern for the safety and wellbeing of a child or young person.
Advocate and promote child rights, empowering and engaging children and young people in support of this Statement.
Proactively share resources and experience in the development of child safe initiatives as they are identified.
Develop opportunities for regular discussion at all levels to support a culture of continuous improvement and accountability of child protection and member welfare.
Ensure that our staff and volunteers are aware of the appropriate recruitment, screening and employment practice in relation to individuals with specific roles in working, coaching or volunteering with children and families.

Staff and Volunteers

Maintain a full understanding of the commitments and expectations of this policy, as well as all other policy relevant child safety.
To undertake any induction and training anticipated in this policy, in relation to policy and procedures relevant to keeping children and young people safe.
To seek guidance from a supervisor or manager if there is ever any lack of understanding in relation to the commitments and expectations as set out in this policy.
To act to protect children and young people from all forms of abuse, bullying and exploitation.
To assist in creating and maintaining a child safe culture and a culture of inclusion and safety

3. Our Commitment

Karpenko Gymnastics Academy is committed to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people who are involved in our sport. Our policies and procedures seek to address risks to child safety and to establish a child safe culture and practices. Our suite of child safe policies is:

accessible in forms that are easy to understand;
have been informed by stakeholder consultation; and
are communicated to children, young people and their families, our staff and volunteers and the general public.

We regularly review our policies, gain endorsement of changes and advise our staff and volunteers of changes.

We are committed to keeping children & young people safe

Karpenko Gymnastics Academy has a clear commitment to keeping children and young people safe from abuse and neglect. We communicate our commitment to all our staff and volunteers and give them access to a copy of our commitment statement.

Our staff and volunteers know the behaviour we expect

We ensure that each person involved in our delivery of services to children and young people understands their role and the behaviour we expect in relation to keeping children and young people safe from abuse and neglect through application of the Code of Behaviour. We utilise clear position descriptions which clearly state relevant child safe requirements. We have a Code of Behaviour, which is approved and endorsed from the highest levels of our organisation that outlines our expectations for behaviour towards children and young people. Our staff and volunteers are given a copy of and have access to the Code of Behaviour. Our staff and volunteers indicate, in writing, that they have read and are committed to the Code of Behaviour.

We minimise the likelihood of recruiting a person who is unsuitable

We have appropriate measures in place to minimise the likelihood that we recruit staff or volunteers who are unsuitable to work / volunteer with children or young people. We have recruitment procedures that ensure:

our child safe commitment is communicated to potential applicants for positions
face-to-face interviews are held which includes child safety related questions
two professional reference checks are undertaken
screening checks are undertaken, including identity, criminal record, working with children or equivalent checks and qualification checks.

Induction and training are part of our commitment

We provide all new staff and volunteers with information during their induction about our commitment to keep children safe including our policy, Code of Behaviour and child abuse reporting policy. We have a process for ensuring all staff and volunteers complete child safe training. We support ongoing education and training for our staff and volunteers to ensure child safe information is provided in an ongoing way.

We ensure that our staff and volunteers have up to date information relevant to specific legislation.

We encourage the involvement of children, young people and their parents

We involve and communicate with children and young people, and their families in developing a safe, inclusive and supportive environment. We provide information to children and their carers (such as brochures, posters, handbooks, guidelines) about:

our commitment to keeping children safe and communicating their rights
the behaviour we expect of our staff and volunteers and of themselves
our policy about responding to child abuse

We have processes for encouraging two-way communication with children and families. We seek their feedback and have a process for responding. We respect diversity and seek to facilitate effective communication and involvement.

Our staff and volunteers understand their responsibility for reporting child abuse

Our policy for responding to child abuse is approved and endorsed from the highest levels of our organisation and applies to all our staff and volunteers. The policy states that:

staff and volunteers must immediately report abuse or neglect and any concerns with policies, practices or the behaviour of staff and volunteers.
staff and volunteers must meet any legislated mandatory or other jurisdictional reporting requirements
staff and volunteers must follow a specified process when reporting abuse or neglect including who will receive reports
failure to report is serious misconduct

Our staff and volunteers are given a copy of and have access to the policy and understand the implications of the policy for their role. We document any allegation, disclosure or concern regarding child abuse and monitor responses to all allegations, disclosures or concerns.

We maintain and improve our policies and practices

We are committed to maintaining and improving our policies, procedures and practices to keep children and young people safe from neglect and abuse. We have assigned responsibility for maintaining and improving our policies and procedures to a General Manager.

We monitor our staff and volunteers and external providers to ensure appropriate practice, behaviour, and policies are followed. We communicate with our staff and volunteers to ensure that they understand our policies and that the policies are effective in the work place. We require our staff and volunteers to disclose convictions or charges affecting their suitability to work with children and young people and we review police records and conduct other checks periodically.

We have formally reviewed our service delivery to identify and document potential risks to children or young people. We undertake formal reviews, at least annually, to identify and document potential risks to children or young people associated our service delivery. We have a procedure to undertake annual reviews, as part of our ongoing compliance with child safe requirements.