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All children have the right to be safe.
Pulse Climbing is committed to the safety, wellbeing and empowerment of all children with whom we interact.
We have zero tolerance of child abuse. We will treat seriously all allegations and safety concerns, in line with our robust policies and procedures.
We will be responsive to the needs of all children and young people, including the cultural safety and needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, children with disability, LGBTQIA+ children and children with prior trauma.
We will ensure children’s voices, and those of their families and carers, are heard about decisions that affect them.
We will ensure that child safety and wellbeing is embedded in our organisational culture, reflected in our policies and procedures, and understood and practised at all levels of our work.
The purpose of this Policy is to keep children and young people safe by minimising the risk of abuse, misconduct and misuse of positional power and to inform our community of their obligations and responsibilities in keeping children safe.
This policy applies to all members of our Pulse community, including:
It applies to all our activities that involve children, or that may involve children.
Management team
Staff
Families
Children/Young People
Other Pulse Climbing community members
Child
A child is defined as any individual under the age of 18 years.
Child contact
Child contact is defined as the various forms of engagement with a child, including:
Child harm and abuse
Child harm is defined as any action, or lack of action, that significantly harms the child’s physical, psychological or emotional health and development. Forms of child harm and abuse include:
The intentional use of physical force against a child that results in – or has a high likelihood of resulting in – harm for the child’s health, survival, development or dignity.
Emotional abuse refers to a parent or caregiver’s inappropriate verbal or symbolic acts towards a child and/or a pattern of failure over time to provide a child with adequate non-physical nurturing and emotional availability.
Neglect includes both isolated incidents, as well as a pattern of failure over time on the part of a parent or other family member to provide for the development and wellbeing of the child – where the parent is in a position to do so – in one or more of the following areas: (i) health, (ii) education, (iii) emotional development, (iv) nutrition, and/or (v) shelter and safe living conditions.
The involvement of a child in sexual activity that he or she does not fully comprehend, is unable to give informed consent to, or for which the child is not developmentally prepared, or else that violates the laws or social taboos of society. Children can be sexually abused by both adults and other children who are – by virtue of their age or stage of development – in a position of responsibility, trust or power over the victim. This includes grooming (defined below).
The term ‘grooming’ refers to behaviours that manipulate and control a child, as well as their family, kin and carers, other support networks, or organisations in order to perpetrate child sexual abuse. The intent of grooming is to: (i) gain access to the child or young person to perpetrate child sexual abuse, (ii) obtain sexual material of the child or young person, (iii) obtain the child or young person’s trust and/or compliance, (iv) maintain the child or young person’s silence, and/or (iv) avoid discovery of sexual abuse. This can occur online or in-person. Online, grooming is achieved through the internet or other technologies such as phones, social media, gaming, chat and messaging apps.
Children’s rights
Children’s rights is defined as a child’s entitlement to thrive, develop and be safe, participate in decisions that affect them, be free from discrimination and to have their best interests as a primary consideration in all actions concerning them. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Australia ratified in 1990, sets out children’s rights in detail.
General
All Pulse Climbing staff must:
The following table gives examples of behaviour which is acceptable and unacceptable.
Adults and staff at Pulse must behave towards children and young people in an acceptable way and must not act in an unacceptable way.
| ACCEPTABLE | UNACCEPTABLE |
|
Touching |
|
| (With child’s permission) to provide first aid. | Any unwarranted or unwanted touching. |
| (With child’s permission and if necessary) to assist with fitting harnesses. | Facilitating situations that unnecessarily result in close physical contact with a child or young person, such as wrestling or tickling. |
| Initiating, permitting or requesting unacceptable physical contact with a child or young person, such as massages, kisses, or sitting on lap. | |
|
Language/Communication |
|
| Using positive, non-offensive language | Using offensive language – swearing, using racial, cultural, homophobic or sexist slurs. |
| Remaining calm | Teasing/Jokes that could be offensive or belittling |
| Listening carefully and addressing issues with a positive and helpful attitude. | Mentioning sexual/adult matters in front of children |
| Flirting | |
| Asking for contact details | |
|
Other actions |
|
| Emails/phone calls/messaging should go through parents, except where parents have requested otherwise | Direct private communication between a coach/staff member and a child/young person (except where the young person is a staff member and is being contacted strictly about work-related matters). |
| Photographs of children are only taken/shared if written permission has been given by the parents and the child also consents. | Photographs taken or shared without permission. |
| Establish and maintain professional boundaries when working or interacting with children. | Bullying or aggression, ignoring or isolating |
| Showing or sharing inappropriate images, videos or music | |
| Anything that is illegal or may harm children | |
| Be alone with a child unnecessarily | |
To help keep children safe, we must create, maintain and improve our child safe reporting practices to ensure they remain effective. Everyone in our organisation must:
All complaints and concerns should be reported. This includes:
Everyone in our organisation has the right to make a genuine complaint and won’t be punished if they do. This includes children and young people, staff members, climbers and visitors, and volunteers. Reporting abuse is mandatory and encouraged – it is never obstructed or prevented.
Reporting criminal conduct
Contact NSW Police on 131 444 for anything you consider could be a criminal offence. This includes sexual assault, physical assault, grooming offences, and producing, disseminating or possessing child abuse material.
Note: It is a criminal offence for adults not to report to police if they know or believe that a child abuse offence has been committed. In addition, people employed in child-related work may be subject to a criminal offence if they fail to reduce or remove the risk of a child becoming a victim of child abuse.
Reporting risk of significant harm
Any person who has reasonable grounds to believe that a child or young person is at risk of significant harm (ROSH) can report to the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) on 132 111 (this is a 24-hour service).
Reporting allegations and convictions
Relevant entities must notify the Office of the Children’s Guardian of reportable allegations or convictions (that is, reportable conduct). This includes sexual offences, sexual misconduct, ill-treatment of a child, neglect of a child, an assault against a child, failure to protect a child or failure to report if a child has been harmed, as well as any behaviour that causes significant psychological harm to a child.
Reporting Breaches of our Child-Safe Policy and/or Code of Conduct
All breaches must be reported to a gym manager or directly to our Operations Manager.
QR code links to our complaints and feedback form are displayed prominently at all our facilities. This form can be used to report. If a person would prefer to report in another way, they can do so and staff will complete the form.
Reporting risk management
To ensure the immediate and ongoing safety of the child:
It is the child safety officer’s role to conduct a risk assessment after receiving an allegation, to ensure the safety of all people involved and maintain the integrity of the investigation.
Procedural fairness and privacy
Any allegation of abuse or unacceptable conduct will be treated in a fair, transparent and timely manner. Workers subject to an allegation will be notified when a disciplinary hearing will take place and what will occur at the hearing. We follow the obligations defined under the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth), and relevant reportable conduct investigations are conducted with the OCG’s Reportable Conduct Directorate.
Additionally:
Process
Once a complaint has been made, we use this step-by-step process to make sure it’s appropriately followed up:
These recruitment, screening and training requirements have been developed to provide a fair, safe, consistent, and comprehensive process to engage personnel at Pulse.
We assess which roles are Child-Related Positions (A Child-related position means a position that involves or may involve regular contact with Child/Young People, either under the position description or due to the nature of the role).
Our job advertisements, position descriptions and selection criteria for Child-Related Positions will all emphasise the primacy of child safe behaviours, for example “Must be able to demonstrate an understanding of appropriate behaviours when engaging with Child/Young People”.
Our interview process will include questions related to the suitability of the candidate for work with children and their understanding of child-safe practices.
All adult candidates for Child-Related positions must have their WWCC verified by Pulse before being offered employment.
Pulse will check the reference of all candidates for Child-Related positions and will ask the referee questions related to child safety before being offered employment.
Our training and induction process includes:
| Identified Risk | Risk Rating | Preventative Actions/Strategies |
| Lack of focus on child safety | Low | Implement Child Safe Policy.
Inform our community about child safety. Educate our staff. |
| Opportunities for coaches to develop close relationships with children
Unclear expectations about child/staff relationships |
Medium | Code of Conduct is very clear about expectations.
All coaches complete child-safe training. Parents are welcome to stay for training sessions. Training occurs in groups, not one-on-one. |
| Competitive cultures can discourage athletes from speaking up and can normalise emotionally abusive practises. | Medium | Leaders and staff champion a set of core values that inform the organisation’s approach to child safety.
Leaders demonstrate attitudes and behaviours that prioritise the safety of children through the behaviours and practices they reward and challenge. Code of Conduct and Reporting Policy must be signed by all staff. |
