Safeguarding Children & Vulnerable People Handbook

ANNEXURES CONT’D

Annexure 4 - Additional guidelines for working with Children As a member of St John SA it is your responsibility to have read, understand and comply with the organisations child protection policies and procedures. In addition you should: Be a good role model Treat children with dignity and respect regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity, disability or sexuality Respect personal privacy Be sensitive to the needs of others and their likes/dislikes Never make belittling or discouraging remarks Not use inappropriate language and subject matter Challenge unacceptable behaviour and report allegations or suspicions of abuse Never ignore or trivialise bullying. Ensuring Supervision by two adults at all St John SA activities It is required that all activities involving children or young people at St John SA have two adult members present at ALL times. This policy must be adhered too at all times and needs to be considered when planning activities to ensure sufficient supervision ratios are in place. Communication with children: Today communication includes the wider use of technology such as mobile phones, text messaging, emails, cameras, videos, websites and blogs. Communication between children and adults, by whatever method, should take place with clear and explicit boundaries.

In communicating with children, all members should; Ensure that all communications are transparent. That all communication must comply with St John Australia’s code of conduct and St John SA’s social media policy, which includes: ensuring that all material published is respectful of all individuals and St John SA and do not publish material that is offensive, obscene, defamatory, threatening, harassing, bullying, discriminatory, hateful, racist, sexist, breaches a Court Suppression Order, or is otherwise unlawful. You should not request, or respond to, any personal information from a child, other than that which is appropriate as part of your role at St John SA Private messaging between adult St John SA members and St John SA children should be avoided across all social media platforms Details of mobile numbers and emails must be securely stored as required by St John SA’s data protection policy. Photography and videos: It is appropriate on occasion to take photos and video of children and/or allow children to record images of each other eg: to assist learning, to celebrate achievement or for approved publicity purposes. However because of the potential of images to be misused for grooming or pornographic purposes, members are required to: Only record images when consent has been given by the parent/guardian Only record images when permission has been given by the child Not include any names of St John SA child, when using images or video for social media, and care must be taken not to reveal personal information about the subject/s Ensure that all images are available for scrutiny, in order to screen for acceptability and appropriateness Not take images in secret Report any concern about inappropriate or intrusive photographs being taken Ensure images are stored securely and only accessed by those authorised to do so.

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Member Handbook July 2016 St John Ambulance SA Inc