An important element of our meeting was hearing from Sheree Limbrick, the CEO of Catholic Professional Standards, who explained the Standards (below) and the implications for both Church and Catholic education organisations. We apppreciate her time, especially on the eve of releasing the Standards nationally.

Excerpt form CPSL media release:

Catholic Professional Standards Limited has released the historic National Catholic Safeguarding Standards in response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Speaking shortly after the release, CEO Sheree Limbrick said that during the Royal Commission, Catholic leaders committed to establishing nationally consistent standards and to the audit and public reporting of the compliance of Church Authorities with those standards.

“The National Catholic Safeguarding Standards and their supporting criteria build on the Royal Commission’s child safe standards and harmonise with the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations,” Ms Limbrick said.

National Catholic Safeguarding Standards

Standard 1: Committed leadership, governance and culture Child safeguarding is embedded in the entity’s leadership, governance and culture

Standard 2: Children are safe, informed and participate Children are informed about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously

Standard 3: Partnering with families, carers and communities Families, carers and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safeguarding

Standard 4: Equity is promoted, and diversity is respected Equity is upheld and diverse needs respected in policy and practice

Standard 5: Robust human resource management People working with children are suitable and supported to reflect child safeguarding values in practice

Standard 6: Effective complaints management Processes for raising concerns and complaints are responsive, understood, accessible and used by children, families, carers, communities and personnel

Standard 7: Ongoing education and training Personnel are equipped with knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children safe through information, ongoing education and training

Standard 8: Safe physical and online environments Physical and online environments promote safety and contain appropriate safeguards to minimise the opportunity for children to be harmed

Standard 9: Continuous improvement Entities regularly review and improve implementation of their systems for keeping children safe

Standard 10: Policies and procedures support child safety
Policies and procedures document how the entity is safe for children