Basic Risk Assessment for Employees Working with Children
It’s a testament to how far we have come as a society that we now work tirelessly to ensure the protection of our children. And in Australia, each state government has answered the call to assist in this endeavour by introducing rigorous background checks and mandatory certification for all adults who care for or engage with our kids.
Yet while the current basic card system has been incredibly useful in preventing certain undesirables from obtaining paid or volunteer work with children, it pays for employers to take further steps whenever your employees are to be working with children. Here, we run through the elements of a basic risk assessment.
Who will be working with children?
Let’s say that you are considering taking on a person to work for your organisation. At this early stage of interacting with a prospective recruit, it is crucial to gain a rounded picture of who he or she is. The first step of course is to obtain a certified copy of their working with children card (however it is named in your jurisdiction), plus check the number online to assess validity. This is a non-negotiable component of your risk assessment. It is sad but true that some of the least-appropriate persons seeking child-related work can seem quite nice or normal in settings such as employment. An objective check of their historical behaviour cuts through any uncertainty. It is also essential to conduct thorough referee checks, particularly mentioning to the former employer that there are children in your workplace. And don’t underestimate the interview process for ascertaining their history and motivations for working with children.
And children might not only be clients of your business – you might in fact employ children or have them on site on a work experience, volunteer or trainee basis. When employing adults to work beside children in this capacity, it is vital that you maintain a similar vigilance at recruitment and beyond. Unfortunately, some predatory types can target not only children but also other relatively vulnerable individuals in the workplace. For many children in a new role or work experience placement, they can be very keen to be seen as bright, friendly, willing and capable. This can provide a window for immoral adult employees to take advantage of such enthusiasm. Knowing that abusive behaviours towards children can commence with seemingly innocuous – yet insidious – grooming behaviours, it is crucial to monitor employees for any signs of potential impropriety.
Be sure also to keep age differences in mind, and note the differing needs for care and protection dependent upon the age of the child in question. For instance, a friendship between 17 and 19-year-old workmates might not have the same implications as that of a 14-year-old work experience child under the management of a 40-year-old manager.
What is the child-related work at your workplace?
Employers shouldn’t just be analysing risk in relation to potential dangers to children. At a broader level, you might also need to gauge the suitability of the person to be interacting with small, active, rowdy and sometimes stressful young humans! Risk in this context can be a two-way street. Your risk assessment should include an activity-based analysis of the match between your organisation and the potential recruit’s competencies. Considering the physical and mental stamina required in some child-related work, it is important to assess the employee’s capabilities related to the particular child age group/s and activities. For example in sports-based environment with teenagers operating as both staff and clients, you will need an analysis and strategy regarding any adult employees who also work in that space. For any employees engaged to care for very small children and babies, be sure to examine all regulations concerning child/carer ratios and physical safety requirements.
Where are employees working?
The place where your employees are working with children is also an important consideration within your risk assessment. For all people in attendance on the site – adults and children alike – it is of course essential that your premises are safe and conducive to the activities undertaken. Ensure that employees, particularly any new ones who are engaged in activities with children, are closely supervised in the employment space. It is important to assess if the skills and temperament presented at the recruitment stage are present and appropriate once in your specific workplace. If your employees are working with the children off-site, strategies around privacy, multiple workers with children and rigorous supervision of new recruits should be developed. Risk assessment of any non-employees who are near the children is also a necessary and related assessment that must be undertaken.
When are your employees working with children?
Pay attention to when your employees will be working with children. While it certainly pays to reduce risk as far as possible, stringent vetting requirements might not be applicable where contact with children is negligible or rare. For those employees who will be more regularly and closely involved in working with children, it is important to conduct an assessment of the timing of work, for example across the day or night. In long-hour crèches and youth housing sites, night-time work with children will require a careful risk analysis of suitability, safety and privacy issues..
Assessing risk, protecting children
For those employing staff to work with children, it is certainly prudent to conduct a basic risk assessment. Decisions regarding an appropriate level of risk that an organisation might carry must be balanced carefully.
In the context of employing people to work with children, the likelihood of the event occurring and the outcome if that event did occur will necessarily be weighed to establish risk.
Businesses have an understandable desire to succeed, just as charities, schools, not-for-profits and so on want to deliver excellent services. Yet when it comes to employing people who will be working with children, it is of course important to place child safety front-and-centre in all deliberations. Where or when you start with your risk assessment will vary. You might be starting a new venture, or conducting a risk assessment in relation to a going concern. First, write a list of all child-related activities and contacts known to occur in the organisation. Then collate all known requirements for child safety in both your area and your industry. Ask yourself to consider the likelihood of an adverse event occurring, should you not meet the standards set out. And the next question will be – if such an outcome eventuates, is this one that your organisation is prepared to carry?
As examples – the risk of abusive behaviours arising because you’ve recruited someone without a card, or have employed an adult to work unsupervised with children, or have left mixed ages on site in the evening – must be weighed against the legal, social and financial outcomes if any unfortunate event occurs. Only then can risk be meaningfully assessed.
By analysing the potential risks that arise when employees work with children, all people (big and small) can thrive in our workplaces.
