March 2017
Welcome to the second YMCA Safeguarding Children newsletter of 2017.
No doubt 2017 will be another busy year and we look forward to our continuing work with you.
Re-accreditation FAQs
In the last newsletter we wrote that several of the YMCAs were about to embark on the Safeguarding
Children Program re-accreditation process this year. In fact seven (7) YMCAs are up for reaccreditation in 2017. It is 3 years since these Ys went through the accreditation process. There have
been changes to our processes and often to the personnel responsible for safeguarding in the
organisations over this time, so we have been responding to a number of queries in relation to the reaccreditation process. We thought it might be helpful outline the process in some detail in the following
FAQs.
1. Have the standards changed since our initial accreditation?
No, the seven Safeguarding Standards have not changed. They have been lodged with ACCC as part
of the registration of the Safeguarding logo as a Certified trademark.
However the Safeguarding Program is continuously reviewed to ensure that it remains a model of best
practice. Developments and changing requirements in relation to child safe and child abuse legislation
and in response to new research data are incorporated in the materials that we provide to support the
implementation of the Standards. So you may find some improvements in the samples and templates
we provide on the on-line Safeguarding Manager portal. We encourage you to consider using the
improved documents. Additionally the Safeguarding Manager supports better tracking of the
requirements of the Standards and consequently greater rigour in assessing compliance with policy
requirements. It is likely that you be required to update some of your documentation.
2. When does the reaccreditation process commence?
The re-accreditation process commences 6 months prior to the 3 year anniversary of an organisation’s
accreditation in order to maintain continuous accreditation for the organisation. The accreditation period
can be extended by ACF in order to ensure continuity of accreditation if the organisation has progressed
sufficiently through the re-accreditation process to satisfactorily establish that they will be able to
demonstrate their compliance with safeguarding requirements within the extension period.
3. How will I know when the process is to start?
You will receive a system-generated email through the Safeguarding Manager portal six (6) months
prior to the date that your re-accreditation is due. You should commence work as soon as you receive
the notice as dates for implementation audits and Accreditation Panel meetings as planned well in
advance. Your consultant will check with you prior to this date to ensure that the person identified on
the Manager as the key contact has remained the same. You may wish to start work on re-accreditation
prior to receiving the email from the Manager. Your consultant can assist you with this.
4. What does re-accreditation involve?
Re-accreditation involves the same steps as the accreditation process which includes: re-submitting
your organisation’s documentation against the Safeguarding Standards; ensuring implementation of
you policies; undertaking an audit with the Safeguarding Children Program staff; and attending the
Accreditation Panel.
5. What do I do to start the process?
You will need to log-in to your account through Safeguarding Manager portal. If you have forgotten your
username or password you can contact your consultant or Diane Newham at the ACF. You will need to
review the details for your organisation held on the Participation Request. This is fairly high level
information about your organisation which allows us to determine whether there have been any
significant changes to the services and programs that you provide for children and young people. Once
you have revised and submitted the Participation Request, the Standards and sample resources and
documents will be available to you through the Manager. You can also see archived copies of
documentation that you submitted over the past three (3) years. You can now begin uploading
documents against the Standards.
6. How do I know what to upload?
Each Standard has a set of requirements under pinning it; by responding to each of the requirements
in each of the Standards you will be able to submit all the required documents. Standards can be
submitted in any order. Your consultant will then review your documents and either accept them or ask
you to make changes. Once you have submitted all your uploaded documents against each Standard,
the consultant will acknowledge that they have all been accepted and you can submit them to trigger
an Audit Request through the Safeguarding Manager.
7. What are the timeframes for the re-accreditation process?
As re-accreditation is anticipated to be completed by the time the accreditation period runs out, the
timeframes for re-accreditation are relatively inflexible and are dependent on the size and complexity
of your organisation and whether there have been significant changes in your policy work that need to
be approved and implemented. Generally speaking, organisations that have been accredited will have
relatively few changes in their documentation and will not require much change in workplace practices.
If this is the case for your organisation, then the timeframes would be shorter. We have allowed roughly
4 - 6 weeks for submitting policies, having them accepted and requesting an audit.
The time between requesting and undertaking an audit is highly dependent on the implementation
factors noted above and on the complexity of the planning for the audit. However we would usually
allow between 4 - 6 weeks. Similarly the audit itself could take between 1 day and 3 weeks.
Time frames that are less organisation-dependent are those for the completion of the Audit Report and
its presentation to the Accreditation Panel. This part of the process would usually take 4 - 5 weeks.
8. What is the ‘Scope of Participation’?
The Scope of Participation is a spreadsheet used by ACF to map your services and programs for
children and young people. This enables us to develop a comprehensive understanding of the risks
associated with the services and programs your organisation provides. It is also critical in helping us
to develop a representative sample for the implementation audit. It is leveraged off the information
contained in the Participation Request and is generally developed progressively throughout our
involvement with your organisation. However it must be completed prior to assist the audit planning.
You little be asked to provide information to inform its development.
9. What do we have to do to prepare for the audit?
Obviously you will need to ensure that you have implemented your polices effectively. You will be
asked to ensure that the personnel identified for interview as part of the audit are available to be
interviewed; and are notified of the time, place and purpose of the audit. We appreciate your
assistance in developing a realistic interview schedule that causes as little disruption as possible to
your day-to-day operations.
10. Is the Safeguarding Manager easy to use?
We certainly hope so, but we always welcome any feedback so that we can keep improving the way
we do things.
We hope that this gives you a clearer picture of what is involved in re-accreditation and helps you with
your forward planning for re-accreditation.
Let Us Know
As usual we are very keen to hear about any new developments in your Safeguarding Program and
any examples of great practice that you would like us to highlight.
The Safeguarding newsletter is an initiative of YMCA Australia and the Australian Childhood Foundation (ACF)
developed out of our partnership to deliver safeguarding children and young people training and accreditation.