Statement of Commitment to Child Safety

SDN is committed to being a Child Safe Organisation, and children are at the heart of everything we do. The safety, wellbeing and inclusion of all children is our priority across all our work, including our children’s education and care centres, NDIS therapies, family support services and our advocacy for children and families.   

Everyone at SDN, including Board Directors, staff and volunteers, has a legal, moral, and purpose-driven responsibility to protect children and young people; create and maintain a child-safe culture and to acknowledge that protecting children is everyone’s business. 

Our vision is for an equitable world where all children thrive, and our purpose is to promote and enhance children’s wellbeing, learning and development in inclusive environments. 

We value the diversity of all children and families in our community, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children with disability or additional needs and children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

We will:

• respect and advocate for children’s rights as in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and teach children to respect others  
• value play and how important it is to children for fun and learning  
• be respectful, intentional, predictable, attuned and responsive  
• provide and advocate for environments, interactions, and relationships that promote and enhance children’s wellbeing, learning and development  
• facilitate children’s access and inclusion  
• use our knowledge from education, allied health, psychology and social science to provide the best programs for children that we can  
• listen to children, and understand the things that help them to be safe, secure and included and the things that help them to learn and develop  
• help children to tell adults about the things that are important to them so adults can understand their capabilities, wellbeing, learning and development.  

The concept of wellbeing is behind everything we do.  At SDN, all staff are expected to act in a way that prioritises the wellbeing of children at all times. SDN's Wellbeing Wheel visually represents how we believe many factors interconnect to create a state of wellbeing for children.

At the heart of children’s wellbeing is the need to be free from abuse, neglect and violence. Many staff members at SDN are mandatory reporters. This means they have a legal obligation to report any suspicions they may have that a child is at risk of harm. At SDN, we take this role seriously and train our staff to take it equally as seriously.

We take complaints, concerns and allegations regarding child safety seriously.

We support and uphold the National Principles for Child-safe Organisations and the NSW Child Safe Standards.

We are committed to continuously improving our practices to improve safety and wellbeing of all children in our services.