Wellbeing

Child Safe Standard Seven

At MMCRC, Processes for complaints and concerns are child-focused

All child-focused places of learning want to nurture and foster the healthy personal and social capabilities of the young people entrusted to their care. Sometimes the complexities of human behaviour require further intervention and a more rigorous examination to come to an acceptable resolution. A vehicle for reasonable complaints gives all persons within a school community, agency, and empowers people to speak up if they feel there has been an injustice. 

Child Safe standard seven focuses on ensuring that schools have complaints processes that are child-focused, culturally safe, and accessible to everyone.

Mary MacKillop Catholic Regional College must have policies, procedures and practices to:

• Have a complaint handling process focused on students and their safety needs
• Take complaints and concerns seriously
• Respond promptly and thoroughly
• Identify and respond to all forms of child abuse
• Report child abuse to the relevant authorities, whether there is a legal obligation to report it.

Making a complaint can be challenging. Complaints are more likely to be raised when there are clear, well-communicated policies and procedures for concerns or allegations.

Complaint handling processes need to focus on students and their safety needs. The process should be able to handle all kinds of complaints and concerns. A complaint might reveal a bigger issue or prevent a situation from escalating.

Empowering students to raise low‑level concerns improves the likelihood that they will feel comfortable making a disclosure or reporting abuse.

Staff, contractors, volunteers, and families can report concerns more easily if the school has procedures that are child-friendly and accessible to students and the school community.

Mary MacKillop Catholic Regional College complies with this standard by:

• Responding to complaints or concerns relating to child abuse made by or concerning a child or student, school staff, volunteers, contractors, service providers, visitors, or other persons connected to the school that:
  • is publicly available and accessible to children, students, staff, contractors, and the school community
  • is child-focused
  • is culturally safe and easily understood by the school community
  • ensures complaints are taken seriously and responded to promptly and thoroughly
  • covers all forms of child abuse
  • sensitive to the diversity and characteristics of the school community

The College encourages:

• Students should raise concerns with a trusted adult if anything makes them uncomfortable or unsafe.
• Student discussions about what would help them speak up when they have concerns.
• Students to discuss their experiences making complaints and act on feedback from students in the school’s policies and the complaint process.

Please read the MMCRC Complaints and Grievances Management Policy carefully using our College website. We encourage our community to review section five of the document, which outlines College procedures. The College also has an MMCRC Complaints and Grievances Form. The form is user-friendly and accessible by clicking the link in this sentence.