Governance

Open Minds Limited and its subsidiary entities (‘Open Minds’) is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people. Open Minds has a zero tolerance for violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of children and young people.

To support this commitment, Open Minds is focused on providing an environment where all children and young people are safe, feel safe, and their voices are heard about decisions that impact their lives.

Open Minds also respects diversity in cultures and child rearing practices. Open Minds promotes the cultural safety of children and young people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and other culturally and/or linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Open Minds values the input of, and communicates regularly with, families and carers of children and young people involved in upholding their safety and wellbeing.

Open Minds is focused on preventing the abuse of children and young people, through a proactive approach that includes:

• identifying risks to the safety and wellbeing of children and young people early and removing or reducing these risks,
• fostering a culture of openness that supports all persons to safely disclose risks of harm to children and young people,
• treating all allegations and safety concerns relating to children and young people, seriously,
• enacting our legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried about any child or young person’s safety,
• ensuring workers understand that they are required to act in accordance with Open Minds’ Code of Conduct, and associated procedures and processes
• championing children’s and young people’s rights and modelling best practice in ensuring their safety and wellbeing,
• robust human resources and recruitment practices that minimise the risk of new and existing Directors, workers and volunteers from abusing children and young people,
• incident management processes that assertively respond to safety concerns regarding children and young people in required timeframes, and
• routinely training and educating our Directors, workers and volunteers on the risks and responsibilities regarding abuse of children and young people.