Update on LCA Child Safety Standards

In recent months, you may have heard about the draft LCA Child Safety Standards for Congregations. These draft standards have been developed as a mechanism for implementing the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations within our congregations. The proposed LCA standards are heavily reflective of the National Principles in content and requirements but are tailored to the congregational context and have been written in straight forward and user-friendly language. They incorporate a simple self-assessment requirement, and a child safety planning process for church councils to oversee and implement.

It is important that our Church embraces the proposed standards within our congregations, given that the child safety regulatory landscape in Australia is changing – most jurisdictions have either already implemented a new regulatory framework for child safety compliance or have indicated their intention to do so in the near future. This is new ground for churches and presents new challenges for our congregations in relation to child safety proactivity, compliance and reporting.

Of greater importance, implementation of the proposed standards within our congregations has the potential to yield great benefits – not only in terms of the safety and well-being of our children and young people, but also in connecting with our children and their families, and in helping us to further strengthen our already well-established child safety commitments.

The LCA draft child safety standards were released for targeted consultation across LCA Districts in May 2021. Consultation sessions with various congregations have been held and completed in Queensland and Victoria with further consultations scheduled to take place in NSW, the ACT and Western Australia in the coming weeks. Thus far, the consultations have been well attended and very informative. They have produced some robust discussions and generated a wealth of constructive suggestions for improvement. A big thank you to all who have contributed to the consultations to date.

In South Australia, the proposed LCA child safety standards are currently being trialled in a small number of congregations. This has involved the application of the proposed self-assessment process and will soon progress to the development of congregational child safety plans. It is anticipated that the trial will help us to gain a realistic picture of the implementation process, in terms of practicalities, constraints, timeframes and workload. Participants in the trial have also been able to identify areas for improvement and have already provided us with many helpful suggestions for change. A big thank you also to those who are participating in the trial.

We plan to have completed the consultations and the trial by the end of August and to have collated and analysed all the data by mid-October. A finalised version of the standards incorporating learnings from the consultations and the trial will then be prepared and submitted to the General Church Board for consideration and approval in October.

Pending GCB approval, it is intended that implementation of the LCA Child Safety Standards for Congregations will commence in early 2022.

If you have any queries about the consultation or the proposed standards, please contact either the Professional Standards Officer in your district or myself. We are very happy to answer any queries you might have, and our contact details are provided below.

Mary-Ann Carver
LCA Child Protection Project Officer
28th July 2021

Contact Details:
Mary-Ann Carver
LCA Child Protection Project Officer,
mary-ann.carver@lca.org.au
Based in the churchwide office, 197 Archer St North Adelaide, SA
Ph: 08 8267 7300 or 0490 281 727

Vic/Tas District Professional Standards Officer:
Denise Muschamp
denise.muschamp@lca.org.au
0437 180 928