St Stephen’s is committed to ensuring the safety of all children who interact within our community.
Child safety is every one’s concern. God’s word is clear in telling us that all people, regardless of age, ethnicity, gender or nationality are created in God’s image and are valuable to him. So we seek to create a place of safety for Indigenous children and for all children who come to us from a culturally or linguistically diverse background. We also seek to ensure the safety of any child with a disability.
The church should be a place where children, youth and adults can come to know and experience the love of Christ with those who work with and care for them. We are committed to the highest standards of child safety because we want children to be safe, so that they grow in their faith and love of Christ.
To ensure that we meet these high standards of child safety, St Stephen’s has the following policies in place.
- through effective leadership and clear lines of accountability, we ensure that all those in positions of power or influence with children are properly screened, supervised and trained.
- Our code of conduct is the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne “Duty of care” handbook. A copy of this handbook is provided to all those in paid or voluntary position who have contact with children. The handbook is available in the church foyer, or can be found on line at:
- All those working with children in the parish are required to have a current Working with Children Check card and reference checks are also conducted.
- St Stephen’s has zero tolerance for child abuse and we take all allegations of child abuse seriously.
If you have any concerns about child safety
- You can talk to our Child Safety Officer, Gus McLean, the Senior Minister or a member of the ministry team and they will discuss with you what further action is needed.
- You can report directly to the diocese. The process is found at http://www.melbourneanglican.org.au/Whoweare/Governance/professionalstandards/Pages/professionalstandards.aspx
- You can report directly to diocese to the Director of Professional Standards on 1800 135 246.
- You can write to the Director of Professional Standards
Director of Professional Standards
Anglican Diocese of Melbourne
PO Box 329
Canterbury VIC 3129
(Please mark your envelop confidential)
The Director of Professional Standards responds to all complaints of misconduct including sexual, physical, spiritual or emotional abuse by clergy or Church officers. The Director is as independent as possible from the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne, but is paid by the Diocese.
All information provided to Director of Professional Standards is strictly confidential. The person taking a message on this number will ask you to give a name and your phone number or address so that the Director can contact you as soon as possible.
It is a requirement of law that any child abuse must be reported to the police!
Please report any abuse of a child directly to Police on 000.
Please do your part to ensure the safety of children.