Safeguarding & Complaints Handling

Children are a gift from God; a gift to be treasured, a gift to be nurtured, a gift to be kept safe. Every child has an intrinsic right to dignity of life, respect and protection from harm.

Guided by the Archbishop’s commitment to this understanding, and informed by the Royal Commission’s Child Safe Standards and the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards, the Archdiocese has developed a number of resources to assist each Parish and faith community to establish and maintain safe environments for children and young people. These can all be accessed via the Institute of Professional Standards and Safeguarding website: https://cgcatholic.org.au/professional-standards

All catechists operating within the Archdiocese are provided with training in their responsibilities and obligations involved with providing a duty of care for the children that you will encounter in your ministry.

This includes, but not limited to:

• Creating safe physical environments and managing risks and hazards;
• Acting with professional conduct at all times and maintaining appropriate relationships and boundaries; and
• Responding to and managing disclosures of harm, and when to seek help and support.

The Archdiocese has an established procedure for handling any complaints on concerns about the conduct of any of its catechists / SRE teachers. This can be accessed here.

For further questions or information about safeguarding or complaints handling, please contact:

Maria Hicks
Manager, Institute for Professional Standards and Safeguarding
Phone: 02 6239 9806
Email: maria.hicks@cg.org.au