Facebook
LinkedIn
Child Protection & Safeguarding
YALPAE is committed to creating and maintaining a safe, respectful, and protective environment for all children and young people who engage with the organisation.
Safeguarding is not treated as a secondary issue or a standalone program. It is a core institutional duty, embedded in governance, leadership, partnerships, and daily operations. Every person acting under YALPAE’s name or authority shares responsibility for protecting the wellbeing, dignity, and rights of children and vulnerable persons.
⚪ View Our Child Protection & Safeguarding Framework
⚪ View Our Code of Conduct & Ethics
A Non-Negotiable Commitment
YALPAE maintains a zero-tolerance approach to abuse, exploitation, neglect, maltreatment, harassment, or any conduct that places a child at risk.
The organisation’s safeguarding framework exists to ensure that child safety is always treated as a priority above convenience, reputation, hierarchy, or operational pressure.
Within YALPAE, safeguarding is:
- A non-delegable duty
- A leadership responsibility
- A condition of participation, membership, and partnership
- A standard that applies across all programs, events, structures, and collaborations
This means no person, office, committee, partner, or sponsor is exempt from safeguarding obligations.
Who This Applies To
YALPAE’s safeguarding standards apply to all persons and entities acting within or alongside the organisation.
This includes:
- Board members and Executive Committee members
- Officers, staff, and volunteers
- Chapter leaders and representatives
- Members and participants
- Partners, sponsors, contractors, service providers, and collaborators
- Any person acting under YALPAE’s name, authority, or auspices
Safeguarding obligations apply across physical, digital, direct, and indirect engagement wherever children may be involved.
Our Duty of Care
Every person bound by YALPAE’s safeguarding framework is expected to act in the best interests of the child at all times.
This includes the duty to:
- Maintain appropriate professional boundaries
- Avoid any conduct that could place a child at risk or create conditions for harm
- Respect the dignity, privacy, and developmental needs of children
- Report safeguarding concerns immediately through the appropriate channels
- Cooperate with safeguarding responses, investigations, and protective actions where required
Silence, inaction, or avoidance does not remove responsibility. Safeguarding is a shared obligation.
Child-Facing Activities
Any program, activity, event, communication, or engagement involving children is treated as a child-facing activity and must meet YALPAE’s safeguarding requirements.
This includes:
- In-person programs and events
- Youth training and mentorship activities
- School or community outreach
- Media, photography, and promotional content involving minors
- Digital engagement, online sessions, and communication platforms
No child-facing activity may proceed without appropriate safeguarding consideration, and where required, written safeguarding clearance must be obtained.
Safeguarding Comes Before Everything Else
Within YALPAE, safeguarding obligations override other internal considerations.
This means:
- No mediation, internal convenience, or leadership preference may delay safeguarding action
- No reputational concern may outweigh the safety of a child
- No partnership or sponsorship arrangement may weaken child protection standards
- No person’s status, influence, or office protects them from safeguarding scrutiny
Where there is a risk of harm, protective action takes precedence over internal process, hierarchy, or approval.
Reporting Concerns
Any safeguarding concern, allegation, suspicion, or observed risk must be reported immediately through YALPAE’s designated safeguarding channels.
Reports may relate to:
- Abuse or exploitation
- Neglect or harmful behaviour
- Boundary violations
- Unsafe conduct in child-facing environments
- Digital misconduct involving minors
- Any condition that may place a child at risk
Reports may be made confidentially and in good faith. Good-faith reporting must not result in retaliation, intimidation, or disadvantage.
Where a situation involves imminent harm or may require external intervention, the appropriate protection authorities or law enforcement processes must take priority in accordance with applicable law.
Safe Conduct Expectations
YALPAE expects all adults and leaders engaging with children to uphold high standards of conduct.
This includes:
- Maintaining professional and age-appropriate boundaries
- Avoiding one-to-one unsupervised engagement where inappropriate or unauthorised
- Using respectful language and behaviour at all times
- Never using corporal punishment, humiliation, intimidation, or degrading treatment
- Obtaining proper consent before taking or using photographs, audio, or video involving children
- Conducting digital communication responsibly and within approved boundaries
Safeguarding is not only about responding to harm. It is also about preventing the conditions in which harm becomes possible.
Safeguarding in Leadership and Governance
Safeguarding within YALPAE is a governance responsibility, not only an operational one.
Leadership structures carry direct responsibility for ensuring that safeguarding standards are promoted, implemented, and enforced across the organisation.
This includes:
- Board-level oversight of safeguarding compliance
- Designated safeguarding leadership through the Director of Youth Wellness & Protection
- Integration of safeguarding into governance, ethics, and disciplinary systems
- Mandatory compliance by committees, chapters, and officers
- Protection of safeguarding processes from interference or delay
Leaders are expected not only to avoid misconduct, but also to act when ethical or safeguarding risks become known. Failure to respond to known safeguarding concerns may itself constitute a breach of leadership ethics.
Safeguarding in Partnerships
Safeguarding compliance is a non-negotiable condition of partnership, sponsorship, collaboration, and service provision within YALPAE.
No partner may participate in child-facing activity without meeting YALPAE’s safeguarding requirements. This includes compliance with:
- YALPAE’s Child Protection & Safeguarding Framework
- Relevant safeguarding annexes and procedures
- Applicable child protection laws and duties
YALPAE reserves the right to suspend activities, impose corrective measures, conduct safeguarding reviews, or terminate agreements immediately where safeguarding standards are breached or child safety is placed at risk.
Confidentiality and Records
Safeguarding information must be handled confidentially, securely, and lawfully.
YALPAE protects safeguarding information to preserve dignity, privacy, and procedural fairness. At the same time, confidentiality must never be used to suppress necessary action or prevent disclosure where a child must be protected or where the law requires reporting.
Safeguarding records are retained in accordance with applicable legal obligations and internal data protection standards.
Training and Awareness
YALPAE recognises that safeguarding requires more than policy. It requires awareness, discipline, and institutional culture.
Safeguarding training may be required as a condition of:
- Leadership
- Volunteering
- Program participation
- Child-facing work
- Partnership or collaboration
Leaders bear responsibility for promoting safeguarding awareness and compliance within their areas of responsibility, helping to ensure that child protection is understood and practiced consistently throughout the organisation.
Accountability and Consequences
Compliance with YALPAE’s safeguarding framework is a condition of membership, leadership, participation, employment, and partnership.
Where safeguarding obligations are breached, YALPAE may take immediate and proportionate action, including:
- Suspension from child-facing activities
- Internal disciplinary action
- Removal from office, membership, or participation
- Termination of partnership or engagement
- Referral to competent authorities where required
Safeguarding accountability exists to protect children, uphold institutional integrity, and ensure that YALPAE remains a trustworthy environment for youth participation and leadership.
A Safe Environment for Youth Leadership
YALPAE believes that meaningful youth empowerment must be built on safety, dignity, and trust.
Children and young people cannot thrive in environments where protection is unclear, leadership is passive, or safeguarding is treated as optional. For this reason, YALPAE’s safeguarding framework is designed to ensure that protection is active, responsibilities are clear, and safety is embedded into the organisation’s culture.
Safeguarding is part of how YALPAE leads, how it partners, and how it serves.