Child safe compliance
The Commonwealth Child Safe Framework 2022 (CCSF) sets minimum standards for creating and maintaining child safe culture and practices for Australian Government entities, and is mandatory for all Commonwealth non-corporate entities.
Under Requirement 4 of the CCSF, Commonwealth entities are required to publish an annual statement of compliance with the Framework, including an overview of the entity’s child safety risk assessment. Entities with minimal interaction with children may have a simple, high level statement of commitment.
Statement of compliance
The Productivity Commission is committed to the safety of children and safeguarding children from abuse, neglect and exploitation. The Commission seeks to create and maintain behaviours, practices and an organisational culture that acknowledges the importance of child safety and wellbeing.
The Commission is the Australian Government's independent research and advisory body on a range of economic, social and environmental issues affecting the welfare of Australians. The nature of our work means that we have minimal and infrequent direct interactions with children across our activities and functions.
Throughout the reporting period*, the limited occasions we engaged with children, we ensured that this was done respectfully, sensitively and responsibly. We have been guided by experts when engaging with children to ensure that children’s safety and wellbeing is our highest priority. For example, working with the Front Project (a qualified intermediary) to obtain young children’s views as part of the Early Childhood Education and Care inquiry work. We also undertake pre-employment criminal history screening, and employees are subject to an enduring integrity framework.
We acknowledge the importance of being a child safe organisation. The Commission is actively working towards full compliance with the CCSF.
As part of our commitment, the Commission:
- conducts an annual risk assessment to evaluate the risk of harm to children and young people.
- will conduct an evaluation of each inquiry or project to ensure that any risks to children were proactively identified and managed. Evaluations inform future inquiry work, adapting where change is required.
- will fully integrate oversight of child safety arrangements into the Commission’s Compliance Framework
- will embed child safety and wellbeing in organisational leadership, governance and culture
- will establish training to ensure staff are aware of, and comply with, our child safety requirements.
- will fully adopt and implement the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.
Annual risk assessment, as at 30 October 2023
The Commission has undertaken a risk assessment of our operations for the reporting period* as they relate to our engagement with children. Control measures are in place to ensure we both operationalise our commitment to the safety and protection of children and young people and meet our obligations under the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework.
Using our Enterprise Risk Management Framework, the child safety risk assessment suggests it is unlikely that the Commission’s activities may expose children to harm or abuse, however, the Commission notes there could be major consequences should this occur and therefore assigns an overall risk rating of moderate.
* The reporting period is 1 November 2022 – 31 October 2023.