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The importance of child safety and wellbeing is embedded in our organisational leadership, governance, and culture. We aim to create an environment where all children and young people are valued and feel safe.

This policy reflects our commitment to:

CSIRO is committed to all the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations. The key principles for this policy include but are not limited to:

  • Ensuring all children and young people are valued and treated fairly, regardless of ethnicity, culture, sex, gender, social, economic, religion and ability.
  • Ensuring children and young people are listened to and any concerns that they or their families or guardians raise are acted upon.
  • Ensuring children and young people involved in activities and programs know what they can do if they feel unsafe.
  • Ensuring children, young people and their families know their rights and how to access the complaints procedures available to them.
  • Building and maintaining a child safe culture and environment.
  • Recognising children’s rights and interests.
  • Ensuring all our staff are aware of, and comply with, relevant requirements.
  • Providing support and assistance to staff who report incidents under this policy.
  • Providing support and assistance to children/families that may have been impacted.

CSIRO supports this policy by:

  • Requiring all staff and affiliates treat all children and young people with respect and act in accordance with CSIRO Code of Conduct and CSIRO Values.
  • Ensuring that staff working with children, or who encounter children and young people, adhere to the child safe protection behaviours.
  • Providing training for all CSIRO staff, affiliates, and volunteers who work with children or young people.
  • Tailoring recruitment practices to ensure only the most suitable and appropriate people are hired by CSIRO to work with children and young people.
  • Undertaking a risk-based approach for all programs and activities involving work, or potential work, with children and young people to mitigate and minimise any harm to children.  This includes completing and approving Child Safety Activity Risk Assessments, conducting an annual enterprise risk assessment to inform the Organisation’s risk profile and identifying any child protection obligations of third parties.
  • Requiring third parties, and their staff/sub-contractors, contracted to work with children and young people to comply with this policy.
  • Monitoring compliance with the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework and relevant legislation to promote the establishment and maintenance of a child safe environment.
  • Having a rigorous response to safeguarding concerns, complaints or disclosures. All safeguarding concerns must be reported according to state and territory legislation and notified to the Child Safe Office childsafeofficer@csiro.au.

Information and privacy

CSIRO handles all information including personal information in accordance with the applicable laws, including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), applicable child safety legislation and discrimination legislation.

For more information on related child safety legislation the Australian Institute of Family Studies provides a brief overview of child protection legislation across state and territory jurisdictions in Australia.

The CSIRO Privacy Policy outlines how your personal information will be handled, including details about how you can seek access or correction of the personal information we hold about you, how you can complain about a breach, and how we will deal with the complaint. If you require further information on how your personal information will be handled, please contact privacy@csiro.au.

Review of the Child Safe Policy

This policy and the associated guidelines will be reviewed every two years and updated as required, including in relation to any relevant legislative changes. We value community feedback on this policy. Feedback and suggestion can be provided by emailing childsafepolicy@csiro.au

CSIRO Child Safe Policy 2

[Music plays and an animation image appears of a female wearing a CSIRO t-shirt and waving]

Jessie: Hi, I’m Jessie from the CSIRO.

[Animated images move through to show the female to the left of the screen, a CSIRO banner on the right, various pieces of science equipment and trees, and then a group of people waving]

As Australia’s National Science Agency we do some really cool things in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and we’re excited about sharing these things with you and involving you in them. Today we want to tell you about what we’re doing to make sure that you feel safe when you visit us or take part in our activities.

[Animated images move through of an office desk, a female scientist teaching three students, a laptop, and then two phones either side of the laptop receiving social media messages]

This could include: visiting us on our worksites, offices, or laboratories; joining any of the activities that we run; participating in our programmes, like work experience; attending one of our events; contacting us online by email or on our social media channels, like Facebook, or Instagram.

[Animated images move through of two CSIRO staff with green ticks above their heads, many yellow smiley faces, many speech bubbles, and a female smiling between two people with sad faces]

Some of the things that we are doing to help you feel safe when you’re with us include: having the best people work with you by checking that they’re safe to do so; creating an environment where your safety and wellbeing is at the centre of our thoughts and how we behave; focussing on listening to what you have to say and valuing what you think; making sure that we know how to help you if you tell us something is wrong.

[Animated image shows the two sad people looking around with worried signs and then a joint thinking bubble with a sad face inside appearing above their heads]

It’s also important that you know what you can do if you feel worried or if something is wrong when you are with us. You might need to do this if someone has said or done something that you do not like; you feel worried about the activity you’re doing or how it makes you feel; a friend or someone you know is worried about a situation they are in.

[Animated images move through to show the two sad people talking to one another, a female standing between them, and then two CSIRO staff members standing either side of them]

If you feel worried about any of these things or if something has happened that you do not like here’s what you can do. Tell the person you are with that you do not feel comfortable. You can also tell a parent or teacher. Find a CSIRO staff member and tell them what happened.

[Animated image changes to show a mobile phone with arms and legs holding a moving flag and text appears on the flag: 02 6218 3777]

If you can use a phone call our Childsafe Officer by using the following phone number, 02 6218 3777. 
You can also ask someone you trust to do this.

[Animated image changes to show an envelope with flapping wings moving around the screen and text appears: CHILDSAFEOFFICER@CSIRO.AU]

If you can use email, email our Childsafe Officer via CHILDSAFEOFFICER@CSIRO.AU.

[Animated image changes to show lots of envelopes with flapping wings move up the screen from the bottom to the top]

You can also ask someone you trust to do this.

[Animated image changes to show a female in a CSIRO t-shirt waving and then the image shows a group of people behind her waving]

Everything we are telling you today can be found on our website including this video which you can watch as many times as you like.

[Music plays and the CSIRO logo and text appears on a white screen: CSIRO, Australia’s National Science Agency]

We are committed to the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people involved in our activities and programs (in person and online), including our work experience programs.

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The importance of child safety and wellbeing is embedded in our organisational leadership, governance, and culture. We aim to create an environment where all children and young people are valued and feel safe.

This policy reflects our commitment to:

CSIRO is committed to all the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations. The key principles for this policy include but are not limited to:

  • Ensuring all children and young people are valued and treated fairly, regardless of ethnicity, culture, sex, gender, social, economic, religion and ability.
  • Ensuring children and young people are listened to and any concerns that they or their families or guardians raise are acted upon.
  • Ensuring children and young people involved in activities and programs know what they can do if they feel unsafe.
  • Ensuring children, young people and their families know their rights and how to access the complaints procedures available to them.
  • Building and maintaining a child safe culture and environment.
  • Recognising children’s rights and interests.
  • Ensuring all our staff are aware of, and comply with, relevant requirements.
  • Providing support and assistance to staff who report incidents under this policy.
  • Providing support and assistance to children/families that may have been impacted.

CSIRO supports this policy by:

  • Requiring all staff and affiliates treat all children and young people with respect and act in accordance with CSIRO Code of Conduct and CSIRO Values.
  • Ensuring that staff working with children, or who encounter children and young people, adhere to the child safe protection behaviours.
  • Providing training for all CSIRO staff, affiliates, and volunteers who work with children or young people.
  • Tailoring recruitment practices to ensure only the most suitable and appropriate people are hired by CSIRO to work with children and young people.
  • Undertaking a risk-based approach for all programs and activities involving work, or potential work, with children and young people to mitigate and minimise any harm to children.  This includes completing and approving Child Safety Activity Risk Assessments, conducting an annual enterprise risk assessment to inform the Organisation’s risk profile and identifying any child protection obligations of third parties.
  • Requiring third parties, and their staff/sub-contractors, contracted to work with children and young people to comply with this policy.
  • Monitoring compliance with the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework and relevant legislation to promote the establishment and maintenance of a child safe environment.
  • Having a rigorous response to safeguarding concerns, complaints or disclosures. All safeguarding concerns must be reported according to state and territory legislation and notified to the Child Safe Office childsafeofficer@csiro.au.

Information and privacy

CSIRO handles all information including personal information in accordance with the applicable laws, including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), applicable child safety legislation and discrimination legislation.

For more information on related child safety legislation the Australian Institute of Family Studies provides a brief overview of child protection legislation across state and territory jurisdictions in Australia.

The CSIRO Privacy Policy outlines how your personal information will be handled, including details about how you can seek access or correction of the personal information we hold about you, how you can complain about a breach, and how we will deal with the complaint. If you require further information on how your personal information will be handled, please contact privacy@csiro.au.

Review of the Child Safe Policy

This policy and the associated guidelines will be reviewed every two years and updated as required, including in relation to any relevant legislative changes. We value community feedback on this policy. Feedback and suggestion can be provided by emailing childsafepolicy@csiro.au

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CSIRO will handle your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and our Privacy Policy.


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