9 February 2017 | Tennis Victoria

The Victorian Child Safety Standards came into effect on 1 January 2017.

Your club/association’s work towards meeting these standards will be supported by tennis specific resources that the Tennis Australia Integrity Unit are currently creating, following an independent national review conducted by the Australian Childhood Foundation.

The Tennis Australia Integrity Unit has recently advised on the following next steps:

• Production of Safeguarding Children Guidelines – currently in final draft with a distribution date of March 2017

• Production of a Child Safe Statement of Commitment for release in March 2017. This statement is in line with the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child 1989 ratified by Australia in 1990  –
  • Our Statement of Commitment to Children
  • Our Statement of Commitment to parents and carers; and
  • Our Statement to ensuring a child safe organization

Both documents support the recently updated Member Protection Policy and it’s procedures.

• Update of the Tennis Australia website to include a specific page for Member Protection and Child Abuse reporting and procedures.
• Launch in March 2017 of an Integrity Unit online complaint system (currently being trialed internally)
• Implementation of an Integrity Hotline based on the principles of “Crimestoppers”.  This will be a triage service to assist in the management of matters reported to the Hotline operator.
• Tennis Australia Integrity Unit members will undertake a nationwide education program including attendance at stakeholder workshops
• Development of a National Campaign to promote Tennis Australia’s ongoing commitment to the health, safety and wellbeing of its members and participants and that we have a zero tolerance approach to any reported inappropriate behaviour

Please also note that your club/association may also receive communication directly from the Tennis Australia Integrity Unit in the future on matters of importance.