Child safeguarding review and improvement with the Sisters of the Good Samaritan
The Sisters of the Good Samaritan of the Order of St Benedict (SGS) were the first religious Congregation founded in Australia and were committed to assisting vulnerable women and children. SGS have a long history of providing education in Australia and abroad including Japan, the Philippines, and Kiribati. Today, Good Samaritan Sisters live and minister throughout Australia and in Japan, the Philippines and Kiribati (since 1991) and are involved in social work, nursing, respite and residential care, education, parish work, centres of spirituality and administration.
Since 2019, Child Wise and SGS have worked together to assess and improve the child safeguarding documentation and safeguarding capacity of the Congregation.
In 2019, Child Wise utilised internal SGS evidence to develop an improvement plan to ensure the Congregation was working in line with the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards. Following the development of the improvement plan, Child Wise and SGS worked together to develop a suite of child safeguarding policies and related procedures for the Australian context. In 2020, Child Wise and SGS worked on two projects together, including work on developing a sustainable model of child safeguarding training and a review of ministries in the Philippines.
The Philippines ministries child safeguarding review considered existing policies, procedures, and feedback from Sisters and staff to identify the extent to which the Congregation was working in line with the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards, the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations, as well as compliance with local legislation and policy in the Philippines. Child Wise provided SGS with a roadmap to build on existing child safeguarding practices, strengthening their capacity to meet the requirements.
Child Wise and SGS have worked together to:
- Develop a suite of child safeguarding policies and procedures
- Implement improvements across the Congregation in Australia
- Develop an internal child safeguarding training program
- Conduct a child safeguarding review of Philippines ministries
- Identify a child safeguarding champion structure for the Philippines ministries
- Provide training to Sisters and staff across Philippines ministries
The Sisters of the Good Samaritan highly valued working with Child Wise on this project. We appreciated their expertise in the area of Child Safeguarding and their capacity
to listen and respond to the unique attributes and needs of our organisation. We have been delighted with their professional approach both in terms of their work processes and
delivered outcomes."
Sisters of the Good Samaritan
