Health, Safety & Wellbeing

The safety, health, and wellbeing of everyone in our community – children, families, and team members – is our top priority.

Here’s how we’re committed to creating safe, supportive environments in every centre.

Our Children and Families

It’s important that our health, safety, and wellbeing policies are both safe and practical. While safety is always our top priority, we also understand that families are busy, so our policies are designed to be straightforward and supportive.

Drop off and pick-up

We know mornings and evenings can be a busy time for parents, so we make drop-offs and pick-ups as seamless as possible with electronic sign in and sign out. However, there are certain procedures that must take place to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of the children in our care.

For example, required attendance records and confirmation of the child’s presence or absence must be recorded.  This ensures the accuracy of the number of children in attendance and that the correct child to staff ratios are being met. That is why it is important that families sign their child in at the start of the day and out at the end of the day. It also means your attendance is recorded accurately for any Child Care Subsidies you may be receiving.

Guardian has a duty of care for every child attending our centres. This exists while a child is on the centre’s premises even if he/she hasn’t yet been signed in or has been signed out. That is why we also have strict guidelines on why and how your child can leave the centre premises:

  • A parent, guardian or nominee collects the child, provides written authorisation for the child to leave or to attend an excursion
  • The child requires medical, hospital or ambulance treatment, or there is another emergency.

Wellbeing and nutrition

Educating children about the importance of healthy eating and good nutrition is an important part of early childhood development. We believe in providing a positive eating environment that reflects dietary requirements, cultural and family values, and promotes lifelong learning for children.

Guardian is committed to promoting and supporting healthy food and drink choices that meet the requirements for children according to the Australian Dietary Guidelines. We also value families’ contributions to menu planning because we know this is the best way to extend healthy habits from the centre into the home and beyond. Specifically:

  • We always follow through health and hygiene practices for handling, preparing and storing food.
  • Children always have access to food and water throughout the day
  • Children’s individual dietary requirements are catered for, and we work together with families to support each child’s needs
  • Positive mealtime experiences through education and role-modelling of healthy eating practices.

Other Health, Safety and Wellbeing measures for children

The health, safety and wellbeing of our people – big and small – is always our highest priority. That’s why our team members are all trained to appropriately manage the various situations that can arise in a childcare setting, which include:

  • Excursions
  • First aid
  • Children and water play
  • Sun protection for children
  • Creating safe environments in our Centres
  • Handling incidents and injuries
  • Illness procedures

Our Child Protection policy

Guardian is a Child Safe Organisation. We adopt, meet and exceed all Child Safe Standards that have been adopted and legislated in all states and territories of Australia. This includes ten standards in all states and eleven standards in Victoria. We work to ensure that we provide an environment that inspires confidence, friendship, security, and happiness. Our Child Protection policy and practices encourage a culture of openness, inclusiveness, and awareness. Children need safe and secure environments to thrive in both life and learning.

What this means on a day-to-day basis is:

  • We will respond to children’s concerns truthfully and help them feel valued and heard
  • We actively listen to and empower children
  • We have zero-tolerance for child abuse or any form of neglect
  • We take all allegations and concerns seriously and respond in line with our policies and procedures and Child Protection Law and National Regulations..

Here’s how we implement this across our centres:

  • We reinforce a culture of speaking up about bad behaviour. Our Whistleblower Policy provides a confidential, anonymous way for team members to report any poor behaviour or treatment they see, with no repercussions
  • We provide mandatory child protection and incident reporting training for team members
  • We take all concerns and allegations seriously and will always respond in a fair and consistent way, following our policies and child protection laws.
  • We’re dedicated to creating a safe, supportive environment where children feel heard, confident, and protected every day
  • Our Social Media and Digital Devices Policy ensures children’s safety and privacy by using Guardian-owned devices, sharing content only with family permission, and through approved channels following strict guidelines for use
  • We exceed required centre supervision ratios 90% of the time; for the remaining 10%, we meet the regulations.

If you would like more information on any of these policies or specific procedures relating to the health, safety and wellbeing of children in our centres, talk to us during your tour or call our Concierge Team on 13 82 30. Our family support resources can be found here.

Our Team

Safety and wellbeing are everyone’s responsibility and therefore each Guardian employee is required to behave and perform their duties to ensure a positive, safe and healthy culture for all.

We believe that every team member has a responsibility to do more than just follow the relevant legislation. Instead, we work together to create and maintain a safe work environment for our colleagues and, importantly, the children in our care.

Specifically, our teams show their commitment to health, safety and wellbeing in the following ways:

  • Taking responsibility for their own safety and wellbeing by following appropriate procedures and practices
  • Proactively identifying hazards, assessing risk and implementing appropriate measures to ensure a safe environment for all
  • Effectively raising and consulting on safety or wellbeing concerns
  • Adhering to injury management procedures.

To learn more about our health and safety measures, talk to us during your tour or call our Concierge Team on 13 82 30.