DISCLOSURES
Ensure at all time you respect the privacy of the child and their family.
- Respect the confidentiality of the disclosure.
- Do not share the information with anyone other than the appropriate authorities within your organisation and Child Protection authorities or the Police.
- Do not share with any other members of the community or families at your Service.
- Develop a code phrase for all staff to use so they understand when a Staff Member needs to be relieved, and why, and understand the vulnerability of the child.
Tip No 12 - Respect privacy
Respect the child’s privacy – even if they don’t seem to understand the importance of confidentiality at the time. It’s important that when a child who discloses remembers the event, that they don’t have a memory that their disclosure was made public knowledge around the centre.
Do not share the information about the disclosure with anyone other than the appropriate authorities within your organisation. Don’t talk with other Staff Members in view of the child in a way that could give the child the perception that you’re talking about them or the disclosure.
Don’t share any information about the child with other members of the community or other families at your service. It can be difficult for children growing up in a community where their personal information has become common knowledge.
Of course, as soon as the child has disclosed you will often need to let another Staff Member know you require relief to attend to documenting and reporting. You need to do that without explaining the entire event particularly in view of the child. It’s also likely you may have to pass the child onto another Staff Member so they can be with them whilst you are gone, and they need to understand the situation and possible vulnerability of the child.
We suggest as part of your Child Protection policy that you develop a “code phrase” to let other Staff Members know when you’ve had a child disclose and you need assistance and relief. It could be something like “mashing banana” eg you’ve just finished talking with Emily, you’ve told her that you need to go and talk with your Senior Supervisor but Emily still needs some comfort and individual time. You can’t leave Emily to go and talk confidentially with a Staff Member to arrange relief and care for Emily – so you call out to a staff member and ask them if they could please organise relief for you and care for Emily while you go and mash some bananas for lunch.