Child Protection

A Child Protection Policy is required for organisations providing government-funded services to children and families.

The purpose of this Policy is to explain the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment's (MBIE) commitment to ensuring the wellbeing and safety of children and young people who receive services from MBIE, or from organisations funded or contracted by MBIE. Through the delivery of its services, MBIE recognises that there is a genuine and significant opportunity to identify the abuse and neglect of children.

Scope

This Policy applies to all employees of MBIE who come into contact with children or young people as part of their role, as well as areas that develop and/or contract services for children. This includes the contracting of services delivered by Immigration New Zealand at the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre (MRRC), Border Services, Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ), and all other relevant MBIE business functions.

This Policy also applies to every contract or funding arrangement entered into by MBIE with other persons or organisations for the provision of services for children.

Our child protection principles

The rights of children are respected, and the welfare and safety of children and young persons are our primary consideration when providing children's services.

Our commitment

Appropriate training is completed by all employees providing children's services, both before they start the role and during their tenure.

Each MBIE business function that is or becomes a provider of children's services must have additional supporting standard operating procedures (SOPs) and guidelines to meet Child Protection requirements under the relevant legislation.

Employees learn to identify abuse and neglect in accordance with Oranga Tamariki guidelines.

Any person who believes that a child or young person has been, or is likely to be,

harmed
illtreated
abused, (whether physically, emotionally, or sexually)
neglected
deprived

or who has concerns about the well-being of a child or young person and the child is not in immediate danger, will first report their concerns to their Manager and to deliver the most appropriate response. These approaches may involve

seeking guidance from MBIE's business owner for this Child Protection Policy
reporting the matter to the Chief Executive of Oranga Tamariki or the New Zealand Police
recording the concerns in Zambion - the MBIE incident reporting application.

If an employee identifies an incident of child abuse or neglect and determines that the child is in immediate danger, the employee will notify the New Zealand Police on 111.

All incidents including suspected incidents of child abuse or neglect are managed respectfully and sensitively while maintaining the need for individual privacy.

Contractors and service providers funded by, or working on behalf of MBIE to provide children's services, either have adopted a suitable child protection policy and regularly review their own child protection policy, or have adapted and applied the MBIE policy as appropriate.

Employees cooperate with other agencies including Oranga Tamariki and the New Zealand Police in a way that is in the best interest of the child and aligns with the purposes of the Act and associated legislation and regulation.

MBIE reserve the right to audit its service providers to check if they have an appropriate child protection policy in place or have adapted and applied the MBIE policy as appropriate.

MBIE reports annually on the implementation and interactions resulting from this Policy in our Annual Plan through MBIE's designated Policy Owner for this Child Protection Policy, the General Manager, Service Quality Branch, Market Services.

Policy review

Under the Children's Act 2014, MBIE will review this Child Protection Policy every three years.

Confidentiality and information sharing

The Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 and the Privacy Act 1993, allows information to be shared, so as to keep children safe when child abuse or neglect is reported or investigated. Given the sensitivity of this information, appropriate precautions shall be taken including when using, disclosing, and storing the information, including taking care not to discuss it openly.