PANDA is committed to ensuring the safety, welfare, and wellbeing of infants, children, and young people.
We uphold national child safe standards and our staff and volunteers follow evidence-based practices to protect children and families.
PANDA strives to prevent child abuse and identify risks early. We actively work to remove and reduce any and all risks. We require all helpline staff and any staff who may interact with children and/or young people in their paid or volunteer role to have a current Working with Children Check and to understand all mandatory reporting principles.
We each accept our legal and moral obligations to contact authorities when we are worried about a child’s and/or young person’s safety and do this by having zero tolerance of child abuse. All allegations and safety concerns are treated very seriously and handled consistently.
Digital Safety: Staff follow strict policies for online and telehealth communications, ensuring consent, privacy, and prevention of exposure to inappropriate content.
Cultural safety & equity: We provide culturally safe and inclusive support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, culturally diverse children, children with disability, and LGBTQI children.
Perinatal mental health: Staff are trained to assess intrusive thoughts and acute distress, focusing on risk, protective factors, and access to urgent mental health support, rather than the presence of thoughts alone.
Escalation pathways to ensure your and children’s safety is supported.
Our Board and CEO governs our commitment and are responsible for ensuring staff and volunteers see child protection as everyone’s responsibility.
We use a clear reporting framework so any safety issues are documented, escalated and actioned quickly. Learning and quality improvement is central to this commitment.
