Child Protection

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

Purpose

The purpose of this Policy is to protect the safety and promote the wellbeing of children who come into contact with MBIE employees or services, and assist our people to respond when child abuse or neglect is suspected or identified.

Scope

This Policy applies to all employees of MBIE who come into contact with children or young people as part of their role.

It 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 guiding principles

This Policy aligns with the following MBIE guiding principles:

ensuring partnering with Māori, and our core values and diverse and inclusive culture, are at the heart of what we do
ensuring we maintain the trust and confidence of the public
ensuring a healthy, safe and secure environment
complying with legislation, regulations and standards.

Our commitment

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

Support to all employees to carry out their obligations under this policy is made available in a Child Protection Procedure. Each MBIE business function that is or becomes a provider of children's services has additional supporting standard operating procedures (SOPs) and guidelines as required to meet Child Protection requirements under the relevant legislation.

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 together assess the best approach to take. This may involve:

making a Report of Concern to Oranga Tamariki,
accessing advice and support via the Camms reporting tool, and/or
notifying the Immigration New Zealand (INZ) Duty Officer or the MBIE on-call phone.

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.

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, Refugee and Migrant Services, Immigration New Zealand.

Policy review

Under the Children's Act 2014, MBIE will review this Child Protection Policy every 3 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.