Volunteering

Volunteers

Volunteering means an activity that benefits the community, is done of one’s free will, and is undertaken without monetary reward. Volunteers are those volunteers that are involved in providing support, guidance, and supervision directly to students and could potentially have direct unsupervised contact with students during the normal course of providing the volunteer service.

Volunteers are required to have the following:

• Current Working With Children Check (WWCC)
• Responding to Abuse, Harm, and Neglect training (RRHAN-EC); and
• Valuing Safe Communities (VSC) training.

Volunteers may have:

• limited supervision by Golden Grove Lutheran Primary School staff in their role;
• significant amounts of 1:1 time with students;
• supervisory responsibility of a group of students with only broad and indirect oversight of a Golden Grove Lutheran Primary School staff member; or
• full supervisory responsibility for one or more students, such as in sports coaching role or learning support role.

Volunteer activities may include volunteers involved in Golden Grove Lutheran Primary School camps or excursions, coaching sporting teams, or assisting in learning
activities.

All volunteers are required to comply with our Child Protection Program and their legal obligations with respect to the reporting of child abuse, grooming, and neglect.
Volunteers will undergo child-related employment screening in accordance with our Child-Related Employment Screening policy.

• Each current and new volunteer is required to sign a written statement indicating that they have read, acknowledged, and will adhere to Golden Grove Lutheran Primary School’s Child Safety Policy and Child Safe Adult Code of Conduct. Once you have done this, please complete the Child Safe Policies Agreement Form below.
• They must also be aware that they too have legal obligations with respect to the reporting of child abuse, grooming, and neglect.
• It is each individual’s responsibility to be aware of key risk indicators of child abuse, grooming, and neglect, to be observant, and to raise any concerns they may have relating to child abuse with one of Golden Grove Lutheran Primary School’s Child Safety Officers and/or with external agencies where required.
• Each volunteer is to read the Volunteers Code of Conduct.

We value the people in our community who give their time to help with excursions, camps, etc.  It is our duty of care that our volunteers have current training in Valuing Safe Communities (VSC – see training instructions below) and a current Working with Children Check which lasts for five years. Please note that VSC training lasts for three years.

Working with Children Check

South Australia has introduced stronger, more effective, and more transparent screening laws for people working or volunteering with children. Everyone working or volunteering with children must have valid child-related screening.

The new working with children check (WWCC) introduced on 1 July 2019 replaces the current system, where people can have either a Department of Human Services (DHS) child-related employment screening or a National Police Certificate assessed by their employer/volunteer-involving organisation.

Changes include:

• WWCCs replace all other types of child-related employment screening checks
• People can apply for their own WWCC, to help them be job-ready
• Organisations can no longer use National Police Certificates for people working or volunteering with children. Only the South Australian Department of Human Services (DHS) Screening Unit can do a WWCC
• A WWCC is valid for five years and is portable across organisations and roles in South Australia.

There are transitional arrangements to make it easier for people to move to the new scheme:

• All current, valid DHS/DCSI child-related employment screening clearances will be recognized as WWCCs under the law until they expire.
• Specific industries will have staggered entry times to the new scheme, to help them transition smoothly.
• National Police Certificates are no longer valid for working with children.

A Working with Children Check needs to be provided.  You can apply for this check online via the Government of South Australia Department of Human Services Screening Unit, or you can fill out the form below and the school will initiate the process.  You will then receive an email from DHS asking you to activate your account.  Following your activation, a further email will be sent from DHS with a link to complete your application online and a username (please note this may not be exactly the same as your email address) and password. You will be requested to change your password prior to completing application Sections A – G (click on application number). Section A – reference number to be left blank. In section H select ‘requesting organisation’ as the verification method for the school to process the 100-point check. Clearance will then be emailed to both you and the school in due course.

RRHAN-EC Training

The State Government has introduced a requirement for volunteers to undertake updated Responding to Risks of Abuse Harm and Neglect – Education and Care (RRHAN-EC) training. The RRHAN-EC training is specifically for staff and volunteers working in education and care sites.

If you are a new or existing volunteer, you will need to undertake the two-hour online Fundamentals course to meet the requirements for conditional certification for the next three-year training cycle unless you already have a certificate with an expiry date of 31 December 2024.

The training is available on the Department for Education’s learning management site Plink. Staff and volunteers in all sectors have access to the two-hour online Fundamentals training

Plink maintains a record of training completed and allows for certificates to be reprinted when needed.

Log-in steps 

The log-in page can be accessed here.

• Scroll down to the Non-Department for Education staff login and create a new log-in or, to access a current account, fill in the required details.
• If you have forgotten your password, click forgot password to create a new one.
• Once on the Plink RRHAN-EC course site Plink will assign the appropriate course and certificate for when you select from the available options.

If you have any questions, you are most welcome to be in contact with us at the school.

How to enrol in Valuing Safe Communities: Online Training Modules

Please note that to participate in this course, there is a two-stage process required to ensure the integrity and safety of the training content. The first stage is registering on the training system: iLearn (Part 1) and the second stage is enrolling in the training module (steps 7 and 8). Read the handout to complete the Valuing Safe Communities training.