Abuse prevention through culture change and organisational development

Investigators

Led by the Kooyoora Strategy and Quality team. Supported by Glasshouse Safeguarding (Ms Laura Lindsay) and ICPS (Professor Daryl Higgins and Ms Jacqui Stewart)

Funding

National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse

Aims

• Examined, refined and developed psychological safety principles
• Determined a means for assessing organisational capacity for psychosocial risk management against identified principles
• Established a framework that can help organisations to develop a cultural and systemic improvement plan based on the assessment
• Created professional development resources to support organisational change

Background

Institutions can find the path to creating child safe cultures complex and daunting. Research indicates that the fundamental culture of an organisation, which encompasses its shared values, norms, beliefs, and behaviours, (often referred to as 'the way we do things around here'), can either foster conditions where abuse and harassment can occur or promote a positive safe environment. Currently there is also no comprehensive, guided approach to long-term culture change despite the many resources and standards that exist to support institutional safeguarding.

Project details

This project aimed to support child safe cultures through organisational cultural change. It involved the development of a framework. Organisations can use the framework to pinpoint the cultural factors that may increase the risk of abuse and harassment. The insights and information derived through the culture review process can be used to create strategies for cultural transformation that support and align with the principles of psychological safety. It can also be used to plan for organisational change that will enhance the prevention of, and responses to, abuse.

The Kooyoora team led development of the framework. Kooyoora conducted desktop research and consultations with people with lived experience of institutional abuse to inform its development. They learnt about effective approaches to abuse prevention and responses and culture change and organisational development strategies.

Kooyoora also created resources that organisations can use for professional development to support organisational change.

Professor Daryl Higgins is a member of the Project Advisory Committee. Jacqui Stewart supported Kooyoora to develop an evaluation plan for the framework.

Projected community impact

Organisations (i.e., the intended end-users) can will be able to identify cultural barriers to timely identification of child sexual abuse and identify a plan for effecting organisational change for the better protection of, and responses to, children, young people, and adults. Through cultural change, organisations will be better equipped to respond to allegations of abuse and prevent future abuse.

Links

National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse

Organisational governance

The CEO of Kooyoora (Fiona Boyle) oversaw the project with a Project Advisory Committee providing advice and expertise to the project.

Project timeline

July 2023 to September 2024

Contact

For more information contact: icps@acu.edu.au