Our centres
Barnardos Australia’s vision is to empower every child in Australia to have the opportunity to reach their full potential. We support vulnerable children to recover and thrive and together, we ensure they reach their brightest future.
In the work we do every day to improve the lives of vulnerable children, young people and their families, we are committed to the following values:
- We never give up
- We speak up
- We aim higher
- We stand with you
- We do what’s right
Barnardos has given great consideration to its roadmap out of lockdown, implemented in a COVID Safe manner, as Governments announce the easing of public health restrictions. Barnardos is currently undertaking a formal consultation process in relation to the development of a COVID-19 Vaccination Policy for its employees, and this will also guide how we work with children and their families, and authorised and prospective carers (foster and kinship) to ensure mutual health and safety. This consultation process will allow Barnardos to ensure the best outcome for the organisation, employees, clients, carers and all other stakeholders by giving the opportunity for them to have a voice and share their views and discuss their concerns in a safe way.
In keeping with our values, a clear set of Guiding Principles have been developed to help us deliver a vaccination policy:
- Safety and wellbeing is our primary focus
- Government directives, mandates and health orders observed
- A culture of care will prevail through the conscious application of our five values
- Engage in open dialogue and genuine consultation with all key stakeholders
- Empower employees with communication and education
- Decisions founded on due diligence, evidence and hearing the voices of our people
- Lead with people and policy in harmony
- Take into consideration the children, families and communities we work with
Barnardos has been considering information, advice, legislation, directives, and guidelines from a wide range of relevant sources, advisors, and stakeholders. During the consultation period, Barnardos will be undertaking a comprehensive risk assessment of Barnardos service delivery environments and consideration of the vaccination requirement as a reasonable necessity alongside existing protective strategies. Our robust, multi-modal consultation process involves not only our employees, but the children, young people and families of origin in our programs as well as our authorised foster and kinship carers (both current and prospective) and their household members.
An anonymous and confidential survey about Barnardos/ACT Together adoption of a Vaccination Policy is running until November 22 and if you are a Barnardos client or carer, we encourage you to contact your caseworker to gain access to the survey. We hope you will share your general thoughts, comments and concerns on this topic.
