Safety and wellbeing

Safeguarding requirements for junior participants and adults working with them.

• This policy requires child safeguarding and legal sign-off before publication.
• Child safety obligations differ by state and territory, including working-with-children checks, mandatory reporting and the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations. Publishing anything less than a properly reviewed policy would be irresponsible.
• Until it is adopted, Academy activities are adult participant activities, and any concern about the safety of a child must be reported immediately to police or your state child protection service, and then to the Academy office.

Complaints handling, discrimination, harassment and support pathways.

• This policy requires legal and governance sign-off before publication.
• Member protection covers complaint handling, confidentiality, support for affected people and interaction with external bodies such as anti-discrimination commissions — all of which must be formally adopted rather than drafted informally.
• Until it is adopted, complaints can be raised confidentially with the Academy office, and the conduct standards above still apply.

First aid, injury reporting, heat and concussion caution.

• Teams are responsible for ensuring their participants are medically fit to take the field.
• A first aid kit and a nominated first aid responder must be present at every fixture.
• Any injury must be reported to the match official and recorded through the platform's incident report.
• Any suspected concussion means immediate and permanent removal from that fixture. Return to play requires medical clearance.
• Fixtures may be delayed, shortened or postponed by officials for heat, storms, air quality or unsafe surfaces.

How wellbeing check-ins are used, and how anonymity is protected.

• Wellbeing check-ins are voluntary and exist to support members, never to assess performance.
• Individual responses are never shown to team leads. Leads and the Academy office see aggregated trends only.
• Aggregates are suppressed where fewer than five people in a group have responded, so no individual can be identified.
• If you ask for a check-in, a nominated person will contact you privately.
• The Academy is not a crisis service. In an emergency call 000. Lifeline is available on 13 11 14.