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KindPath Collective Inc

Safeguarding Policy — Violence, Abuse, Neglect, Exploitation and Discrimination (VANED)

Version 1.0 | Effective: 29 August 2026 | Review: 29 August 2027 | Owner: Director

1. Purpose

To prevent, identify and respond to violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination against participants — whether by a KindPath worker, another support provider, a family member, or anyone else in a participant’s life.

2. Scope

All KindPath staff, contractors, volunteers and family-member workers. Applies to conduct by KindPath people, and to KindPath’s obligation to act on concerns about anyone else in a participant’s support network.

3. Legislative and standards basis

  • NDIS Practice Standards, Module 1: Rights and Responsibilities — Violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination.
  • NDIS (Provider Registration and Practice Standards) Rules 2018, incident and safeguarding obligations.
  • NDIS Code of Conduct.
  • Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) — mandatory reporting interactions where a criminal offence may have occurred.
  • Disability Inclusion Act 2014 (NSW).

4. Policy statement

Every participant has the right to be safe from violence, abuse (including sexual, physical, emotional and financial abuse), neglect, exploitation and discrimination — from KindPath workers and from anyone else. KindPath treats a concern raised by a participant, a worker, or a family member as something to act on immediately, not something to assess for plausibility before acting.

This includes safeguarding workers from harm arising from the support relationship — professional boundary violations can run in either direction, and a worker who is uncertain, uncomfortable, or unsafe in a support interaction is expected to say so and be supported, not to manage it alone.

5. Procedures

  1. Recognising a concern. Any KindPath worker who observes, is told about, or suspects VANED involving a participant — by anyone, including another KindPath worker — reports it to the Director the same day.
  2. Immediate safety first. If there is immediate risk to a participant or worker, that risk is addressed first (removing the person from the situation, contacting police or emergency services on 000 if needed) before any documentation occurs.
  3. Documentation. Every concern, regardless of severity, is logged in the Incident Register (see Incident Management Policy) using factual, observed language — what was said, what was done, when, by whom — not conclusions or diagnoses.
  4. Reportable incidents. Once KindPath is a registered NDIS provider, incidents meeting the NDIS Commission’s reportable incident categories (death; serious injury; abuse or neglect; unlawful sexual or physical contact; sexual misconduct; unauthorised restrictive practice) are notified to the Commission within the required timeframe (24 hours for a reportable incident, 5 business days for the follow-up report). Until registration, KindPath still documents and acts on these events to the same internal standard, and takes independent legal or Commission advice where an event may meet a reportable threshold regardless of registration status.
  5. Boundary concerns that fall short of abuse. Not every concern is an allegation of abuse. A blurred professional boundary — for example, a worker responding to a participant’s request in a way that wasn’t appropriate, but without intent to harm — is still documented (see the ABC data recording approach in the Behaviour and Data Collection procedure under the Restrictive Practices Policy) and used to correct practice, supervise the worker, and, where relevant, have a clear, respectful conversation with the participant about what the support relationship does and doesn’t include.
  6. Non-retaliation. No participant, family member, or worker is disadvantaged for raising a safeguarding concern in good faith.

6. Roles and responsibilities

  • Director: first point of escalation; responsible for notifying the NDIS Commission, police, or other authorities as required; reviews every logged concern.
  • Workers: report immediately; do not investigate independently or confront another party without the Director’s involvement.

7. Related documents

Incident Management Policy · Feedback and Complaints Management Policy · Sexual Harassment and Bullying Prevention Policy · Restrictive Practices Policy · Child Safe Policy

8. Review

Annually, and immediately after any safeguarding event to capture lessons learned.