Child Safety

1Our commitment

We're covered by Queensland's Child Safe Organisations Act 2024, which has applied to commercial services for children like ours since 1 April 2026. That means we meet the 10 Child Safe Standards and the Universal Principle overseen by the Queensland Family and Child Commission.

In practice: screened coaches, clear supervision rules, a written way to raise a concern, and adults who act on it. We also report allegations about our own staff to the authorities rather than handling them quietly in-house — whether or not we're strictly obliged to.

We also know a climbing gym is an unusually good place for a kid to build confidence — falling off, trying again, and working out that the second attempt goes better than the first. Keeping it safe is what lets that happen.

2Who works with your kids

• Every coach and staff member who works with children holds a current Queensland Blue Card (Working with Children Check). No card, no working with kids — there's no grace period and nobody starts while an application is still pending.
• That includes the owner and managers, not just the coaches on the floor.
• We check that cards are current, and we're notified if one is ever suspended or cancelled. If that happens, that person stops working with children immediately.
• Coaches are trained in first aid and CPR, and in coaching climbers at the age group they work with.
• New coaches work alongside an experienced coach before running sessions of their own.
• We check references before anyone starts.

3Supervision

Our supervision rules by age are set out in full in the Gym Rules, and they're conditions of entry — under-5s need an adult within arm's reach, 5–12s need an adult actively watching, and 13–17s can climb independently once inducted with a guardian-signed waiver.

In coached sessions:

• Our coaches supervise the climbing, and we keep group sizes small enough that each child gets actual attention.
• A parent or guardian stays on site for climbers under 13. You're welcome in the lounge with a coffee — you just need to be in the building.
• We take a roll at the start of every session and check it at the end. A child is only released to a parent, guardian, or someone you've told us about.
• If you're running late at pick-up, a coach stays with your child. Nobody waits outside on their own.

4How our coaches behave

Our coaches are required to:

• Stay in sight of others. No one-on-one sessions behind a closed door or out of view — coaching happens on the floor where everyone can see it.
• Keep physical contact to what coaching requires, explain it before it happens, and stop if the child doesn't want it. Spotting and adjusting a hand position is coaching; anything beyond that isn't.
• Not contact a child privately. Messages about a class go to the parent or guardian, not to the child's own phone.
• Not give a child a lift, or meet them outside the gym, in a coaching capacity.
• Never use discipline that humiliates, frightens or isolates a child.
• Report anything that worries them, immediately — including about another staff member.

Breaching this is a serious matter and is handled as one.

5What we expect of climbers

From kids, and from the adults who bring them:

• Treat other climbers the way you'd want to be treated. Everyone here is working on something hard.
• No bullying, exclusion, name-calling or teasing — on the mats or online about someone from the gym.
• Listen to the coaches and to the front desk.
• Tell an adult if something or someone makes you uncomfortable. You will be believed and it will be dealt with.
• Parents: please back the coaches up, and keep the sideline commentary encouraging. Kids climb worse when they're being shouted at, and so does everyone else in earshot.

6Photos and social media

• We never photograph or film a child for our website or social media without their parent or guardian's specific consent. When you sign the waiver you answer yes or no for each child you're signing for, and we record it against that child and honour it. If it isn't a clear yes, we treat it as a no.
• You can say no, and it changes nothing about your child's place in a class.
• We don't publish a child's full name, school, or anything else identifying alongside a photo.
• You can withdraw consent at any time. Email info@gripswich.au and we'll stop using the images and take down what we reasonably can.
• When we're shooting in the gym we'll say so, and coaches will check before including kids.
• Other members are asked to check before filming where children are in shot — see the Gym Rules. Tell us if you see something you're not comfortable with and we'll handle it.

7Your child's information

What we collect about your child, why, and how to get a copy or have it deleted is in clause 7 of our Privacy Policy. The short version: their health declaration is treated as sensitive information, access is restricted to staff who need it, we never send marketing to under-18s, and you can ask for their record at any time.

8Raising a concern

For anything else — something a coach did, something another member did, something your child told you, or just a feeling that something isn't right:

• Talk to any staff member on shift. They'll take it seriously and escalate it the same day.
• Or email info@gripswich.au with "Child safety" in the subject line. It goes to management.
• We keep who raised a concern confidential as far as we possibly can. If it's about a staff member, fairness and the law usually mean the substance has to be put to them at some point — but we'll tell you before that happens, and we'll never hand over your name without asking you first.
• You can raise it anonymously if you'd rather. It's harder for us to follow up, but we'd still much rather know.

You do not need to be sure. Working out whether something happened is our job, and the authorities' job — not yours. A concern raised and found to be nothing costs nobody anything.

9What we do about it

1. We make the child safe first. Everything else comes second.
2. We acknowledge your concern within 1 business day.
3. If it involves a staff member or coach, that person is stood down from working with children while it's looked into. That isn't a finding against them; it's what taking it seriously looks like.
4. We report to police and to Queensland's child protection authorities where the law requires it, or where there's a reasonable suspicion of harm — and we don't investigate it ourselves first. That's their job, not ours.
5. Allegations about our own staff or volunteers go to the police and to Queensland's child protection authorities. We don't get to decide whether an allegation about one of our own people is worth reporting.
6. We keep you informed about the process, within the limits of what we're allowed to tell you.
7. Afterwards, we look at whether anything about how we run the place made it possible, and change it.

Nobody is ever penalised for raising a concern in good faith — not a parent, not a child, not a staff member.

10Who else to call

You never have to come to us first, and you can go to any of these at any time:

We review this policy at least once a year, and any time something happens that tells us it needs changing.