Safeguarding & Trauma-Informed Engagement

1. Policy statement

The National Lived Experience Commission is committed to safeguarding the wellbeing of everyone who engages with our work — including people who participate in evidence collection, attendees at forums and roundtables, and people who contact NLEC directly.

NLEC recognises that the people most likely to engage with our work have often experienced serious institutional harm, trauma, violence, exclusion, and system failure. Our safeguarding framework is designed to ensure that engaging with NLEC does not add to that harm.

2. Scope

This policy applies to:

• Participants in NLEC's National Evidence Collection Program (surveys, interviews, focus groups, advisory panels)
• Attendees at NLEC-facilitated forums, roundtables, and community listening events
• People who contact NLEC via the website, email, or telephone
• People who engage with NLEC through partner organisations
• NLEC's lived experience workforce, advisors, and contractors

3. Trauma-informed engagement principles

All NLEC engagement is guided by the following trauma-informed principles:

• Safety: Physical, psychological, and cultural safety is established and maintained in all NLEC spaces.
• Trustworthiness: NLEC is transparent about what we do, why we do it, and how information will be used.
• Choice: Participants always retain meaningful choice and control over their involvement.
• Collaboration: Power is shared. Lived experience experts are partners, not subjects.
• Empowerment: Engagement is designed to be affirming, not extractive.
• Cultural humility: NLEC recognises the diversity of lived experience and the particular needs of First Nations communities, CALD communities, LGBTIQ+ people, and other marginalised groups.

4. Participant rights in evidence collection

All participants in NLEC's evidence collection activities have the following rights:

• The right to be fully informed about the purpose of the collection and how their information will be used before agreeing to participate.
• The right to decline to answer any question at any time without explanation or consequence.
• For a separately agreed evidence-collection activity, participants may raise a request to withdraw; what can be removed depends on the activity, whether material has already been used or published, and applicable legal obligations. The private cross-system intake is not a self-service withdrawal process: contact NLEC with the reference to request access, correction or removal, and staff will review the request. Removal is not guaranteed where retention is required.
• The right to have their identity protected. NLEC publishes only aggregated, de-identified findings unless explicit consent for attribution has been given.
• The right to peer support or a support person during participation, including culturally appropriate support for First Nations participants.
• The right to access distress support if participation is distressing.
• The right to fair remuneration for their time and expertise, consistent with NLEC's lived experience workforce policy.

5. Distress response protocols

NLEC facilitators and staff are trained to recognise and respond to distress. If a participant becomes distressed during any NLEC engagement:

• The engagement will be paused immediately and sensitively.
• The facilitator will acknowledge the distress and offer the person a break or the option to end the session.
• Crisis support resources will be provided.
• Follow-up contact is offered where appropriate and consented to.

NLEC does not push participants to continue when they indicate distress.

6. Child safety and protection

NLEC does not directly engage children (people under 18) in its evidence collection activities. Where young people's lived experience is relevant, NLEC may engage adult survivors of child protection, out-of-home care, or youth justice systems.

NLEC is committed to child safety principles and complies with applicable child safe standards and mandatory reporting obligations in all Australian jurisdictions.

7. Mandatory reporting

NLEC staff and contractors are aware of mandatory reporting obligations that may arise during evidence collection, including obligations relating to child abuse and neglect, elder abuse, and certain other matters under Australian state and territory law. Where a mandatory reporting obligation arises, NLEC will comply with it and will, where possible, advise the participant of this action before making a report.

8. Data protection for participants

Personal and sensitive information collected through NLEC's evidence programs is:

• Stored securely with access limited to NLEC staff with a legitimate need.
• Never disclosed to government agencies, service providers, or third parties without explicit consent (except where mandatory reporting applies).
• De-identified before analysis and publication.
• Retained only for as long as necessary for the research purpose.

See NLEC's Privacy Policy for full details.

The separate private cross-system intake accepts an unverified written account and, optionally, one PDF attachment. The PDF has a 90-day expiry and is subject to a scheduled hourly deletion sweep; an unsuccessful deletion is retried, so removal may be delayed. That document schedule does not apply to the written account, for which no automatic expiry is implemented. Contact NLEC with the reference to request access, correction or removal. This is a contact-based process, not self-service withdrawal; the intake has no report-level deletion function and legal retention obligations may apply.

9. Concerns and complaints

If you have a safeguarding concern, a complaint about NLEC's conduct, or believe this policy has not been followed, please contact:

commissioner@nlec.au

NLEC is committed to responding to all safeguarding concerns promptly and sensitively. See also NLEC's Complaints & Feedback Policy.