Minister Barr: Government to strengthen Reportable Conduct Scheme to protect children
Released 01/11/2017
The ACT Government will expand and strengthen the Reportable Conduct Scheme to ensure our children are safe wherever they are being cared for in the community.
Consultation will start today as we deliver our plan to include religious organisations in the scheme by 1 July next year. The inclusion of other organisations will also be considered in this consultation. In the meantime, amendments tabled tomorrow will broaden the application of the scheme and improve information-sharing.
The ACT Government introduced the Scheme following the confronting evidence put forward in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It is anticipated that the Commission will recommend that all states and territories introduce a similar model.
Consultation has opened on how religious organisations will be included in the scheme by 1 July 2018. It has always been the Government’s intention to broaden the scope of the scheme to cover all religious organisations.
Religious organisations are already included in the Reportable Conduct Scheme when they provide services to children through a childcare centre or school. The consultation process we are launching today will enable us to work collaboratively with those religious organisations to confirm how they will comply with the Scheme when many do not have typical employer-employee structures.
Through this consultation, we are also seeking community views on whether the Reportable Conduct scheme should be expanded to include additional organisations dealing with children, such as sporting groups, scouts and girl guides, tutoring services, music and dance classes and overnight camps.
Children should be safe wherever they are cared for and the Reportable Conduct Scheme is one way we are making this a reality at workplaces across the ACT. The Reportable Conduct scheme is specifically for employers and employees, ensuring that allegations of abuse, neglect or sexual misconduct involving a child are properly reported, investigated and acted upon.
The Scheme commenced on 1 July 2017 after receiving unanimous support in the Legislative Assembly, expanding the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman to include matters of child protection, and allowing for scrutiny of the way employers investigate misconduct involving children.
In the four months since the ACT’s Reportable Conduct Scheme came into force, a number of reports have been made to the ACT Ombudsman and a number of employers have sought advice on how to make their organisations more child-safe. These reports and enquiries have helped inform the updates to the legislation the Government will introduce in the Assembly this week, which include:
- Improved information-sharing to ensure child protection, law enforcement and oversight bodies have access to the information they need to be effective in dealing with child welfare and safety concerns;
- Technical amendments like updating the definition of an employee to enable a broader application of the Reportable Conduct Scheme; and
- Placing a positive obligation on the head of organisations covered by the Reportable Conduct Scheme to boost accountability and ensure systems are in place to report, investigate and handle sensitive information.
Feedback from the community and the final recommendations of the Royal Commission, due in mid-December, will further inform additional action to safeguard children through the Reportable Conduct Scheme and other measures.
I encourage all interested members of the ACT community to read and respond to the Discussion Paper on extending the scope of the Reportable Conduct Scheme. For more information, please contact policyandcabinet@act.gov.au.
- Statement ends -
Section: Andrew Barr, MLA | Media Releases
