In a recent news article, a former Scouts Victoria Leader was sentenced to 10 years in jail for grooming, as well as other child abuse offences in relation to a young female Scout. This isn't the first time that Scouts Australia has been in the news. In 2015 a former Scout leader was sentenced to six years' jail after pleading guilty to sexually abusing children in the late 1970s and 1980s in Victoria. In 2016 a Scout leader was charged with the indecent assault of a teenage girl at the Australian Scouts Jamboree in New South Wales. The recent Victorian conviction raises questions about the application of child safe laws and principles to organisations operating across state boundaries.

Background to Scouts Australia

Scouts Australia is part of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement, and is a voluntary, non-political, educational movement for children and young people that aims to help them achieve their full potential. Scouts provides a range of activities with an emphasis on developing useful skills and performing services to benefit others. Many Scout activities occur outdoors. They include camping, orienteering, abseiling, rock climbing, bushwalking and canoeing. In the hundred years since its formation, more than two million Australians have been involved in Scouts. In 2015, there were 1,458 local Scout groups, 54,420 youth members and 13,011 adult Scout leaders.

Scouts Australia is a federation of eight state and territory branches and a national association. Scout activities are organised and managed by state and territory branches and individual local groups.

Scouts Australia Royal Commission Case Studies

The Royal Commission handed down its Final Report on 15 December 2017. Two of the case studies were focused on the behaviour of Scouting associations, including Case Study 1, in September 2013, and Case Study 48 in December 2016.

While the first case study was an in-depth look at the responses to historical child sexual abuse by Scouts Hunter and Coastal Region and Scouts Australia to allegations and information about one of their Scout leaders between 1997 and 2001, the second review focused on the current policies and procedures of Scouts New South Wales in relation to child protection and child-safe standards, including responding to allegations of child sexual abuse.

In November 2016, Scouts Australia established its first child protection policy at a national level, which was developed by merging existing state and territory branch-based policies, as a result of the findings in the Case Study 1 of the Royal Commission.

Royal Commission Recommendations

As identified in our previous article, the Royal Commission's definition of “sport and recreation” is extremely broad, and includes not only the obvious activities like sport, recreation, exercise groups and music groups, but also martial arts, cadets and other defence force activities for children, outdoor adventure groups and Scouts and Girl Guides.

The risk factors identified in sport and recreation associations by the Royal Commission include:

• grooming through coaching relationships, erosion of interpersonal boundaries, targeting vulnerability and valuing performance over child safety
• club and association cultures which normalise violence, harassment and sexualisation, and
• physical and emotional maltreatment being considered normal.

The Royal Commission’s four recommendations in the Final Report (December 2017) for improvement across the sport and recreation sector were to:

• Implement and incorporate any of the recommended Child Safe Standards, or incorporate the Child Safe Standards identified by the Royal Commission.
• Have national leadership, capacity building and support in the area of child safety through a child safety advisory committee for the sport and recreation sector with membership from government and non-government peak bodies to advise the national office on sector-specific child safety issues.
• Expand and fund resources for free online materials, including child focused complaints processes and codes of conduct which communicate appropriate and inappropriate behaviour to all parents, coaches, volunteers and other members of the club or association.
• Improve state and territory support and guidance including free email support for all clubs and associations, irrespective of size.

Scouts Australia Response to the Royal Commission

Between the first and second Royal Commission case studies, Scouts Australia implemented Child Safe Scouting Policies and Procedures including the Scouts Australia Child Protection Policy which was developed in conjunction with Child Wise, and is regularly reviewed. In addition to this Policy, each Scouts Australia state or territory branch now has formal policies dealing with child protection and inappropriate conduct or behaviour. These actions are to be commended as positive steps to improve child safety.

For example, the Royal Commission commented that "There have been some key changes to the way Scouts NSW has managed to facilitate a focus on, and create a culture of, child safety," and NSW has reacted strongly to the recommendations from Case Study 1 of the Royal Commission. However, despite all the positive steps that Scouts NSW and Scouts Australia (National) have made towards implementing dedicated child protection strategies, the issue is whether they are being applied consistently in each state and territory. Is it even possible to do so?

Scouts NSW gave evidence that there had not been a formal root-cause analysis done in relation to allegations of child sexual abuse in the organisation as a whole. Importantly, the lines of communication for cross-jurisdictional reporting on issue of child abuse had not been clarified. The Victorian grooming incident (occurring almost simultaneously as Scouts NSW was giving evidence in Case Study 48) shows that it is important, at a national level, that Scouts Australia ensures all their branches implement the same level of child safe policies and procedures. Otherwise, a patchwork approach will only threaten the safety of Scouts and undermine all the good work already done at a national level. While the laws may differ between jurisdictions, it is still possible to implement a nationally consistent child protection framework, using the Royal Commission Child Safe Standards as a basis.

Scouts Australia is also intending to make a full public apology to victims of child sexual abuse and has joined the National Redress Scheme as an organisation.

What Improvements Can Organisations Make?

Any organisation involved in providing sport and recreation services for children, regardless of size, should have an established child protection program which sets out work systems, practices, policies and procedures designed to not only ensure legal compliance, but also to develop safe and supportive environments and a child safe culture. The Royal Commission's recommendations for sporting and recreational organisations can be followed too.

Above all, all organisations should adopt a risk management approach to child protection and establishing staff training to ensure a child safe culture.