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Royal Commission Interim Report - What does it mean for schools?

2/07/14
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The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Commission) released its interim report (Report) on 30 June 2014. You can read more about the work of the Commission here. The Report is available on the Commission’s website and is divided into two Volumes.

Volume 1 contains the substantive reporting of the Commission.  Volume 2 contains the personal stories of those people who have shared their experiences with the Commission.  Despite the length of the Report (almost 700 pages), the Commission has stated that it does not yet have enough information to make recommendations. It has asked the Federal Government to:

  • extend its final reporting date from the end of 2015 to 15 December 2017; and
  • provide an extra $104 million in funding.

Whether or not the Federal Government agrees to the Commission's requests, remains to be seen.  In the meantime, schools should take note of the Report, whose discussion of key issues indicate the recommendations that are likely to come from the Commission when it does deliver its final report. At least some of those recommendations are likely to be adopted by the various governments.

We have read through the Report and considered some of the comments made by the Commission about key issues. Schools should be mindful of the following issues as they might result in future recommendations from the Commission.

Key issues:

  1. Limitations of Working with Children Checks: Whilst the different pre-employment screening processes work effectively to prevent known child abusers from coming into contact with children these checks do not detect perpetrators who do not have records of abuse. This significantly limits the effectiveness of pre-employment screening.  Schools should therefore see pre-employment screening as a tool, not a solution, in fulfilling their student duty of care.
  2. Improve detection through interviews: In addition to conducting Working With Children Checks, schools should use the interview stage of the recruitment process to better identify signs of a perpetrator.  Schools should check references carefully and use structured interviews as part of their recruitment process.  Schools should be aware of the signs that could indicate a potential perpetrator of child abuse, and implement behavioural questions to screen employees.
  3. A National Working with Children Checks Scheme: The Commission is considering the merits of a national pre-employment screening agency.  Currently, there is a risk of a perpetrator being excluded from working in one jurisdiction but not another, due to the screening processes currently being the responsibility of the States and Territories. If this comes to fruition, schools will be required to update and check their existing staff records to ensure compliance.
  4. From a preventative approach to 'Child Safe' practices: A ‘Child Safe’ approach is not just about preventing child abuse, but also using practices and designs to ensure that children are safe. It could also be described as removing the opportunity for child abuse to occur, rather than just screening out the perpetrators.  The Commission has focussed on institutions without external scrutiny and how they can pose risks to children. Characteristics of these institutions are that they:
    • falsely believe themselves to be above scrutiny because of their role in society;
    • have policies and procedures that isolate children from others; and
    • are economically independent.

    It was also noted that these institutions responded to child abuse by conducting internal investigations without any independent oversight. The internalisation of these processes contributed to perpetuating opportunities for abuse. External scrutiny will be a key feature of child protection policies recommended by the Commission.

    operate in remote environments;
  5. Governance changes: The Commission emphasised the importance of corporate governance for promoting child safety.  As part of enhancing governance in institutions the Commission referred to the following proposals:
    • establishing a national body with oversight for child safety and sexual abuse matters which would be responsible for independent external investigation and complaints processes; and
    • imposing liability for directors and offices of institutions under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).The Commission also commented on themes to improve management and culture which were raised in submissions such as having:
    • Board and Executive staff as (sic) powerful role models who will advocate and support a child safe organisational culture;
    • child-friendly, open and egalitarian management styles to remove barriers to reporting; and
    • policies, procedures, codes of conduct and values that put child safety first.  The bottom line is that it will be the responsibility of the school board to implement child safe policies from the top down.
  6. Staff training:  Staff supervision plays a central role in keeping children safe. Practices that may become mandated as a result of the Commission’s final report include:
    • good supervision of staff and performance reviews;
    • clear chains of accountability and reporting;
    • adherence to child safe policies as part of staff performance criteria;
    • effective processes for supervising staff who work in isolated environments; and
    • clear processes for managing allegations and incidents.

    The Commission recognises that simple directions, such as training staff to not hesitate in reporting problematic behaviour, could potentially prevent abuses.  The Commission is likely to recommend rigorous staff training and integrated child protection policies become legal requirements for schools.

  7. Child-focused programs:  The Commission is looking at programs to teach children to recognise and avoid abuse and to empower them to disclose when it does happen. Children must feel safe to complain about abuse. This program is particularly important because the Commission identified a theme of disbelief from people who victims confided in when they reported abuse.  Child-focused programs are likely to become a part of the school curriculum.

This is not the end of the story

There are many issues discussed in the Report, and a summary cannot do justice to all its stories, nuances and discussions.

Schools are only some of the public and private institutions that the Commission is inquiring into and it recognises that a whole-of-community response will likely be the result of its research.  The Commission will continue to hold public hearings, private sessions, and commission research as it continues to investigate institutional responses to child sexual abuse in Australia.

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