News Flash: New Victorian Child Protection Laws Passed

The Victorian Child Safe Standards are now law, with the release of Ministerial Order No 870 (Ministerial Order) requiring all Victorian schools to comply with these new Standards from 1 August 2016 as part of their registration requirements.

We previously wrote about the Standards in our article ‘New Child Safe Standards to be Introduced in Victoria‘. We sent you an email on 17 December 2015 which explained the legislative progress of the Standards and also gave some context to their introduction and their impact for schools.

The following key developments have now occurred:

• the Minister for Families and Children formally published the Standards on 31 December 2015 in the Government Gazette under the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005 (VIC); and
• the Minister for Education made the Ministerial Order on 22 December 2015 under the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (VIC) which was formally published in the Government Gazette on 7 January 2016.

The Child Safe Standards are available here on the DHHS website.

The Ministerial Order is available here on the VRQA website.

What do these developments mean?

Put simply;

• from 1 January 2016 all organisations currently funded or regulated by the Victorian Government (Category 1 Organisations) are required to work towards compliance with the Standards. A full list of these organisations is set out in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) publication  “An overview of the Victorian child safe standards”. It includes both government and non-government registered schools as well as approved education and care services such as kindergartens and after hours services;
• from 1 January 2017 the compliance requirement will also apply to organisations that provide services for children which receive no government funding or only limited funding, or are exposed to only limited regulatory arrangements with the Victorian Government (Category 2 Organisations). At this time the obligation will extend to a wide variety of services such as coaching or tuition services, transport services, religious organisations such as churches, as well as sport and recreational clubs and youth organisations such as Scouts;
• in the first phase of implementation, monitoring and oversight of compliance with the Standards by Category 1 Organisations, will be undertaken through existing regulatory, funding and contractual arrangements;
• from 1 August 2016 all Victorian schools (both government and non-government) will need to comply strictly with a set of minimum child safety standards as set out in the Ministerial Order. Compliance with these standards will also become a registration requirement for non-government schools; and
• all Victorian schools should now be working towards compliance with the Child Safety Standards with a focus on ensuring compliance with the set of minimum child safety standards as set out in the Ministerial Order.

These are revolutionary changes

The combination of the Standards and the Ministerial Order introduces revolutionary change in Victoria in relation to child protection legislation and regulation.

The Ministerial Order has increased obligations with respect to how schools handle the identification, management and reporting of child abuse affecting their students.

It will not be enough for schools just to have a child protection policy to comply with the new laws. They will be required to show that they have strategies, procedures, policies and systems in place that comply with the seven new Standards and three principles that underpin the Ministerial Order.

Again, simply put, the new approach requires a transcendence from mere compliance to cultural change.

For example, in addition to implementing strategies to embed a culture of child safety, schools must:

• allocate roles and responsibilities for achieving the strategies;
• inform the school community about the strategies;
• put the strategies into practice and inform the school community about those practices; and
• periodically review the effectiveness of the strategies put into practice and revise those strategies.

The Ministerial Order places accountability for managing the risk of child abuse in a school with the school’s governing authority.

School authorities must ensure that their school:

• has a child safety policy or statement of commitment to child safety;
• has a child safety code of conduct;
• implements practices for staff selection, supervision and management to achieve a child safe environment;
• has clear procedures for responding to and reporting allegations of suspected child abuse; and
• has strategies to identify and reduce or remove risks of child abuse.

Although in practice the governing authority is likely to delegate the implementation of its responsibilities to a Principal, Child Protection Officer or other persons at the school, the Ministerial Order requires the governing authority to be confident that their school is complying with its obligations under the Ministerial Order.

Non-compliance with the Ministerial Order will constitute a breach of the school’s registration requirements and will present a significant risk for the school. The potential for reputational damage is obvious.

VRQA Assistance

The Victorian Government has stated that the VRQA will play a key role in informing and educating school system owners and school leaders to understand and implement what is required.

The VRQA website states that in mid-February it will distribute a Standards readiness tool that will allow school professionals to check their current level of readiness to comply with the new requirements.

The VRQA expects that it will release an updated Guide to the Minimum Standards and Other Requirements for School Registration to refer to the Standards and the requirements of the Ministerial Order in April 2016.

How can CompliSpace help?

CompliSpace has developed detailed policies and procedures as part of a new Child Protection Program which addresses the requirements of the Victorian Standards and the Ministerial Order. This program includes a detailed online training course which meets the requirements set out in the Ministerial Order and can be tailored to a school’s particular circumstances.

Over the coming weeks and months we will be releasing further details of our new Child Protection Program and working with existing clients to obtain feedback through which we can refine our approach as schools work towards the 1 August 2016 deadline. We will also be providing regular updates with respect to regulatory developments through www.schoolgovernance.net.au as well as through the publication of whitepapers, webinars and face to face presentations and workshops throughout Victoria.