Recently in the news, an Opera Australia singer was charged with historic child sex offences in NSW and a Scouts leader was charged with serious child sex offences in QLD. These incidents occurred in organisations with responsibilities to ensure the safety of the young people who participate in singing and Scouts activities. Like our previous article on ADF Cadets nationally, these incidents also raise questions about the application of child safe laws and principles to organisations other than schools.
According to the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012 (NSW) (WWC Act) (and equivalent state and territory legislation), to fall within the ambit of child protection laws and principles an organisation must be within the scope of the legislation and must undertake the prescribed child-related work. Child-related work is defined differently in each jurisdiction but there is a dual test for organisations across all jurisdictions. Firstly, the organisation needs to be an organisation recognised for the purposes of the WWC Act in that particular jurisdiction. Secondly, the organisation needs to be involved in work where the staff and workers have direct contact with children or are employed in a child-related role. Both these tests must be met for an organisation to fall under the scope of the WWC Act.
Schools are always considered organisations which engage in child-related work due to their direct contact with children on a day-to-day basis. However, each state varies when it comes to determining other types of organisations which may also be included. Generally, the broad categories of organisations included in the WWC Act's ambit for the purposes of child protection include:
What this means in practice is that any club or association which provides a service that has direct contact with children will be included. This might comprise:
It is irrelevant whether the position is considered as employment or voluntary, with all positions which have direct contact with children required to get a Working With Children Check and comply with all child protection and child safe laws in their state.
While the Working With Children Check is important, it is only one way to keep children safe. Organisations need to think about other things they can do to reduce the risk of harm to children when in their care.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Royal Commission) highlighted 10 elements of child safe organisations:
These recommendations have been embodied in the NSW Principles for Child-Safe Organisations (Principles), which have been developed to help organisations to think about how they can implement these child-safe elements in their day-to-day work.
These are:
To assist organisations interpret each of the Principles, the New South Wales Government has published a guide titled Principles for Child-Safe Organisations.
It is unknown what child protection policies and procedures Opera Australia and Scouts Association had, or have, in place. However, at a minimum those who had contact with children would need a working with children check under their state laws. In light of all the useful resources from the Royal Commission about how to improve child safety in organisations who supervise children, they may also refer to that information for an audit or review of their existing policies and procedures.
If these offences had occurred in Victoria or WA, mandatory reporting legal standards for ensuring child safety now apply.
Both schools and any other organisation involved in child-related work should have an established child protection program which sets out work systems, practices, policies and procedures designed to not only ensure compliance, but also to develop safe and supportive environments and a child safe culture. This may include:
Above all, all organisations, whether a school or any other organisation involved in child-related work, should adopt a risk management approach to child protection, establishing staff training to ensure a child safe culture.