Have Your Say - Top Risks for Schools in 2024
Subscribe

Child Safety Begins at the Top - Governing Body Responsibilities

25/11/20
Resources

Principle 1 of the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations requires that – to be child safe – all child-related organisations, including schools, must embed child safety and wellbeing in their leadership, governance and culture. In Victoria, how a “school governing authority” should do this is clearly spelled out in Ministerial Order 870 (MO 870). But, as the National Principles become mandatory for schools across all states and territories, school governing bodies around Australia will have a significant role to play, and significant responsibilities, if they are to lead from the top in ensuring that their school is effectively implementing the National Principles.

In our article “Putting children first” for Child Protection Week (Part 2): Principle 1 and Embedding a Child Safe Culture, we explored how a school might mange cultural change to put children’s safety and wellbeing at the heart of the school’s culture. In this article, we will explore the board’s (or other school governing body’s) role in embedding child safety and wellbeing in leadership and governance arrangements.

 

Victorian Ministerial Order 870


The Victorian Child Safe Standards (Victorian Standards), and MO 870 which sets out how schools must implement the Victorian Standards, were developed before the National Principles came into being. They are similar to, but do not align directly with, the National Principles (although as set out in our article “Putting children first” for Child Protection Week (Part 1): Implementation of the National Principles by States and Territories, Victoria has committed to amending the Victorian Standards to match the National Principles).
MO 870 places accountability for managing the risk of child abuse within a school squarely upon the school’s “governing authority”. It sets out the specific actions that governing authorities of Victorian schools are required to undertake in order to meet MO 870’s minimum child safety standards, which themselves align with the Victorian Standards.

MO 870 defines a “school governing authority” as:

• the proprietor of a school, including a person authorised to act for or on behalf of the proprietor; or
• the governing body for a school (however described), as authorised by the proprietor of a school or the Education and Training Reform Act (2006) (Vic) (ETR Act); or
• the Principal, as authorised by the proprietor of a school, the school governing body, or the ETR Act.

In the explanatory note to this section, MO 870 notes that, depending on the way a school is constituted and operated, the governing body for a school may be a school board, a school council, or some other person or entity.

In its Guidelines to the Minimum Standards and Requirements for School Registration, the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) adds a school’s Principal to the governing authority as having responsibility for meeting the requirements of MO 870. It states that:

A registered school must have developed policies, procedures, measures and practices in accordance with Ministerial Order No. 870 Child Safe Standards – Managing the risk of child abuse in schools.
Meeting the requirements of the Ministerial Order is the direct responsibility of the school governing body and the school principal.

Under MO 870, the responsibilities on a school’s governing authority are explicit. Clause 5 requires that schools have strategies in place to “embed an organisational culture of child safety”. Every other requirement in the remaining clauses of MO 870 requires the school’s governing authority to “implement, develop strategies, allocate roles and responsibilities, inform, review, ensure, develop, endorse, make available, have clear procedures”…. and so on.

 

Other States and Territories

No other state or territory’s requirements are as detailed and explicit as the Victorian requirements regarding the role and responsibilities of the school’s governing body concerning child safety. However, it is impossible to imagine that any school could effectively implement the National Principles without the governing body of a school playing a significant role. This is explicitly recognised in the National Principles through Principle 1 – embedding child safety and wellbeing in leadership and governance arrangements – being first and foremost of all the Principles.

 

What Should School Boards, or other Governing Bodies, Do?

Whichever part of the country in which your school operates and whatever the school regulators say in your jurisdiction, the following is a list of actions that all school governing bodies should consider if they are to effectively implement the National Principles (and MO 870, if you are in Victoria).

 

1. Top Down Commitment

To create a child safe culture requires a top down commitment from the governing body. MO 870 makes this requirement explicit for Victorian schools, however, for any school to fully implement the National Principles will require both commitment, support and resourcing by the school governing body. This includes an explicit statement by the governing body of their commitment to child safety and to the implementation of all of the National Principles.

 

2. Develop and Implement Strategies to Embed Child Safety in the School’s Leadership, Governance and Culture

Strategic decision-making is a key governing body activity. Strategy involves high level decisions about how the National Principles will be implemented at the school. Decisions at the strategic level include:

  • who will be responsible for implementation
  • how the school community will be informed and updated regarding progress in implementation of the strategies
  • how the implementation strategies will be reviewed and revised as required.

 

3. Know What is Required

The governing body must make sure that they know what the National Principles actually mean. Governing bodies cannot make good decisions regarding implementation, resourcing and monitoring of progress unless they understand the National Principles and what is required. Some states and territories have published discussion papers about when and how the National Principles will be mandatory in their jurisdiction, along with guidance about what might be required of organisations to implement them. These, along with the information found at https://childsafe.humanrights.gov.au/national-principles , would be the sensible starting point for governing body members in increasing their knowledge in this area.

 

4. Monitor

Governing bodies do not have the time or expertise to themselves implement the National Principles and, in many respects, implementation is a task for the school management team, led by the principal. What is required of governing bodies is to ensure that implementation of the National Principles is occurring. The best way to do this is to set up regular monitoring and reporting systems. Whether this monitoring and reporting is to the governing body or a sub committee will vary, but effective monitoring is nonetheless essential.

 

5. Manage Risk

The governing body must make sure that all child safety risks have been identified, that controls for each risk are in place and that the risks are regularly being reviewed including an evaluation of the effectiveness of the risk controls. The governing body should receive regular risk management reports and, where necessary, ensure that risk treatments are implemented where required.

 

6. Resource

The governing body must make sure that appropriate resources are available to enable the implementation of the National Principles. Resources might include people, systems, processes and the use of technology, all of which may be required for both a successful implementation and ongoing monitoring. If implementation is slower than expected or stalls then resourcing issues should be considered as a priority.

 

7. Mandate Continuous Improvement

The governing body must mandate a culture of continuous improvement with respect to child safety. This may require that the systems, policies, and practices set up to ensure child safety in a school be regularly independently audited and reviewed and opportunities for improvement identified. An organisation will never arrive at a point where the Principles are fully implemented and that monitoring and improvement process can cease. Principle 9 states that organisations must make sure that implementation of the Principles is regularly reviewed and improved and makes clear that this is a never-ending process.

 

8. Transparency and Consultation

The governing body must have an open, transparent and consultative approach to child safety that welcomes the input of key stakeholders and ensures that children are able to participate in child safe processes and practices. This is an area where the governing body can have a strong influence over organisational culture by promoting an open and transparent approach to governance of the school and actively seeking opportunities for the students, parents and school community to provide feedback and participate in consultative processes regarding child safety. It also includes having an effective and child-focused complaints handling program. Importantly, Principles 2 and 3 both require consultation and openness. Principle 2 requires the school to inform children of their rights and to participate in all decisions affecting them and to be taken seriously. Principle 3 requires the school community and parents to be informed and to be involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.

 

All schools no doubt wish to be a child safe school. And this will shortly be mandatory, as every state and territory government has committed to making compliance with the National Principles mandatory for all child-related organisations, including schools. Implementing the National Principles in a school will require all school governing bodies to lead this process, and to establish implementation strategies and monitor the implementation process. Without leadership from a school’s governing body, successful implementation will be much more problematic and a failure to fully implement may damage the school’s reputation and call some to question the school’s commitment to child safety.

 

About the Authors

Deborah De Fina

Deborah recently completed five years working with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse where she assisted the Royal Commission to establish the Private Session process and subsequently managed its legal aspects. Prior to working with the Royal Commission, Deborah had her own successful consulting practice where she specialised in the statutory child protection system, legal issues facing children and vulnerable people, and legal aid. She also spent more than nine years at Legal Aid NSW, as a child protection solicitor, Senior Solicitor and then Solicitor in Charge, Child Protection. Deborah holds a Juris Doctorate from the Columbia University School of Law, a Master of International Affairs from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and a Diploma in Law from Sydney University.

 

Jonathan Oliver

Jonathan is a Senior Governance Risk and Compliance consultant working with CompliSpace school clients. He has more than 10 years experience in the school sector as a teacher, compliance and legal adviser and more recently as a Business Manager. 


Jonathan has been a solicitor for nearly 30 years and worked in both private practice and community legal centres. 

Jonathan is a CompliSpace school risk and compliance specialist and regularly presents to school boards and executive staff on governance, risk and compliance issues. He regularly presents at school law seminars on a range of risk and compliance related topics.

Share this
About the Author

Ideagen CompliSpace

Resources you may like

Article
Sextortion: A Growing Concern for Schools

Trigger warning: This article references sexual assault, child abuse, and suicide.

Read More
Article
Changes to the Australian Consumer Law – What Schools Need to Know

Many schools rely on standard form contracts to avoid the time and cost of drafting and negotiating...

Read More
Article
The SG Wrap: February 29, 2024

The information in the SG Wrap is aggregated from other news sources to provide you with news that...

Read More

Want School Governance delivered to your inbox weekly?

Sign up today!
Subscribe