The New South Wales Child Safe Standards recently came into force. This article will discuss the National Child Safe Standards, the subsequent development of the New South Wales Child Safe Standards, and what schools in New South Wales should do in response.
After the conclusion of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Royal Commission) in 2017, all Australian states and territories began to focus on implementing its recommendations, including its recommendation for nationally consistent child safe standards to create a child safe culture in all child-related institutions, including schools.
In February 2019, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) endorsed the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations (National Principles) as the national benchmark for child safe organisation standards. All states and territories have committed to making the National Principles mandatory for all child-related organisations. In its publication setting out the National Principles, the Australian Human Rights Commission has provided guidance on “key action areas” for each National Principle (areas in which an organisation may need to take action to implement the Principle) as well as “indicators that the Principle is upheld” (practical guidance on what it looks like when the Principle is properly implemented).
In addition to the National Principles, in March 2019 Catholic Professional Standards Ltd (now Australian Catholic Safeguarding Ltd – ACSL) released the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards (NCSS). The NCSS align with the National Principles but place these into the context of the Catholic Church and its entities. All Catholic entities are expected to comply with the NCSS, and those that sign audit agreements with ACSL will be audited for compliance.
In response to the Royal Commission’s recommendation that all child-related organisations in Australia be required to implement Child Safe Standards and be held accountable for their implementation through independent oversight, the Office of the Children’s Guardian (OCG) released an Exposure Draft of the Children’s Guardian Amendment (Child Safe Scheme) Bill 2020 (NSW) (Bill) in mid-December 2020. The Bill proposed amendments to the Children’s Guardian Act 2019 (NSW) (Act) to create a regulatory framework that would require child-related organisations in New South Wales to comply with Child Safe Standards that are based on the National Principles, and give compliance oversight to the OCG. Along with the Exposure Draft of the Bill, the OCG released a Guide to the Child Safe Standards. The Guide explains the OCG’s proposed approach to overseeing implementation of the Child Safe Standards, and outlines that it will initially focus on helping organisations to build their capability to be child safe environments, and on providing ongoing support to implement the Child Safe Standards.
The New South Wales Child Safe Standards (NSW Standards) came into operation (apart from the enforcement provisions) under the amendments to the Act on 1 February 2022. The NSW Standards align closely with the National Principles and are designed to be a framework for child safe organisations in NSW and to drive cultural change to create, maintain and improve child safe practices. The NSW Standards are:
The Act’s enforcement provisions will commence on 1 February 2023, after which the OCG will be able to investigate, monitor and enforce compliance with the NSW Standards.
Organisations that are covered by the Reportable Conduct Scheme (entities listed in Schedule 1 of the Act), including government and non-government schools, were required to implement the NSW Standards from 1 February 2022. Some organisations that are not covered by the Reportable Conduct Scheme must also implement the NSW Standards, including some that a school might contract to perform services at or for the school (such as religious bodies that provide services to children, and clubs or other providers of recreational or sports programs).
Schools would already have policies, procedures, practices and strategies that meet many of the requirements of the NSW Standards. However, many of the NSW Standards will require schools to do additional work to comply with them, particularly by creating a more robust child safe culture.
Implementing the NSW Standards will require schools to undertake an assessment of existing policies, procedures, practices and strategies against the NSW Standards, and to do a gap analysis. Schools should then focus on creating and executing a NSW Standards implementation plan for those areas in which they identify any gaps, and to use the OCG’s capacity building period to educate staff and make the changes required.
The OCG has various resources available to help with implementation, including the Guide to the Child Safe Standards, a Child Safe Code of Conduct and template, an Empowerment and Participation Guide and Risk Management Handbooks. Schools should also keep an eye out for the OCG’s release of a self-assessment tool currently in development, designed for organisations to assess their compliance with the NSW Standards and how they can implement child safe practices.
Notably, some NSW government agencies including the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) and the Department of Education are required under the Act to make Child Safe Action Plans (CSAPs) to improve child safety, outline strategies for raising community awareness about the importance of child safety in child safe organisations and for supporting their sector to build their capacity to implement the NSW Standards. In creating these plans, the agencies covered by the legislation must consult with the schools and other bodies that they fund or regulate who (in the agency's opinion) are likely to be directly affected by the plan.
Although schools themselves are not required to make CSAPs, schools should look out for NESA’s and the Department of Education’s CSAPs for information on how the leaders of the education sector are implementing the NSW Standards.
Karen is a Legal Content Consultant, Child Safeguarding at CompliSpace. Karen has worked at the NSW Ombudsman and the Office of the Children’s Guardian as a Senior Investigator in the Reportable Conduct Directorate, and at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse as a Senior Legal and Policy Officer where she was a key contributor to the “Redress and Civil Litigation” and “Criminal Justice” reports. Karen has a background as a commercial litigation lawyer and holds a bachelor’s degree in Arts/Law (Hons).
Jaclyn is a Legal Content Associate at CompliSpace. A recent graduate from Macquarie University in Sydney, she holds a double Bachelor's degree in Commerce and Law (Honours).