From 1 July 2017, the department is required under the Child Safety and Wellbeing Act 2005 to notify the Commission for Children and Young People (the CCYP) of allegations of child abuse (and other child-related misconduct) made against departmental staff.
Departmental staff include:
- department employees (including staff at central and divisional offices)
- contractors
- volunteers
- kinship carers
- labour hire staff.
The RCS is additional to, and does not replace, departmental processes for reporting and responding to staff misconduct.
The RCS will improve oversight of how organisations prevent and respond to allegations of child abuse by providing:
- an independent scheme that aims to prevent harm to children by collating reports and information to identify individuals who pose a risk to children (including those that do not have criminal records) and enabling them to be excluded from working with children
- independent oversight by the CCYP of organisations' responses to allegations of child abuse and child-related misconduct against staff.
The RCS complements the Child Safe Standards and other existing child safety measures.
There are five types of ‘reportable conduct’:
- sexual offences committed against, with, or in the presence of a child
- sexual misconduct committed against, with, or in the presence of a child
- physical violence against, with, or in the presence of a child
- any behaviour that causes significant emotional or psychological harm to a child
- significant neglect of a child.
The scope of ‘reportable conduct’ is wide and includes conduct that may fall below a criminal threshold, or occurs outside service delivery or outside the course of employment
For further detailed information visit the CCYP website at https://ccyp.vic.gov.au/child-safety/resources/reportable-conduct-scheme-information-sheets/
If the alleged conduct is potentially criminal in nature, Victoria Police must also be notified as a priority and any investigation by Victoria Police will take precedence.
Once a staff member has become aware of an allegation of reportable conduct or misconduct that may involve reportable conduct, they are required to notify their line manager as soon as possible.
The Integrity Unit in Executive Services Branch is the department’s delegate for the RCS and will make any relevant notification to the CCYP.
Other departmental staff are not required to make a report directly to the CCYP.
When notified of an allegation, management will provide the information to Workplace Relations in accordance with the existing employee misconduct process. This step does not apply to kinship carers).
Workplace Relations will refer the matter to the department’s Integrity Unit, which will then report the allegation to the CCYP, if appropriate, and will take any necessary actions.
Allegations of reportable conduct or misconduct by a staff member may also be in scope of:
- a Client Incident Management System (CIMS) incident report. See Client Incident Management System
- a Social Services Regulator critical notifiable incident notification, see https://www.vic.gov.au/ssr-reporting-notifiable-incident for further information.
For kinship carers:
Kinship carers may meet the criteria of an employee under the RCS. The Integrity Unit must be consulted when an allegation is made against a kinship carer to confirm if it is in scope of the RCS.
The Integrity Unit can provide information about next steps and where further investigations must be undertaken – see Reportable Conduct Scheme sharepoint site
For further advice on reporting and investigating incidents of harm to clients in care, including allegations of abuse or neglect, or unexplained injuries, see the Client Incident Management System and the New allegations procedure.
Further information on the RCS, including the department’s RCS procedures, investigation plan and report templates, are located on the department’s Reportable Conduct Scheme sharepoint site
Further CCYP guidance on the RCS is on the CCYP’s website at https://ccyp.vic.gov.au/reportable-conduct-scheme/
For information on responding to and reporting concerns about staff conduct in the course of their duties as a departmental employee visit Managing misconduct policy and guidelines.
For information on responding to a report about a child who is related to someone who works at the department, see procedure- Reports about children related to DHHS staff and advice - Reports about children related to DHHS staff
For information on the Child Safe Standards see Child Safe Standards and on the department’s internet site and on the Child Safe Standards intranet page at https://intranet.dhhs.vic.gov.au/child-safe-standards
- Reports about children related to DHHS staff
- Reports about children related to DHHS staff - advice
- Reportable conduct scheme - Sharepoint site
- Reportable conduct scheme - CCYP website
- Managing unsatifactory work performance and misconduct policy
- Child safe standards - Our approach
- Child safe standards - DHHS intranet site
- Child safe standards - DHHS internet site