Child Safe/Safeguarding Program – Briefing Paper for Tasmanian 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 addition, Catholic Professional Standards Ltd (now Australian Catholic Safeguarding Ltd (ACSL)) created the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards (NCSS), which 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.

Tasmania has recently updated its registration guidelines for non-government schools (Registration Guidelines). The new evidentiary requirements include a schedule for regularly reviewing the policies and procedures, preferably every three to five years. The new requirements under Standard Five —Student Welfare include in particular:

• the need to address peer-to-peer relationships in child safe policies (which are already required to address staff-student relationships)
• evidence of involving students in policy development, particularly in relation to those enabling students to report unsafe behaviours
• evidence of how the school informs and involves staff, parents, volunteers and others who interact with the school in a shared commitment and approach to keeping students safe
• demonstrating a public commitment to the National Principles through the development and implementation of child safe policies and procedures
• a staff code of conduct that clearly and explicitly states the acceptable and unacceptable forms of behaviour between a staff member and a student.

The Registration Guidelines strongly recommend that, in developing and implementing their child safe policies and procedures, schools be guided by the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework, which requires the adoption and implementation of the National Principles, as well as annual risk assessments and ongoing training. Schools should also consider using public guidance provided by the Tasmanian Department of Education and incorporating Article 3 of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In a July 2021 letter to school principals, the Non-Government Schools Registration Board noted that the updated Registration Guidelines would require non-government schools to implement new, or amend current, school policies and procedures. It stated that it expects schools to begin working to implement the new evidentiary requirements so that ‘significant progress’ would have been made by July 2022.