In July 2015 the revised 2015 ACT Registration of Non-Government Schools Manual (the 2015 Manual) was released by the ACT Government Education and Training Directorate (ETD).
The 2015 Manual replaced the December 2014 ACT Registration of Non-Government Schools Manual (the 2014 Manual).
The most important change in the Manual is the ETD’s significantly different approach to managing compliance within ACT non-government schools.
The ‘Other Requirements’ section, which previously followed the Conditions of Registration in the 2014 Manual, has been removed from the 2015 Manual. These ‘Other Requirements’ were a list of obligations that came directly from legislation relevant to ACT non-government schools.
In place of the ‘Other Requirements’ section, Part 5 of the 2015 Manual introduces an annual ‘Statement of Assurance’ to be signed by each non-government school principal attesting to their school’s compliance with all its relevant legislative obligations including but not limited to, obligations which were referred to in the 2014 Manual. For example, the:
This new requirement represents a radical shift in how ACT non-government schools are required to evidence their compliance with legislative and regulatory obligations. It places a personal obligation on the leaders of a school to be aware of and implement systems and procedures to ensure its compliance with, ‘all relevant ACT and Commonwealth legislation and regulations’.
Critically this new Statement of Assurance must be completed annually, sending a very clear message to schools that the requirement to be compliant is continuous – not a once every five year obligation coinciding with registration. The Statement of Assurance will need to be submitted each year to the ACT Association of Independent Schools (AIS ACT) or the ACT Catholic Education Office (CEO), in accordance with the Manual and a Memorandum of Understanding between the ACT ETD and the AIS ACT (MOU).