Ms O’CONNOR question to MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, Ms PALMER
The ‘Office of the Independent Regulator Annual Report’ highlights there have been 567 total reports under the reportable conduct scheme for 2024-25. The average number of reports was 12 per week, compared to nine a week in the last reporting period, so reports are going up, not down. There have been 189 reports from education services, which is 33 per cent of all reports. Of these, there were 57 reports of physical violence, 50 reports of sexual misconduct and 34 reports of grooming. Across all schools, 210 children and young people were alleged victims in a notification, and six of these were victims in more than one notification. The Independent Regulator said:
At the same time, we are also seeing significant shortfalls in core skills, a lack of quality training and upskilling, and, disappointingly, a tendency to prioritise privacy over child safeguarding. Robust and consistent risk management practices, up‑to‑date and accessible policies and procedures, and a clear understanding of reporting obligations are not as prevalent or embedded as we would like.
In broad terms, what is your response to the Independent Regulator’s findings and the quite confronting data that she presents, and how will you respond to that concern that your department has priorities that need to be straightened out?
ANSWER
Mr President, I thank the honourable member for the question. I think there are some parts of your question that I will need to take on notice, and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Obviously, all complaints that are made by children and young people are taken very seriously, and they’re investigated thoroughly, with the rights and safety of children and young people always at the centre.
All DECYP staff are classified as mandatory reporters under our relevant legislation. This means that all staff must report known or suspected abuse of a child or a young person. All staff have access to clear information on how to report and complete mandatory online training annually. Complaints or allegations about staff conduct will always be referred to DECYP workplace relations if the code of conduct has been breached.
We know that allegations of a serious nature result in the employee being removed from the workplace pending an investigation. An employee may be assigned alternative duties with no contact with the young person, so this does not occur when a complaint relates to an allegation of sexual abuse. The safety and wellbeing of young people involved is always central to these determinations, and a staff member is only returned to the workplace when a thorough investigation process determines the safety and wellbeing of young children and young people is not at risk.
With the rest of your question, I will need to take that on notice because it touched on a couple of different things, but one of the greatest strengths that we have, and something that I’m always asking questions about and focusing on, is making sure – and we have certainly seen change in this space in a number of areas across the work from the commission of inquiry, even in the work that we’re seeing with early childhood educators, in making sure that government does not operate in silos, and that there is always that cross‑referencing and there is always that referral, because we know when there are silos, that’s when children will slip through, and we cannot allow that to happen in our state.
