Victoria’s working with children checks ‘not fit for purpose’, major overhaul recommended
Victoria will overhaul its ‘unfit’ working with children check system after damning safety review findings.
Victoria’s failed working with children check scheme will be overhauled to take into account unsubstantiated allegations against childcare workers, as Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan declared she will always put children first.
The reform is one of the 22 sweeping recommendations to come out of a review ordered last month by Ms Allan following allegations of child sexual abuse against childcare worker Joshua Brown, who held a valid working with children check.
The state government committed to implementing all recommendations within 12 months and providing a $42m boost to the sector, following the report’s release on Wednesday.
In a scathing assessment of the state’s working with children check framework, the review – led by public service veteran Pamela White and former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill – concluded the system was not “fit for purpose” and needed to be rebalanced in favour of child safety.
It said Victoria’s laws were among the least flexible in the country and recommended that unsubstantiated information or intelligence – for example, from police, child protection or other relevant bodies – be obtained, shared and considered to assess, refuse, temporarily suspend or revoke a working with children check.
“Over-reliance on ‘above the line’ information – that is, criminal history (charge, conviction or finding of guilt) or substantiated disciplinary or regulatory findings – means that ‘red flags’ are missed, and an incomplete picture of risk is formed,” the report concluded.
The report recommended a working with children check reassessment be permitted when a screening authority is notified of unsubstantiated information or intelligence, that an internal review process be created, and that the ability to seek review at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal be removed.
Asked about balancing the need to protect children against concerns of privacy and the presumption of innocence, Ms Allan said the rights and safety of children needed to come first.
“Nothing is more important to me as Premier then keeping children safe,” she said.
The report further recommended improvements to childcare recruitment practices and changes to the reportable conduct scheme, and that the state establish a shared intelligence and risk assessment capability to bring child safety risk information together in one place
The capability would “provide up-to-date information to join up the ‘breadcrumbs’, including opportunities to use new technologies such as artificial intelligence that can quickly scan information and flag patterns of concern”, and would feed into the state’s working with children check and workforce register.
The report recommended the current childcare regulator, the Quality Assessment and Regulation Division, be “significantly strengthened”, and increase its unannounced compliance visits to centres – which currently only occur on average once every two years – to at least once every 12 months.
QARD should also be made independent from the state Department of Education due to a risk of conflict of interest with department-run early learning and childcare centres, the report said.
Among the report’s recommendations for the commonwealth government was a call for it to crack down on poor-quality training services, reinstate and increase funding for state and territory early childhood education regulators, and set a 10-year strategy to “fundamentally reform” the system.
At a national level, the report – which came ahead of a meeting of national education ministers on Friday – called for mandatory child safety training, a review to improve staffing arrangements, and a trial of CCTV that “focuses on its use as a regulatory and investigative tool”.
As part of its initial response, the Victorian government said it would introduce legislation next week to “immediately suspend working with children checks when an individual is under police investigation”, establish a new regulator, beef up its social services regulator and introduce mandatory child safety training.
Victorian opposition education spokeswoman Jess Wilson said the opposition would work constructively with the government to pass legislation.
However, she joined the Greens in criticising the government for being too slow to act after the Victorian Ombudsman found “serious shortfalls” in the state’s working with children system back in 2022.
Ms Allan said she wasn’t involved in decisions about the Ombudsman’s report at that time and said she was taking action as the Premier now.
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