Child Safety in Victoria: Summary of the CCYP Annual Report 2023-24
The Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) is the regulator of the Child Safe Standards and Reportable Conduct Scheme in Victoria. The CCYP Annual Report for the 2023 – 2024 year was released on 10 October 2024 and provides a snapshot of the work that the CCYP has conducted throughout the year, including CCYP’s role in supporting and regulating child-safe organisations.
What is the Child Safe Standards?
In Victoria, there are 11 Child Safe Standards (Standards), which are based on the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations (National Principles). These National Principles have been endorsed by all states and territories across Australia and some states, including Victoria, have legislated them.
All organisations that have the care, supervision or authority of children and young people are required to comply with the Standards. The Standards require organisations to take steps to prevent, respond to and report allegations of child abuse, as well as to ensure they foster and maintain an environment that promotes children’s safety.
On 1 January 2023 the Child Wellbeing and Safety (Child Safe Standards Compliance and Enforcement) Amendment Act 2021 came into effect, which introduced new powers for the Commission to monitor and enforce the Standards.
What action did the CCYP take in the last 12 months in relation to the Child Safe Standards?
In 2023–24, the Commission initiated action for potential noncompliance with the Standards in relation to 43 organisations and completed compliance activity with 67 organisations.
The Commission increased its use of enforcement powers in relation to issues of non-compliance where organisations were slow or resistant to take action to address safety risks, which resulted in:
- Issuing eight notices to comply
- Issuing seven notices to produce
- Undertaking three inspections
- Issuing an official warning for suspected non-compliance with a notice issued by the Commission.
Common Compliance Issues
Common compliance issues in relation to the Child Safe Standards in 2023-24 included:
- Inadequate screening of potential employees or volunteers
- Failure to manage risks during investigations of workers and volunteers
- A lack of policy and procedures outlining the process for dealing with complaints
- Failure to address emotional abuse
Throughout the administration of the Standards, the Commission identified the theme of sporting and religious organisations struggling to identify and address risks.
By sector in 2023-24, the Commission started action about potential non-compliance with the Standards in:
- Community sporting clubs (67%)
- Religious bodies (12%)
- Counselling or other support services (9%)
- Other (12%)
What is the Reportable Conduct Scheme?
The Reportable Conduct Scheme requires organisations that are bound by the Scheme to respond to allegations of abuse and misconduct, notify the regulator of any reportable allegations, properly investigate reportable allegations and to notify the regulator of the findings and outcomes of the investigation.
In Victoria, there are five categories of reportable allegations under the Reportable Conduct Scheme:
- Sexual offences committed again, 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,
- Behaviour with causes significant emotional or psychological harm to a child, and
- Significant neglect of a child.
Reportable Conduct Scheme Matters that the CCYP regulated in the last 12 months:
In 2023–24, the Commission saw an increase in notifications and public notifications under the Reportable Conduct Scheme. There were 1,892 notifications of reportable allegations received, which represented a 30% increase from 2022-23. This was a record number of annual notifications, and this is anticipated to grow in the coming year. The data indicates that organisations are better identifying and reporting allegations.
The highest number of notifications of reportable allegations received in 2023-24 were from the following sectors:
- Education (40%)
- Early childhood education (28%)
- Out-of-home care (21%)
In 2023-24, the highest number of reportable allegations related to physical violence. The breakdown is as follows:
- Physical violence (35%)
- Behaviour that causes significant emotional or psychological harm (19%)
- Sexual misconduct (19%)
- Significant neglect of a child (21%)
- Sexual offences (6%)
In 2023-24, the findings of the reported allegations were:
- Substantiated (30%)
- Unsubstantiated – insufficient evidence (30%)
- Unsubstantiated – lack of evidence of weight (19%)
- Unfounded (10%)
- Conduct outside scheme (11%)
Notably, the substantiation rate for sexual offence and sexual misconduct allegations substantially increased. In 2023–24, sexual misconduct and sexual offences had the equal highest substantiation rate of any conduct category, with 38 per cent of allegations in these categories resulting in a substantiated finding.
How can Safe Space Legal Help?
The team at Safe Space Legal have extensive safeguarding experience. We have worked with many organisations across Australia to ensure they are meeting their legal obligations and frequently conduct independent safeguarding investigations.
Safe Space Legal provides the following services to ensure organisations meet their legal obligations:
- Drafting legally sound policies, procedures, and codes of conduct.
- Providing policy audits and developing safeguarding policies, procedures, and complaint handing processes.
- Providing root cause analysis to identify gaps in policy and/or practice which put organisations at risk of non-compliance with their sector-specific obligations.
- Delivering training to workplaces to ensure they are aware of their legal obligations.
- Conducting safeguarding investigations which are compliant with relevant state and territory legislation and regulations. · Delivering safeguarding training to ensure organisations are aware of their sector-specific requirements and obligations.
- Ensuring that complaints handling and reporting processes are compliant with legal obligations.
- Assistance and support to respond to allegations of workplace misconduct.
- Provide sound legal advice on risk mitigation.
Contact [email protected] or call (03) 9124 7321 to organise a complementary discussion in relation to your organisation’s child safety and safeguarding needs.