Child Safe Organisations ACT
The Australian Capital Territory is guided by the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations however has not yet implemented the National Principles into legislation.
In 2019, the ACT government ran a four-month-long public consultation to develop a Child Safe Standards Scheme however has not yet implemented any territory-specific legislation.
Further the ACT has not yet implemented a Reportable Conduct Scheme.
A summary of the ACT child safety legislative landscape is outlined below:
- Currently the ACT has not enacted the National Principles into legislation, however the ACT has considered implementing legislation therefore we expect legislative change in the coming years.
- Organisations across the ACT that engage with children and young people should implement the National Principles to ensure that organisations are exercising best practice in child safety and mitigate the risk of harm to children and young people.
- The ACT has currently not implemented a Reportable Conduct Scheme
- Organisations across the ACT that engage with children and young people should ensure that they provide a child-focused and accessible complaints system so that the concerns about child abuse and harm can be properly reported and responded to by the organisation, including conducting thorough investigations of concerns.
Children and young people are inherently vulnerable to abuse and harm. Children have a right to feel safe and be safe in all environments. Exposing children and young people to abuse and harm may cause long-term trauma and impact their growth and development. Organisations must take active steps to comply with their duty of care to mitigate risk of harm.