Working with children checks

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Provide your feedback on how working with children checks should be undertaken in South Australia in the future.

What is being decided?

The Child Safety (Prohibited Persons) Bill 2016 (PDF, 160KB) has been released for public consultation and will reform how we undertake working with children checks in South Australia.

A working with children check (WWCC) is an assessment of information relating to a person’s prior conduct to determine whether the person should be prohibited from working with children.

The Bill proposes significant changes to the way WWCCs are conducted, in line with recommendations from the recent Child Protection Systems Royal Commission report, providing the community access to a transparent and consistent regime for WWCCs.

The proposed changes will create a stronger legislative scheme, ensuring that a person who is assessed as being of high risk to the safety of children is prohibited from working or volunteering with them, and that it is an offence to allow this to occur. It will also bring South Australia more in line with other states and territories, enabling progress towards a nationally consistent scheme.

We are asking your views on the Bill and the proposed changes to requirements for working with children in South Australia. To find out more about the changes, download and read the Fact Sheet (PDF, 53KB)

These changes are part of the State Government’s child protection reform agenda, where the welfare of the child comes first.

How can your input influence the decision?

Your feedback will be taken into consideration in the drafting of the final Bill, which will be publically available when introduced to Parliament.

You can provide your feedback by:

• Posting in the online discussion board.
• Emailing your submission to NRCresponseunit@sa.gov.au.
• Mailing your submission to: Nyland Royal Commission Response Unit, Attorney-General’s Department, GPO Box 464, Adelaide SA, 5000.

Feedback will be accepted until 5:00pm Tuesday 13 September. The final Bill will be publically available when it is introduced to Parliament.

Want to know more?

• You can contact Attorney-General's Department of South Australia via email NRCresponseunit@sa.gov.au or call 8207 1771.
• Follow the conversation on Twitter via @SA_AGD.

Background

The Child Protection Systems Royal Commission was established in August 2014 to investigate the adequacy of the child protection system in South Australia (the SA Royal Commission). Royal Commissioner Margaret Nyland and her team looked at the laws, policies, practices and structures currently in place for children at risk of harm, abuse or neglect including those who are under the guardianship of the Minister.

The SA Royal Commission received 374 submissions, examined 10,800 documents and conducted 74 stakeholder engagements. The final report was publicly released on 8 August 2016. Among the SA Royal Commission’s 260 recommendations, where calls to transform the way we screen people who want to work or volunteer with children in South Australia.

Prior to the release of the report, the State Government had already begun working on new legislation to adopt the final recommendations on WWCCs made by the Commonwealth Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Commonwealth Royal Commission). The Child Safety (Prohibited Persons) Bill 2016 adopts the approach recommended by the Commonwealth Royal Commission but adapted to meet all the SA Royal Commission recommendations concerning WWCCs.