Reporting Laws and Requirements - VIC
The Child Safe Standards:
- Child safe standards cover child sexual abuse, physical abuse, serious emotional and psychological abuse and serious neglect.
- Principle-based standards rather than prescriptive standards.
The Child Safe Standards (the Standards) commenced in Victoria in January 2016. After five years, we have seen how the Standards improve safety for children and young people.
A review conducted recommended changes to the current standards to better align with the national Principles.
On 1 July 2022, the 7 Standards changed to 11 Standards to align more with the National Principles.
The Betrayal of Trust Inquiry in Victoria identified several key issues surrounding child safety.
The Victorian Government responded to these issues through the implementation of the Child Safe Standards in January 2016. These Standards were designed after consultation with numerous stakeholders to provide a compliance standard for the following organisations in providing a child safe environment.
In 2017 the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse recommended that a new version of the standards be adopted for all states and territories which resulted in the development of the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations which applies to all kinds of child abuse, not just sexual abuse.
A review was conducted into the Victorian Standards to ensure they were as strong as possible and in 2020 recommended a number of changes to better align the Standards to the National Principles.
Organisations covered by the Standards will need to comply with new Standards from 1 July 2022.
The new Standards set out minimum requirements and outline the actions organisations must take to keep children and young people safe. They provide more clarity for organisations and are more consistent with Standards in the rest of Australia.
Although similar to Victoria’s current Child Safe Standards, key changes include new requirements:
• to involve families and communities in organisations’ efforts to keep children and young people safe
• for a greater focus on safety for Aboriginal children and young people
• to manage the risk of child abuse in online environments
• in relation to governance, systems and processes to keep children and young people safe.
Victorian standards will have some unique elements including a standalone standard about Cultural Safety for Aboriginal Children and Young People and an additional requirement in standard 3 to empower children.