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Schools - suitable staff and volunteers regulations

People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice.

All references to 'schools' include school boarding premises.

Steps to compliance

1. Review

Schools maintain registers of staff and volunteers required to have:

  • a Working With Children clearance
  • a Victorian Institute of Teaching registration.

These are minimum standards for school registration.

Be clear about the staff and volunteers that perform ‘child-connected’ and ‘child-related’ work.

Child-connected work is:

  • authorised by the governing authority
  • performed by an adult in a school environment while children are present or reasonably expected to be present.

This definition is likely to cover all, or the vast majority of school staff, and many volunteers.

Child-related work is more specific. It is an adult who:

  • works with children. This includes paid and unpaid work
  • has direct contact with children as a usual part of their duties
  • is not occasional or incidental to their work.

If in doubt about whether staff or a volunteer performs child-connected work, assume they do, and apply the steps detailed here.

Ensure staff and volunteers and members of the governing body engaged in child-connected work receive an induction that includes:

  • the Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy
  • the Child Safety Code of Conduct
  • record management, information sharing and reporting obligations
  • where relevant to the role, policy and procedures for managing complaints and concerns related to child safety.

Make sure job advertisements have clear statements about:

  • the job’s requirements, duties and responsibilities regarding child safety and wellbeing
  • the job occupant’s essential or relevant qualifications, experience and attributes in relation to child safety and wellbeing.

Ensure volunteers engaged in child-connected work have a current Working With Children Check clearance.

Sight, verify and record the person’s Working with Children clearance or equivalent background check such as a Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) registration.

For staff engaged in child-related work, collect and record proof of:

  • the person’s identity
  • any professional or other qualifications
  • the person’s history of working with children.

This includes references that address their suitability for the job and working with children. Consider whether you should conduct the same or similar checks for volunteers based on the child safety risks relevant to their role.

Ensure there are procedures for ongoing supervision and monitoring of staff and volunteers. This includes evaluating staff for compliance with the Child Safety Code of Conduct at performance appraisals.

2. Maintain

Creating a register of staff and volunteers is not enough. The school governing authority must ensure there are procedures to keep it maintained and up-to-date.

3. Implement

Compliant schools:

  • develop robust procedures to ensure only suitable staff and volunteers work with children
  • provide a child safety and wellbeing induction to:
    • staff
    • volunteers
    • governing authority members
  • supervise and monitor staff and volunteers to ensure they continue to be suitable to work with children
  • support staff and volunteers to understand their responsibilities.

Examples of common non-compliance

  • Register of staff and volunteers required to have a Working With Children clearance is not up-to-date or accurate.
  • Job advertisements for child-connected work do not cover:
    • duties and responsibilities in relation to child safety and wellbeing
    • qualifications
    • experience and attributes in relation to child safety and wellbeing.
  • No child safety induction process for staff and volunteers engaged in child-connected work.
  • No child safety induction process for members of the school governing authority. This can be the same induction given to staff and volunteers.
  • No screening of volunteers engaged in child-related work.
  • Volunteers engaged in child-connected work not informed about the Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy or the Child Safety Code of Conduct.
  • Little or no evidence of school governing authority oversight of procedures for the recruitment, screening, training and monitoring of staff and volunteers engaged in child-connected or child-related work.
  • No policy or process to monitor ongoing suitability of staff and volunteers to work with children.
  • No action taken when staff or volunteers:
    • breach the Child Safety Code of Conduct
    • fail to prioritise the safety and wellbeing of students.

Updated