Under the Reportable Conduct Scheme, the head of an organisation subject to the scheme has explicit legal obligations to ensure all concerns are taken seriously, reported and investigated.
Find out more about reporting requirements
Find out more about conducting investigations
Risk management should begin immediately and is a core obligation under the Act.
The head of the organisation needs to identify, assess and manage risks to children as soon as an allegation is received and throughout the entire investigation process.
What is risk management?
Managing risk during reportable conduct investigations is critical to keep children safe, protecting the integrity of the investigation, and being fair to workers.
Risk management is the process of identifying possible risks, understanding how likely they are and how much harm they could cause, and taking reasonable steps to reduce or remove those risks.
Each organisation subject to the Reportable Conduct Scheme also needs to meet their obligations under the Child Safe Standards. This means they need to manage risk in line with the Standards and clearly set this out in its policies and procedures.
Risk management is different from:
- criminal investigations by the police (QPS)
- making a finding about whether the conduct actually happened
- child protection work by the Department of Families, Seniors, Disability Services and Child Safety
- work carried out by industry regulators
- working with children checks (Blue Card Services).
Step by step: when does risk management need to occur?
Risk management should begin immediately on being advised of a reportable conduct allegation or conviction and be ongoing across the duration of a reportable conduct matter. Find out more about what is required to manage risk at each stage of a matter: