The Wrongs Amendment (Organisational Child Abuse) Act 2017 established a statutory duty of care for organisations that care for, supervise, or have authority over children. It means that if a child is abused by an individual associated with Council, the Council is presumed to have breached its duty of care unless it can prove that it took ‘reasonable precautions’ to prevent the abuse in question.
What are 'reasonable precautions'?
'Reasonable precautions’ has not been defined to allow organisations to flexibly take the necessary steps that are suitable for them. This might depend on a range of factors such as the nature of the organisation, the role of the perpetrator in that organisation, and the relationship between the organisation and the child.
Organisations need to consider the necessary steps that are suitable for them. As examples, the following measures are what courts have previously considered to be reasonable precautions in the context of organisational child abuse:
- employment screening and referencing checking
- supervision and training
- implementing systems to provide early warning of possible offences
- random and unannounced inspections to deter misconduct, and
- encouraging children and adults to notify authorities or parents about any signs of aberrant or unusual behaviour.
A court's interpretation will vary depending upon the facts of each individual claim. For instance, the standard of what is reasonable may be lower in circumstances where an organisation may not have had direct control over either the child in question, or the perpetrator of the abuse. Read the Department of Justice and Community Safety Victoria's "Betrayal of Trust Fact Sheet: The New Organisational Duty of Care to Prevent Child Abuse".
Watch is a short webinar provided by Safe Space Legal on Duty of Care: Safeguarding Children and Young People: Duty of Care.