The child protection division
Our child protection division is responsible for ensuring that designated government agencies, designated non-government agencies and public authorities comply with their child protection obligations under the Ombudsman Act. These obligations cover ‘reportable conduct’ which is conduct by employees that could be abusive to children. It might include sexual misconduct, assault, ill-treatment, neglect or behaviour that causes psychological harm to children.
Child protection division members:
- keep under scrutiny the systems established by agencies for preventing reportable conduct by their employees and handling or responding to reportable allegations or convictions
- receive and assess notifications about reportable allegations or convictions
- receive and assess complaints from the public about an agency's handling of reportable allegations against their employees
- may undertake inquiries to obtain further information about issues raised in a complaint before deciding whether or not to investigate an agency's conduct
- oversee or monitor the handling of investigations by agencies into reportable allegations or convictions against their employees
- may directly investigate a reportable allegation or conviction against an employee or the handling of a matter by an agency
- may undertake 'own motion' investigations of agencies' conduct if the Ombudsman considers it is in the public interest to do so
- educate and advise agencies about their reporting obligations, help them to establish child protection systems to effectively respond to reportable allegations and inappropriate behaviour by their employees, and provide advice on how to conduct appropriate investigations
- conduct research into trends and patterns of reportable conduct to help agencies develop a strong foundation for future child protection strategies.
Click here to see a flow chart of the structure of the child protection division.
