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Parliamentary Questions


Question On Notice No. 236 asked in the Legislative Council on 12 August 2021 by Hon Donna Faragher

Question Directed to the: Minister for Education and Training
Parliament: 41 Session: 1


Question

(1) I refer to the WA Today article titled, "Our kids are dying: Perth parents search for answers from school over son's suicide ends up in Supreme Court" (26 May 2021), which makes reference to an internal review undertaken by the Department of Education, and I ask, what were the terms of reference for this review?
(2) Will the Minister provide a list of the final recommendations that were made by the review and include details as to when they were implemented by the Department?

Answered on 9 September 2021

 

Answer 

1.      The terms of reference for the review were:

  •  Should the School have used the Guidelines to support decision making and action for the safety and welfare of [the student] before his death?
  •  Should the School have used the Guidelines to provide appropriate support for the safety and welfare of its students after [student’s] death? 

This information was outlined in a letter of 2 July 2020 from the Department of Education to the parents.

 

2.      The Final Recommendations and implementation details are: 

Recommendation

Implementation

1.      A review of the Guidelines in consultation with the partners to the Guidelines, that being the public, private and Catholic school systems, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and Youth Focus.

 

Completed.

21 January 2021

2.      Establish better lines of communication with private psychologists, including having a sample letter in the Guidelines to obtain consent when a School is advised that a student is being treated by a private psychologist.

 

Completed.

21 January 2021

3.      Developing an operational checklist as an Appendix to the Guidelines for Principals in the event of an unexpected death or suicide of a student (for example, ceasing automated reporting in all systems, including the Reporting to Parents Program, and advising SCSA).

 

Completed.

21 January 2021

4.      Providing training, professional development and support for staff to manage the impact of serious critical incidents.

 

Actioned and currently being implemented.

5.      Mandatory training for Student Services staff.

 

Actioned and currently being implemented.

6.      Establish a Critical Incident Response Team to conduct reviews of the most critical incidents in a timely and impartial manner. The Team should collect facts about the incident and make recommendations to the Department to action.

 

Completed.

September 2020