WORKING WITH CHILDREN
CHECKS
383. Ms L.L. BAKER to the Minister for Child Protection:
I refer to the changes to the
working with children check screening process announced in February. Can the
minister tell the house how the changes have improved the screening process for
children and further safeguard children in Western Australia?
Ms S.F. McGURK
replied:
I thank the member for the question and her interest in
children from the early years and the welfare of children in our state. The
question about working with children checks comes off the back of a debate in
this house about the improvements to mandatory reporting—that is, to
extend mandatory reporting requirements to ministers of religion, a recommendation of the Royal Commission into Institutional
Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. That bill has passed from this house into the Legislative Council. Last year, the
Auditor General raised the improvements to working with children checks and suggested a number of improvements to
strengthen that system and also give the public more confidence in that
system. This all comes off the back of significant improvements by the Labor
Party over our period in government; that
is, mandatory reporting for ministers of religion, as I said; scrapping of the
statute of limitations on child sex abuse, which the Attorney General
just referred to; bringing in dangerous sex offender laws; and initiating the
working with children check legislation through this Parliament.
In any case, since the
Auditor General's report last year, we have strengthened the working
with children check system through our screening unit. Members might remember
that one of our tools is that while an application is being made, the
department has the option to issue an interim negative notice, which stops an
applicant from working with children while their application is processed. The
Auditor General found that we could make increased use of those interim
negative notices. I am pleased to say that so far this year, there has been an
increase of 91 per cent in the use of interim negative notices from the
previous year. Up to 149 negative notices have been issued. It is a significant
increase after a re-evaluation of the criteria used to issue interim negative
notices. I am pleased to say also that the Department of Communities has worked
hard to make sure that all people working within its employ who are required to
have a working with children check now have them. Therefore, all employees are
currently compliant, but that procedure will not be set and forgotten about.
Obviously, as we recruit new employees and new staff come on board, we need to
keep on top of that situation. As at today, all employees have their working
with children check. We have allocated additional staff to the screening unit
to fast-track applications that are awaiting assessment. As at 1 May this year,
there were only 32 outstanding applications, which is less than half what there
were at the same time last year. We have significantly reduced the number of
outstanding applications. Of course, it is good for employment when people
apply for those working with children checks. It means the sooner they can get
a check, the sooner they can begin their employment.
We have also expanded the proactive compliance campaign. This
is also an area that gained some attention late last year. The department is
working with targeted groups based on risk to make sure those groups are aware
of their obligations around working with
children checks. There are two examples of that—firstly, working with
self-employed people with care responsibilities for children. They were
targeted through Gumtree, for instance, and through other mechanisms to make
sure those self-employed people were aware of their obligations. Secondly, the
department partnered with SportWest to deliver key messages to volunteers who
run sporting organisations in this state. Again, this is not a set and forget;
this is something we need to continue to work within. I am proud of the work
the department has done. Over 130 000 working with children check applications
are processed each year, so it is vital that
the system can be trusted by all stakeholders, parents, children, employers,
childcare operators and sporting
clubs. The department has improved and will continue to improve and adapt to
ensure the best interests of children are paramount in its operations.
Finally, I am proud also
to say that no foster carer with children in their care is without a valid
check. That is also a good milestone. It should be commonsense for foster
carers to have a valid check, but, of course, sometimes children are put into
emergency placements or kinship arrangements, so we need to make sure those
carers all have working with children checks, which they have. In contrast, in
2016, under the previous government, almost 200 foster carers did not have
working with children checks. I am proud of the work the department has done.
As well as doing a lot of work during the pandemic, it has been able to
significantly improve our working with children check system.