Schools - suitable staff and volunteers regulations

All references to 'schools' include school boarding premises.

Steps to compliance

1. Review

Schools maintain registers of staff and volunteers required to have:

a Working With Children clearance
a Victorian Institute of Teaching registration.

These are minimum standards for school registration.

Be clear about the staff and volunteers that perform ‘child-connected’ and ‘child-related’ work.

Child-connected work is:

authorised by the governing authority
performed by an adult in a school environment while children are present or reasonably expected to be present.

This definition is likely to cover all, or the vast majority of school staff, and many volunteers.

Child-related work is more specific. It is an adult who:

works with children. This includes paid and unpaid work
has direct contact with children as a usual part of their duties
is not occasional or incidental to their work.

If in doubt about whether staff or a volunteer performs child-connected work, assume they do, and apply the steps detailed here.

Ensure staff and volunteers and members of the governing body engaged in child-connected work receive an induction that includes:

the Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy
the Child Safety Code of Conduct
record management, information sharing and reporting obligations
where relevant to the role, policy and procedures for managing complaints and concerns related to child safety.

Make sure job advertisements have clear statements about:

the job’s requirements, duties and responsibilities regarding child safety and wellbeing
the job occupant’s essential or relevant qualifications, experience and attributes in relation to child safety and wellbeing.

Ensure volunteers engaged in child-connected work have a current Working With Children Check clearance.

Sight, verify and record the person’s Working with Children clearance or equivalent background check such as a Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) registration.

For staff engaged in child-related work, collect and record proof of:

the person’s identity
any professional or other qualifications
the person’s history of working with children.

This includes references that address their suitability for the job and working with children. Consider whether you should conduct the same or similar checks for volunteers based on the child safety risks relevant to their role.

Ensure there are procedures for ongoing supervision and monitoring of staff and volunteers. This includes evaluating staff for compliance with the Child Safety Code of Conduct at performance appraisals.

2. Maintain

Creating a register of staff and volunteers is not enough. The school governing authority must ensure there are procedures to keep it maintained and up-to-date.

3. Implement

Compliant schools:

develop robust procedures to ensure only suitable staff and volunteers work with children
provide a child safety and wellbeing induction to:
- staff
- volunteers
- governing authority members
supervise and monitor staff and volunteers to ensure they continue to be suitable to work with children
support staff and volunteers to understand their responsibilities.

Examples of common non-compliance

Register of staff and volunteers required to have a Working With Children clearance is not up-to-date or accurate.
Job advertisements for child-connected work do not cover:
- duties and responsibilities in relation to child safety and wellbeing
- qualifications
- experience and attributes in relation to child safety and wellbeing.
No child safety induction process for staff and volunteers engaged in child-connected work.
No child safety induction process for members of the school governing authority. This can be the same induction given to staff and volunteers.
No screening of volunteers engaged in child-related work.
Volunteers engaged in child-connected work not informed about the Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy or the Child Safety Code of Conduct.
Little or no evidence of school governing authority oversight of procedures for the recruitment, screening, training and monitoring of staff and volunteers engaged in child-connected or child-related work.
No policy or process to monitor ongoing suitability of staff and volunteers to work with children.
No action taken when staff or volunteers:
- breach the Child Safety Code of Conduct
- fail to prioritise the safety and wellbeing of students.

Clause 10 of Ministerial Order 1359 aligns to Child Safe Standard 6 and states:

10.1 Schools and school boarding premises must ensure that people working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice.

10.2 In complying with clause 10.1, the school governing authority or school boarding premises governing authority must, at a minimum, ensure:
1. recruitment advertisements for school staff or school boarding premises staff who will be engaged in child-connected work have a clear statement that sets out:
  1. the job’s requirements, duties and responsibilities regarding child safety and wellbeing; and
  2. the job occupant’s essential or relevant qualifications, experience and attributes in relation to child safety and wellbeing
2. all applicants for jobs that involve child-connected work for the school or school boarding premises must be informed about the child safety practices of the school or provider of school boarding services (including the code of conduct)
3. when engaging volunteers to undertake child-connected work, volunteers are made aware of the child safety and wellbeing policy and child safety code of conduct of the school or provider of school boarding services
4. when engaging school staff or school boarding premises staff to perform child-connected work, the school governing authority or school boarding premises governing authority must:
  1. sight, verify and record the person’s Working with Children clearance, if the person is required to have a clearance in accordance with the Worker Screening Act 2020, or any equivalent background check; and
  2. where the person will be engaged in child-related work, collect and record:
    
    proof of the person’s identity
    
    information about any essential or relevant professional or other qualifications
    
    the person's history of work involving children; and
    
    references that address the person's suitability for the job and for working with children.
Explanatory note

Please refer to the Worker Screening Act 2020 which establishes a process to screen persons engaging or intending to engage in child-related work through a screening check, and also sets out exemptions from that requirement for some volunteers, parents and others.

The school or provider of school boarding services may need to gather a range of information, including but not limited to a Working with Children clearance and qualifications relevant to the role being performed, to help ensure only suitable people work with children.

Registration with the Victorian Institute of Teaching is an equivalent background check.
1. when engaging a volunteer to perform child-connected work, the school governing authority or school boarding premises governing authority must:
  1. sight, verify and record the person’s Working with Children clearance, if the person is required to have a clearance in accordance with the Worker Screening Act 2020, or any equivalent background check; and
  2. consider the child safety risks relevant to the volunteer's role and, if reasonable and appropriate, collect and record:
    
    proof of the person’s identity
    
    information about any essential or relevant professional or other qualifications
    
    the person's history of work involving children; and
    
    references that address the person's suitability for the job and for working with children.
10.3 The school governing authority or school boarding premises governing authority need not comply with the requirements in clauses 10.2(d) and 10.2(e) if it has already undertaken these activities in relation to a particular individual within the previous 12 months.

10.4 In complying with clause 10.1, the school governing authority or school boarding premises governing authority must ensure that:
1. school staff, school boarding premises staff, members of the governing body, and volunteers engaged in child-connected work, receive an induction regarding child safety and wellbeing that is appropriate to the nature of the role, and which includes:
  1. information on the child safety code of conduct, and
  2. where relevant to the role, the child safety and wellbeing policy and procedures for managing complaints and concerns related to child abuse
2. school staff, school boarding premises staff, members of the governing body, and volunteers engaged in child-connected work, are aware of their responsibilities to children and students, information sharing and reporting obligations, and recordkeeping obligations
3. ongoing supervision and people management of staff and volunteers focuses on child safety and wellbeing.
To learn more about the difference between ‘child-connected work’ and ‘child-related work’ read:
- Working with Children and other Suitability Checks for School Volunteers and Visitors(opens in a new window)
Other resources for ensuring staff and volunteers are suitable are available at.
- Suitable staff and volunteers guidance(opens in a new window)

Education

Updated 24 June 2022