Page 4187 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 21 September 2010
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parties to a proceedings, including the reporter’s identity, to information given or produced to the court; and an amendment enabling dental therapists, as well as dentists, to provide advice regarding dental treatment and minor dental surgery to persons who are to exercise daily care responsibilities for a child or young person in care.
Mandatory reporting is an important provision of this and previous acts in the ACT. The legislation requires a broad range of professionals and persons working with children and young people and families to report their concerns where children and young people in the ACT may be the subject of non-accidental physical injury or sexual abuse. This group of professionals has not significantly changed since the introduction of legislation in the ACT, although clarity of application has been provided in subsequent changes.
In 2008, the new act included a provision requiring a person providing education to a child or young person who is registered for home education under the Education Act 2004 to be a mandated reporter. In essence, this provision requires that a parent, as the only person able to be registered to conduct home education, must report on themselves, their partner or their children.
Given the secrecy of abuse, it is unlikely such a situation may arise. Yet those children and young people who receive home education and who may be the subject of physical or sexual abuse within the home may need to be reported and appropriate action taken.
The amendment proposed seeks to replace the mandatory reporting obligations upon the parents and place the mandatory reporting obligations upon those persons authorised under the Education Act 2004 to inspect the home schooling arrangements. This amendment provides necessary clarity and an opportunity for the children and young people who may be subject to physical or sexual abuse to have their concerns identified in reporting.
The Children and Young People Act 2008 requires that a child or young person on a reviewable care and protection order have a report prepared about their circumstances and living arrangements during a preceding period. A reviewable order is any order that has been in place for more than six months and that has parental responsibilities or supervision provisions involving the chief executive or his or her staff.
These reports, when finalised, must be provided to the child or young person, to the parents, to carers, to the ACT Children’s Court and to the Public Advocate. These reports are an important record for each child or young person, their parent and their carer. The Public Advocate, as an oversight agency, reviews these reports and ensures that the best interests of the children and the young people are independently considered.
The act currently states that the annual review report is to be prepared each year. This could be interpreted to mean each year in the life of the order or in each calendar year. The amendment seeks to provide the necessary clarity that an annual review report must be prepared and provided to the child, young person, parent, carer, the court and
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