Page 975 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 29 March 2011
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The ACT Council of Social Service in their correspondence to Minister Burch in December 2010 outlined:
… this system will act as a minimum check and provide one layer of protection to people accessing services in the ACT. It is not a guarantee that someone is suitable to work with vulnerable members of the community. Employers and organisations providing services for these people should think of a Working with Vulnerable People Check as one safety measure but not a substitute for additional risk management processes and procedures.
That is important to remember. We need these checks, and the ACT Greens support the purpose and objective of the bill. Of course, we can never be complacent. What we also always need in place are other policies and procedures around supervision and ensuring that risks are minimised. It is really important that we get this right. It is important that vulnerable people, children and young people receive services that not only will support them to achieve or pursue certain things but that will be safe and do not actually cause harm. The implementation of any new system like this requires additional supports to the community sector to ensure that their policies and procedures around risk management are up to date and that support is there to ensure they are providing child-friendly and child-safe programs in the case of those who work with children.
The Commissioner for Children and Young People gave evidence to the Select Committee on Estimates 2010-11 that he had a keen interest in developing child-friendly and child-safe programs in the ACT. The ACT Greens believe supporting the commissioner in this work would provide wide-ranging benefits to children and young people in the ACT. It would be a good add-on when this bill is passed.
I believe we have a responsibility to ensure that organisations receive adequate support and training to ensure the smooth transition and implementation of this scheme in the ACT. By providing these supports, we are valuing the community organisations and the people who work within the community sector, and that is an extremely important thing to do. When we look at the experiences of other jurisdictions, it is clear to see that a number of resources are required to ensure that potential employees, employers, services and organisations are well informed and regularly receiving up-to-date information about compliance and changes or expectations associated with this legislation.
The Victorian experience of a centralised system was enacted in 2006. A review of this system conducted in 2009 saw a range of amendments being brought forward to ensure that the checking system was meeting its aim of providing a safer community, in this case for children, while not overburdening those required to comply with the check. I believe the ACT will have to follow a similar commitment to review the legislation and how it operates to ensure that the overall aims are being achieved.
Just before I finish, I want to go back to the issue that there will be an extra impost, if you like, on community organisations in order to comply with a number of the things that will be in this bill, and they need to be supported to do that. I remember many years ago when the raising the standard policy was introduced to the community
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