2 May 2017
ARIANA MORGAN:
Hello and welcome to today's webcast for early childcare education professionals regarding mandatory reporting requirements. I am Ariana Morgan, one of today's presenters. We will take the opportunity to introduce ourselves – I am Ariana, the Principal Program Officer with Child Safety Services.
ANGELA KERSLAKE:
I am Angela Kerslake, I work for the Department of Communities and Child Safety, and I sit in the community sector with Family and Child Connect and intensive family service providers.
HEIDI ZARB:
I am Heidi Zarb, Principal Program Officer with Child Safety Services.
ELIZABETH POWER:
I am Elizabeth Power, with the Local Level Alliance, Beenleigh Bayside Family and Child Connect, Benevolent Society.
ARIANA MORGAN:
Below me, you will see me, next to the timeline, a speech bubble which is the ‘ask’ button, and if you would like to pose a question or comment, click on the speech bubble, fill out the form and click ‘send’.
If you would like live captioning, hover the mouse over the video screen, click on the two arrows, and live captioning will appear on the big screen.
We would like to take your questions throughout the presentation, and I encourage you to provide your name and email address. Then we can get back to you and follow-up afterwards. For technical assistance, any issues, email
We have had some questions already sent into the panel which we will start with this afternoon.
What we might do is hand over to Heidi for the first question. This has come through from the ECEC sector – if I want to report concerns to Child Safety, before 9am and after 5pm, do I have to report to Child Safety after hours, or wait until the next business day and report to RIS?
HEIDI ZARB:
Unless an urgent or critical response is required, we ask you to send your enquiries to RIS the next business day by phone or by the online reporting form.
ARIANA MORGAN:
Angela, do I need the family's consent?
ANGELA KERSLAKE:
Yes, to refer to the Family and Child Connect service in your local area. There are some government departments within the Queensland government that can provide referrals to Family and Child Connect without consent. For early education and care providers, this is not the case. The best option, to offer families support, is to have those conversations and get their consent and input into the referrals that you might want to make to support the family.
ARIANA MORGAN:
Heidi, will Child Safety tell the family where the information came from?
HEIDI ZARB:
No, under the Child Protection Act, section 186, your identity will not be revealed to the family, and it will be protected. At times, however, a family may become aware, due to the nature of the information, who has provided the information or they will be able to guess, but Child Safety will make every effort to protect your identity.
ARIANA MORGAN:
Elizabeth, if the family agreed to Family and Child Connect, but still have concerns or they stop engaging, how do they report that to Child Safety?
ELIZABETH POWER:
There are a number of options. If you have not heard back as to what the engagement is with the family, ring Family and Child Connect, chat with them around your concerns, or use the online Child Protection Guide. That will help you with your decision as to whether you should contact Child Safety.
We tend to look at whether there is a parent who is willing and able, or not willing or able, but the main message is if you are unsure look at the Child Protection Guide and give Family and Child Connect a call so we can come up with the right solution for you.
ARIANA MORGAN:
Angela, if, as an ECEC staff member, I am worried that if I speak to the family about accessing support they may get angry or abusive, or pull a child out from the centre, what are your suggestions?
ANGELA KERSLAKE:
That’s a genuine concern, in terms of those difficult conversations with families where you may be worried and want to offer assistance and support. Sometimes, I guess, family members may not be ready to receive those messages or talk about those issues, so you may get parents who are anxious or worried about a conversation.
But I would definitely advocate for people that the very first step to a family changing the situation and things improving for a child and family functioning is someone to take that first step and have a conversation with the family. There is a lot of support out there – it you are concerned or worried about how the conversation may go, Family and Child Connect can be a good sounding board. You can ring up and have a de-identified discussion with the family and child practitioners around the best way to approach that conversation.
Often, family members are not sure how to reach out and ask for help. So that person taking that first step and having the conversation can make a huge difference.
We need to be very open and honest, just as we would talk to parents around children falling over or having some other worries about how they are presenting in terms of their behaviours or interactions with others – we need to treat it as an everyday conversation, and acknowledge that parenting can be very tough sometimes, that we are not making judgements, and we just want to support and be there to check in with the family and be the connection point when they are ready.
So, it is important to have non-judgemental comments. Sometimes really point to and refer to some of the strengths and the things going very well for families because we know families have rough patches. Just making sure we try to break down those judgements and barriers, so we can have conversations and enable them to reach out and find support. It is important to make it a part of everyday conversation.
ARIANA MORGAN:
A lady the other day from the training sector suggested using this opportunity, come 1 July, as an icebreaker around what this means for the centre. So, putting in the newsletter that, "Did you know, come 1 July, that the mandatory reporting requirements are changing," and creating a thumbnail where you can refer back to that if an issue were to arise later.
And say, "Do you remember in the newsletter that we said in July the reporting requirements changed? Can we talk about concerns or worries? Can I refer you to a service to help you, and what are your thoughts?"
I think a lot of preparation is in trying to help providers get ready to identify what those red flags may be around harm to children – but it is a good opportunity to take a fresh look at how we generally respond to families. If we are worried, is it so significant it needs to go to Child Safety, but if not, what are the other options for responding to the family?
There is huge fear, anxiety and stigma attached to families sticking up their hands and saying they are struggling and require help. There is a fear of being reported, and whether Child Safety may become involved, so anything we can do to help normalise the help-seeking behaviour.
In our local area with some of the Family and Child Connect services, we visited the early education and care providers. There are posters in the foyer about Family and Child Connect. When we have done individual training with staff at the centres, some of the Family and Child Connect, and my particular role, went up and set up an information booth in the foyer, from 3-6pm. We spoke to parents and offered information around the service.
It is about letting people know we are there so they can ask for help, and they feel OK about accepting help.
ARIANA MORGAN:
They are a few of the questions that came through to the panel before today's webcast. I would like to open it up for other questions and comments. Click on the speech bubble that you see below us, and provide your name and email address so we can come back to you if we cannot answer your question today.
We are waiting for a couple of questions to come through. Just refreshing...
The first question we have – sorry, I am a little bit blind (Laughs).
So, I might... What is the approved – this has come from Cathy, thank you so much – what is the approved provider's responsibility in reporting to the office of the ECEC as well as Child Safety? Is the approved provider required to report to the ECEC officer that an educator has reported, or that they will report to Child Safety?
We are reading that quickly – give us a minute and bear with us...
What we might do, Cathy, if that is alright, we will go away and formulate a response. That is probably more technical than we are prepared for today.
We still have a couple more. Cathy, we will get back to you, but thank you so much for your question. By all means, start flicking through some questions for us. We want you to get ready for the change in legislation, in July. We have one more question provided previously. Heidi, what are the penalties for failing to make a report?
HEIDI ZARB:
The Child Protection Act provides a person does not commit an offence against any other Act by not reporting. This applies to all mandatory reporters, including education and care professionals. Professionals who fail to make a report may be subject to a breach of the code of conduct in their own organisation, but there is no legal penalty for not notifying the Department.
ARIANA MORGAN:
Thank you. While we wait for more questions to come through, Angela, I was interested in hearing your top 10 tips about using the Child Protection Guide. It is something we have spoken a lot about in face-to-face training across the State in terms of how the tool can be used, any functionality in terms of exporting the report, printing, any tips on the scroll bars. Anything that may assist, while we wait.
ANGELA KERSLAKE:
It is a key resource available to the sector to use in terms of being the sounding board around the threshold of reporting. There is a lot of information about the different types of harm, and what you are looking for in terms of making that report. If you have any worries, it is a good process to go through the Guide. It gives lots of information around how to consider all the information that you have, as well as whether there are things that you need to look out for. And when you use the Guide, there are obviously a number of recommendations you will get to once you have answered a couple of questions.
It is not mandatory to use the Guide but we would advocate that you use it – it's a good resource.It is also the definitions and the language that Child Safety uses in making decisions around whether there will be a Child Safety response to your report.
It gives you that consistent framework and language. If I am worried about physical abuse, what does that look like, what do I need to consider? That is the same information Child Safety will be considering on the other end of the intake service.
Another great part of the Child Protection Guide, once you have put your scenario through the Guide and you have your recommendation, you can print out a report of all those considerations and steps you have been through. You can often use that as a point of discussion with a supervisor, somebody else in your service, around the things you have considered prior to making that report.
Obviously when the decision is to report, you have the foundation and the key elements you need to be including in your report to Child Safety.
It is an education tool to help staff really identify, what does that threshold look like, when do I need to make those reports? I would definitely encourage people to get on and have a play around, also a really useful way of being able to pull together all the relevant information when you are possibly making a report to Child Safety.
ARIANA MORGAN:
We have got a question that has come through. What are the actual changes commencing come 1 July? Aren't we already mandatory reporters?
HEIDI ZARB:
At the moment, no, you are not already mandatory reporters. The current mandatory reporters are doctors, registered nurses, approved teachers, certain police officers, authorised officers, child safety employees and employees of licensed care services, and employees of the Public Guardian.
So, come 1 July, Mason's Law will be active. That will mean that Early Childhood Education and Care professionals, and an individual other than a volunteer over the age of 18 who is a provider or supervisor for a QEC approved service will be required to notify the Department if they have concerns of physical or sexual harm to a child.
ARIANA MORGAN:
We have another question that has come in from Nikki. Do educators have to participate in any specific professional development for child protection and mandatory reporting, and is there a timeframe?
HEIDI ZARB:
Most of you would know you already have some level of child protection procedure in your organisation. It varies from agency to agency in terms of what requirements or training requirements are required for your staff. If it turns out that mandatory reporting is required in your organisation, some organisations are sending all their staff to participate in face-to-face sessions run by us, they could be attending a session run by NAPCAN, we have got an online module, and today's Q&A session.
The onus on whether staff need to participate is up to the organisation, up to your management team. In terms of where the Department sits, we are not making staff or the sector…they are not required to attend one of these sessions. We recommend it because of the requirements of mandatory reporting. We want to make sure you guys are as ready, come 1 July, as possible.
We want to make sure the right information is coming to the Department at the right time. The risk is that too much information comes through, it is not the right information. This training is for your sector, but it is not compulsory.
If your staff do attend this training, they can still report to the Department. It does not mean they are not mandatory reporters.
ELIZABETH POWER:
If you are not familiar, Family and Child Connect are providing an information session, to sit down with your team, go through what is Family and Child Connect, what is the eligibility criteria, where are you located, what can we do?
We can do outreach with families, we can meet parents at your centre with you, if you prefer that. There are loads of different options. Just contact your local Family and Child Connect. There is a dedicated 13 family number. Just give them a call on that number, and they should be able to help you organise a session around that.
ANGELA KERSLAKE:
In each of the catchments, there is an out-posted Child Safety practitioner, that is my role. Each Family and Child Connect has that out-posted Child Safety practitioner. We are available to come out and do sessions with staff, what you need to look out for in terms of reporting, having those challenging or difficult conversations about families consenting to support.
There are lots of options to get to know your Family and Child Connect practitioner to have a team response to preparing your staff. We are definitely willing and able to be flexible and fit in with times that would suit your centre.
There are lots of options to be able to support staff to feel confident and prepared in this new role.
HEIDI ZARB:
That gives a more critical response than going straight to the Department for a matter that is not necessarily the Department's business at this point.
ELIZABETH POWER:
Family and Child Connect Services, they are all very familiar with the Child Protection Guide. You can pick up the phone and have a de-identified chat, which is another layer of support you can use in that process.
ARIANA MORGAN:
Getting back to Lolita… Is that how you pronounce that? Can the Family and Child Connect provide ongoing support for educators in relation to working with children who are already in the system as a victim of harm.
ANGELA KERSLAKE:
I would be happy to answer that question. If Child Safety is already involved with a child or family, there is already some casework happening, that particular child and family will have a child safety officer who is responsible for case coordination and case management for that support that is being put in place.
If that is the case, Family and Child Connect won't be involved. But any queries you have around safety and well-being, where the children aren't yet subject to an investigation with Child Safety, that is something Family and Child Connect can help staff with, can help families with.
We are going to be able to respond to any of those enquiries or queries. Obviously with a focus of trying to intervene, offer support, as soon as possible to families, so we can stop that escalation of whatever is happening, whatever the challenges are for those families, escalating to the point where they might need that intervention. Anything we can do to offer that response and get something for families to get their kids and families functioning and back on track.