AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Danuta Kozaki and staff
Working with children checks should be strengthened and unified across all states and territories as a matter of urgency, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has recommended.
Currently in Australia, each state and territory has its own scheme for conducting background checks on people who want to work with children.
But the commission’s report into working with children checks found the eight different schemes were inconsistent, complex and gave a false sense of security to institutions and families.
The ABC has reported that some staff working in organisations with vulnerable children in Victoria have been working without valid police or working with children checks.
The commission’s report said problems with working with children checks have been recognised by governments for some time, but for too long they have favoured maintaining their own systems over working together.
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