Do you need help with a Reportable Conduct Investigation?
If you need help with a reportable conduct investigation we have put together some handy tips to get you started.
No 1 – Make a notification to the Office of the Children’s Guardian (OCJ).
If your organisation has been made aware of a reportable conduct allegation that has been made against one of your employees or volunteers the first step is to submit a 7 day notification to the OCG. If you are not sure whether the alleged conduct falls within one of the reportable conduct categories you can call the OCG who will be able to provide you with some advice about whether the conduct falls under the scheme.
No. 2 – Get approval from the relative agency before starting your investigation.
It is possible that the Police or the DCJ have an active investigation of the same issue that you are investigating and your reportable conduct investigation may prejudice their investigation. It is also possible that providing details of allegations to a respondent in an investigation could endanger a child. It is therefore important that before you embark on an investigation you make contact with any relevant agencies and request their permission to conduct a reportable conduct investigation. In most cases this will not be an issue, particularly if no complaint has been made to the Police, however, on occasion the Police will ask that you suspend a reportable conduct investigation until their criminal proceedings have been concluded.
No 3. – Determine whether other agencies may have information that could be relevant to your investigation.
One of the most difficult aspects of any investigation is getting reliable information from the alleged victim, witnesses or respondent. This problem is magnified significantly when dealing with children who have shorter memories and may be unable to explain, or even understand, what happened. In some cases this problem may be overcome if other agencies such as the Police or the DCJ have already conducted investigations and are able to share that information with you. Some of the information that you could receive from the Police or the DCJ are:
· a detailed description of the alleged conduct;
· criminal charges relating to the alleged conduct;
· a list of potential witnesses;
· transcripts or summaries of child interviews, witness interviews or respondent interviews;
· recorded admissions to reportable conduct allegations;
· the name of the police officer or DCJ officer who conducted the investigation.
Number 4 – Make a request under Chapter 16a to get information from relevant agencies
Chapter 16a of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 allows some agencies to exchange information to “prescribed bodies” such as:
NSW government agencies
schools
public health agencies and private hospitals
children’s services (such as preschools)
police
Commonwealth bodies such as
National Disability Insurance Agency
National Disability Insurance Scheme Quality and Safeguards Commission.
If you have any questions or would like to engage Insight Investigations & Mediation please contact us today.