More expansive and prescriptive Ministerial Order for Victorian schools

14th February 2022 Author Cecelia Irvine-So & Skye Rose

The new Ministerial Order 1359 (MO 1359), which implements the new Child Safe Standards for registered schools in Victoria, has been announced. This is to replace Ministerial Order 870.

MO 1359 was published on 10 February 2022, and will come into operation on 1 July 2022, as do the new Child Safe Standards.

We have created a suite of MO 1359 articles to assist you in navigating the new regulatory landscape. Look out in coming days for several more articles.

What does this mean for your school?

The Ministerial Order is a primary reference for child safety in schools, meaning these new provisions require consideration by your governing body, i.e., the school Board, to ensure your school adopts the policies, procedures and practices necessary to comply.

It means a governance refresh and a child safety rejuvenation.

The full title of MO 1359 is “Implementing the Child Safe Standards – Managing the Risk of Child Abuse in Schools and School Boarding Premises”. It is available here.

What are the key changes?

Definitions

Streamlining of definitions to align with other regulatory instruments, such as the Education and Training Reform Act 2006, Education and Training Reform Regulations 2017 and the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005.
Inclusion of definitions specific to school boarding premises. This builds on increasing regulation and focus on boarding premises, due to increased child safety risks as identified by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Major changes to definition of school environment.
Definition of child abuse removed from MO 1359, to refer to the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005.
Definition of child-connected work has been expanded to include school boarding premises. An additional definition of child-related work has been included, and has the same meaning as in the Worker Screening Act 2020.

Detail

The new Child Safe Standards are a lot more detailed. The MO 1359 includes more prescriptive management of child safe organisations.
There are also explanatory notes to assist with compliance.

Annual child safety training (clause 12.2)

The minimum requirements of what must be included in your annual child safety training are more prescriptive than Ministerial Order 870. For example, your annual child safety training must, from 1 July 2022, include information for staff about “a clear procedure or set of procedures for responding to complaints or concerns relating to child abuse”.
Training requirements are prescribed for volunteers, as well as staff and the governing body of your school.

MO 1359 implement the new 2022 Child Safe Standards

The table below shows how the new MO 1359 implements the 2022 Chid Safe Standards, to come into operation on 1 July 2022.

MO 1359	New 2022 CSS	What the Standard is about
Clause 5	Standard 1	Culturally safe environments
Clause 6	Standard 2	Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in leadership, governance and culture
Clause 7	Standard 3	Child and student empowerment
Clause 8	Standard 4	Family engagement
Clause 9	Standard 5	Diversity and equity
Clause 10	Standard 6	Suitable staff and volunteers
Clause 11	Standard 7	Complaints processes
Clause 12	Standard 8	Child safety knowledge, skills and awareness
Clause 13	Standard 9	Child safety in physical and online environments
Clause 14	Standard 10	Review of child safety practices
Clause 15	Standard 11	Implementation of child safety practices

One significant change with the new standards is a standard specific to the cultural safety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and younger people.

What will stay the same?

There continues to be a focus of regulatory obligations on the school governing authority. It is the non-delegable obligation of the school governing authority to take measures to comply with the 2022 Child Safe Standards.

The definition of school governing authority remains the same, and includes the:

proprietor and those authorised to act on behalf of the proprietor;
governing body; or
principal.

MO 1359 also imposes these obligations on a school boarding premises governing authority. The expanded scope to include school boarding premises and their governing authorities is to ensure the safety of all students.

How we can help

As education and child safety law specialists, Moores can assist your school with policy and governance review, child safety audits, child safety training and training for your Board.

Register your expression of interest for our MO 1359 webinar here, and look out for our MO 1359 series of articles.