The clauses of the MO 1359 align with the new 2022 Child Safe Standards (2022 CSS), but apply these standards directly to schools and school boarding premises. Clause 7.1 of MO 1359 restates CSS 3: schools and school boarding premises must ensure that children, young people and students are empowered about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.
A specific example of the increased specificity of how schools must meet CSS 3 can be found in MO 1359 clause 7.5, which says: school governing authorities must develop curriculum planning documents or other documentation that detail the strategies and actions the school will take to implement 2022 CSS 3.
To assist you in understanding the new requirements regarding empowerment of students we have created a comparison table:
Some of the new changes include a specific obligation on schools and school boarding premises to provide age-appropriate sexual abuse prevention programs and the development of curriculum planning documents to implement the new standards.
Moores has previously provided advice on the changes between the old child safety standards and the new ones, to be introduced on 1 July 2022. You can read that advice here.
Moores is able to assist you with training and child empowerment policies, to embed a culture of child safety at your school and school boarding premises.
Please contact us for more detailed and tailored help.
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The definition of the “school environment” is critical to understand the extent of your school’s obligations to meet the Child Safe Standards. From 1 July 2022, the definition of “school environment” will change. MO 1359 includes greater detail as to the extent of the environment, following a pattern of expanding application of the child safe standards, far beyond traditional school hours. We have compared the old and new definition below.
The expansion of the definition of “school environment” to encompass locations of the delivery of education and training by registered training organisations, TAFEs and non-school senior secondary providers means the school’s duty of care, and all child safety obligations under the Child Safe Standards, applies in these contexts.
This means when students attend VET and VCAL subjects off campus, for example, at a local TAFE or RTO, the school cannot delegate its child safety responsibilities. Practically, this means schools may need to start to work with TAFEs and RTOs to manage child safety of their students, and implement risk controls and risk treatments.
The additional detail regarding online and virtual locations reflects the increased focus of the Child Safe Standards on child safety in physical and online environments. Moores has published information about online safety and the 2022 Child Safe Standards. Look out for more resources to help you school implement the necessary changes for MO 1359. Expressions of interest for an upcoming webinar can be made here.
We can help you implement necessary controls and governance structures to manage the risk to child safety of your students when students attend TAFEs and RTOs.
Look out for subsequent additions to our MO 1359 series of articles summarising key changes to be aware of.
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.
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.
The table below shows how the new MO 1359 implements the 2022 Chid Safe Standards, to come into operation on 1 July 2022.
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.
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:
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.
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.
From cyberbullying to social networking to digital identity, each year Safer Internet Day aims to raise awareness of emerging online issues and current concerns.Safer Internet Day website
From cyberbullying to social networking to digital identity, each year Safer Internet Day aims to raise awareness of emerging online issues and current concerns.
Safer Internet Day is a great opportunity to engage with children associated with your organisation about safety risks in online environments, and how they can protect themselves from, for example, grooming and cyberbullying.
The eSafety Commissioner has published an eSafety Toolkit for Schools that provides resources to assist schools to prepare, engage, educate and respond to online safety. There are also classroom resources for early years, primary and secondary students.
You could focus on a specific threat in the online environment that is particularly relevant to your organisation, such as cyberbullying, inappropriate content, or unwanted contact and grooming. Discussing scenarios of possible online threats with children in skill-building conversations empowers them to know how to respond if the scenario eventuated.
How you should respond to an online incident will depend on the severity of the incident, and your organisation’s Child Safety Policy and reporting procedures.
Some key features of how to respond include:
The eSafety Commissioner provides more detail about responding to online incidents here. We’ve also written in more detail about the eSafety Commissioner’s power here.
In addition to Child Safety audits and review of your policies, procedures and codes of conduct, Moores helps organisations to respond to online incidents and develop strategies to support your work with children online. We can also assist with investigations and processes when responding to online safety incidents.
Safer Internet Day, on 8 February 2022, brings together organisations from 170 countries around the world to promote online safety, particularly among children and young people.
This Safer Internet Day, the Australian eSafety Commissioner is calling on everyone to play it safe and fair online.eSafety Commissioner Safer Internet Day website
This Safer Internet Day, the Australian eSafety Commissioner is calling on everyone to play it safe and fair online.
With the focus on online safety for children and young people, the eSafety Commissioner has provided many resources and tools to support educators this Safer Internet Day. For example, there are surveys for different aged students to assess their understanding of online safety, and ideas for activities where students can take the lead in online safety – reflecting the central theme of empowerment in the 2022 Child Safe Standards in Victoria.
The eSafety Commissioner’s powers were also recently expanded to tackle child sex abuse and cyber bullying.
Victoria’s new Child Safe Standard 9, which will take effect on 1 July 2022, requires organisations working with children to teach digital citizenship and digital and media literacy to support critical thinking and civic engagement. Organisations that work with children are also encouraged to engage with children to identify risks and get their input on how the organisation can improve its online environment.
In addition, there is a new positive obligation on organisations, such as schools and youth programs, to ensure all environments promote child safety and wellbeing. This increases the standard from mitigating risk. All environments includes the digital environment.
Staff and volunteers at organisations that work with children must identify and mitigate risks in online and physical environments without compromising a child’s right to privacy, access to information, social connections and learning opportunities.
Teaching online safety techniques can empower children and young people to protect themselves online – and play it safe – while reducing the need for adults to closely monitor online behaviour. This ensures children have both their right to safety, and their rights to privacy and access to information, maintained.
Our child safety and education teams can offer training and provide tailored internal resources to empower staff to understand risks facing children online, meet the new 2022 Child Safe Standards and in turn teach online safety to children in their care.
The Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth), which passed parliament in 2021, officially came into effect on 23 January 2022. Reforms include a world first scheme to take down cyber abuse and better protect children and adults from online bullying.
The eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has also been given authority to order online platforms to remove the worst of the worst content. This includes child sexual abuse material, irrespective of where it is hosted. In addition, the laws modify a scheme already in place for reporting the online bullying of children, broadening who they apply to beyond social media platforms, and shortening the removal timeframe to 24 hours from 48 hours.
The Cyberbullying Scheme allows individuals to make a complaint about cyberbullying material that targets a child (under 18). A report must be made to the relevant online service provider before a complaint is made.
Cyberbullying material means online communication to or about a child that is seriously threatening, seriously intimidating, seriously harassing or seriously humiliating. It can include posts, comments, emails, messages, memes, images and videos.
eSafety can issue a notice to the online service provider requiring removal of the cyberbullying material. Where providers fail to comply with notices, eSafety can take enforcement action such as injunctive action or seek civil penalties (fines).
For child safe organisations, the Cyberbullying Scheme means you can refer individuals (child or their parents, as appropriate) to the eSafety Commissioner to make a complaint if cyberbullying occurs.
The changes to the Image-Based Abuse Scheme give eSafety the power to issue notices for the removal of intimate images or videos shared online, without the consent of the person shown.
There is a general prohibition on image-based abuse – sharing or threatening to share intimate images or videos online without consent – which means any person may make a complaint about breaches of this prohibition. For child safe organisations, this means you could yourselves make a complaint, should image-based abuse come to light in your organisation. In these circumstances, we would also encourage organisations to consider the rights of the child to be involved in decisions that affect them, and refer organisations to the Child Safe Standards.
The Basic Online Safety Expectations put into law what the Australian Government now expects from online service providers. eSafety is, of course, the main priority of the Basic Online Safety Expectations, however, the tech industry is also encouraged to be more transparent about their safety features, policies and practices.
Expectations of online service providers include:
For child safe organisations, this means:
Still want to know more about online safety and the eSafety Commissioner? Look out for information on these topics from Moores in February.
If you would like any more information about what the changes to the Online Safety Act 2021 mean for your organisation or steps you can take to protect children from online harm, please do not hesitate to contact us.
The booster deadline applies to ‘education workers’, which has been defined (as per the previous CHO direction) to include:
Parents and guardians are not part of the booster deadline – however, parents who volunteer at school do need to meet this booster deadline. For example, parents who are readers in the classroom, or who assist in the canteen, need to be boosted by 25 February 2022.
The time between second and third dose has been decreased to three months. Staff are eligible if their second dose was more than three months ago.
If a staff member is not eligible before 25 February 2022, they must receive a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine within 3 months and 2 weeks of receiving a second dose.
The Chief Health Officer has advised a third dose will help ensure children and staff are protected, most notably individuals – both vulnerable students and staff – with significant underlying health conditions. The booster mandate may also help reduce the risk of community transmission and outbreaks in schools.
At the end of Term 4 2021, more than 99.7 per cent of school staff were double-vaccinated.
Students getting vaccinated: More than 29 per cent of children aged 5-11 have now had one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Education workers have been deemed critical, meaning when an education worker is a household contact they do not need to isolate. Instead, household contacts can voluntarily continue working if they are asymptomatic and do a daily rapid antigen test.
Education workers are only required to quarantine when they themselves return a positive result, and should isolate if they display symptoms.
More detail on the implementation of the plan for schools, including surveillance testing using rapid antigen tests and mask-wearing policies, is likely be released next week by state and territory governments.
Moores can assist employers respond to objections to government vaccination mandates or stand-alone policies. Moores can also advise on discrimination and privacy issues.
Moores can assist your school, including to:
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On 23 January 2022, the Victorian Government announced its back to school plan for 2022. A major part of keeping schools open for face-to-face learning is rapid antigen testing (RAT), which will be in place for at least the first four weeks of Term 1.
The Victorian Government has promised to deliver more than 14 million rapid antigen tests to all government, independent and Catholic schools and early childhood education and care services. For the first week of Term 1, 6.6 million tests will be delivered.
Schools are not required to collect proof of negative rapid antigen tests. The introduction of rapid antigen testing for schools and early childcare is a recommendation only – not a mandate. Schools will be responsible for distribution of tests to families.
The Victorian Government is strongly recommending surveillance rapid antigen testing for all:
Children under 5 are not part of the rapid antigen testing recommendation.
These students and staff are recommended to RAT test twice-weekly at home before school or childcare.
For students and staff at specialist schools, the recommendation is to test five days each week due to the higher risk of severe illness for medically vulnerable children.
Other COVIDSafe measures will also continue to be implemented, including ventilation through air purifiers and shade sales to increase useable outdoor spaces. The Victorian Government has promised to deliver 51,000 air purifiers to government and low-fee non-government schools for the first day of Term 1, and schools are encouraged to hold lessons outdoors where appropriate.
Masks will continue to feature in classrooms for students in Grade 3 and above. As in 2021, teachers will be required to wear masks at all times when not actively teaching or communicating with students. Masks will be available in schools, provided by the Victorian Government.
Moores is happy to assist in creating a Return to School Plan, RAT policy and related communications for staff, students and parents and help you deal with dispute management.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information and assistance.
The national cabinet has announced it will expand the list of workers who will be exempt from COVID-19 isolation rules when they are a close contact of a positive COVID-19 case. The decision follows recent announcements that certain workers who are close contacts will be allowed to attend work after a negative rapid antigen test and seeks to ease pressure on workplaces and supply chains. In the case of teachers, it is to keep schools open and students in classrooms so as to minimise workforce disruption with respect to parents and carers.
Yesterday’s national cabinet statement stated that isolation exemptions would extend to all teachers and childcare workers, as well as all non-public facing healthcare and support workers. Essential workers include:
It is unclear as yet how the state and territory governments will implement this announcement, and to whom specifically the changing rules will apply to beyond teachers. The requirement for ongoing rapid antigen tests and for what duration testing is required has not been clarified in Victoria. The Victorian Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services have not released information about the change.
The national cabinet agreed to “key principles” about how schools will operate moving towards a COVID-normal.
Instead of isolating if a close contact of a positive COVID-19 case, the broadened group of essential workers will be able to return to work with a negative rapid antigen test. The availability of rapid antigen tests and the responsibility for sourcing the tests is likely to be focus areas for schools and the Victorian government in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, please contact us if we can assist.
All registered charities should ensure they have considered and are prepared to implement the new Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) reporting requirements (which will commence from the 2022 Annual Information Statement reporting period). These requirements cover both Financial Reporting and Related Party Transactions and Board Remuneration. Charities should ensure they have systems, processes and controls in place to support compliance.
All company directors and committee members of incorporated associations with an Australian Registered Body Number, which allows your incorporated association to operate outside of your “home” state or territory must obtain a Director Identification Number in 2022. Different deadlines apply depending on when the director is appointed.
Deductible Gift Recipients (DGRs) will need to register as a charity with the ACNC (if they are not already registered charities) or be operated by a registered charity. The new requirements do not apply to public and private ancillary funds. Affected existing DGRs will have until 14 December 2022 to register and should commence this process now.
Charities and not-for-profits who expend more than $250,000 for the dominant purpose of influencing the way electors vote in a federal election (“electoral expenditure”) will be required to register as a “significant third party” (previously a “political campaigner”) and meet certain disclosure requirements by 14 March 2022. The electoral expenditure threshold was reduced from $500,000 to $250,000 by legislation passed on 1 December 2021.
Large charitable companies (with annual revenue of $1m or more) and not-for-profit public companies have been required since 1 January 2020 to have a compliant whistleblower policy. ASIC’s 2021 review of a sample of whistleblower policies indicated the majority were non-compliant. This remains an area of focus for ASIC and further reviews will be conducted. Affected organisations should review their policy alongside ASIC’s Letter to CEOs and Regulatory Guide.
Companies continue to benefit from temporary amendments to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), which allows companies to use technology to hold member and director meetings. These amendments will lapse on 1 April 2022. Companies whose constitution does not expressly permit them to hold virtual meetings should consider amending their constitution. All charities and not-for-profits should ensure that any virtual meetings are held in accordance with their governing document and legislative requirements and properly facilitate member participation.
Public Benevolent Institutions (PBIs) considering broadening their activities and entities that have previously been refused registration with this charity subtype should be aware of the landmark Global Citizen decision. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal found that Global Citizen, a charity that pursues its purpose of relieving poverty through advocacy and education (seeking to influence and enlist public opinion to obtain financial commitments from governments and philanthropists to fund overseas aid projects) was entitled to be registered as a PBI. The boundaries around what constitutes a PBI are not static and past ACNC decisions may be able to be reviewed on the basis of the Global Citizen decision. See the ACNC response here.
Registered charities that have not joined the National Redress Scheme (NRS) and have been, or are likely to be, identified in connection with abuse that is covered by the NRS should be aware of ACNC Governance Standard 6. Following the introduction of this new standard in February 2021, these entities may be subject to ACNC compliance action including revocation of charity status. Read our article here for an overview and what this may mean for your charity.
Charities providing housing should note the updated ACNC Commissioner’s Interpretation Statement on the provision of housing by charities. Published on 5 November 2021, this clarifies the meaning of ‘relieving poverty’ in the context of the provision of housing assistance, significantly expands guidance on permitted commercial activities and outlines ways in which the private benefits of home ownership schemes might be successfully mitigated.
Entities seeking to establish tax deductible school building funds (particularly non-traditional schools and faith based organisations co-locating with schools) may benefit from the Buddhist Society of Western Australia decision. Although still subject to appeal, this decision may allow for a more holistic assessment of what constitutes a “school”.
Not-for-profit organisations that are not registered charities are currently encouraged by the Australian Tax Office to carry out an annual self-review to confirm they are meeting their tax and super obligations. From 1 July 2023, not-for-profit entities with an Australian Business Number will be required to lodge this annual self-review in order to confirm their eligibility for income tax exemption.
A national fundraising framework (currently fundraising is separately regulated in each state and territory) will be developed following a federal government announcement on 15 December 2021. The announcement does not include a proposed timeline.
Faith based organisations will be watching as the third draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill 2021 (Cth) is considered by Federal Parliament in February 2022. Read our article here regarding what this may mean for the expression and application of religious views.
Moores can advise charities and not-for-profits on what these proposed changes mean for your organisation and how to review your policies and processes to ensure that they are compliant.
Please contact us if we can assist.