While government mandates may be changing, maintaining vaccination rates against COVID-19 may nevertheless be a priority for many workplaces, especially in higher risk settings.

In this webinar, we will explore what options employers have to implement their own policies requiring vaccination in the workplace. Introducing and maintaining a vaccination requirement is not straightforward, and will involve considerations of risks to safety in the workplace and whether a vaccination requirement is reasonable and lawful in the circumstances.

If you are asking any of the following questions:

1. If the government mandate is removed, can we rely upon an existing policy requiring vaccination?;
2. In the absence of a mandate, can we introduce a new policy requiring vaccination?;
3. We have a policy, but do we have to continually assess safety risks to justify that policy?;
4. How do we assess our safety obligations in our workplace?;
5. Do our workers have the right to refuse to work if their co-workers are not vaccinated?; or
6. What exceptions should we consider if we decide to require vaccination against COVID-19?,

then this webinar is for you.

On 1 July 2022, a new Ministerial Order 1359 (MO 1359) will come into effect in Victoria, replacing Ministerial Order 870.

All schools need to be compliant with the new Order as a condition of ongoing school registration.

The new MO 1359 contains new requirements which have not been required before (such as new record keeping standards) and expands the requirements in familiar areas (such as staff training).

MO 1359 contains many elements which directly implement findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, including:

• empowerment of children and young people;
• supporting and encouraging cultural rights for Aboriginal students, children and young people; and
• upholding equity and being equipped to respect diversity and respond to the needs of all students, including students with disability, from CALD backgrounds and LGBTIQ+ students.

Join Practice Leader Cecelia Irvine-So and Lawyer Grace Appleford as they step through the new requirements of MO 1359 in a practical and informative way.

Feel equipped to go back to your school following the session with a clear plan for implementing these critical new standards. And, of course, ensure that your school embeds child safety and wellbeing as its top priority.

Victoria’s new Child Safe Standards (new CSS), which commence on 1 July 2022, mark a significant development in child safety reform in Victoria. The new CSS will replace the current 7 Child Safe Standards with 11 Standards. Although similar to Victoria’s current Child Safe Standards, the new CSS are more prescriptive and introduce additional obligations to:

• involve families and communities in an organisation’s efforts to keep children and young people safe,
• empower children by providing more information about their rights,
• ensure staff and volunteers are equipped to understand signs and risks of harm, and receive training / information about their reporting obligations, record-keeping and information sharing,
• create a culturally safe environment for Aboriginal children (irrespective of whether there are any known Aboriginal children at the organisation),
• mitigate the risk of child abuse in physical and online environments; and
• uphold equity by considering the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children, and children who cannot live at home.

Organisations covered by the new CSS will need to implement strategies and make changes to governance, policies, procedures and practice to comply with the new CSS by 1 July 2022.

You’re invited to join Moores for a complimentary webinar on the key changes under the new CSS, and what you can do to prepare for the changes in practice.

For more information on training, audits, and how Moores can support your organisation to implement the new CSS, please contact Practice Leader Skye Rose or Special Counsel Patrice Fitzgerald on (03) 9843 0418.

Moores is delighted to invite you to attend our webinar for Privacy Awareness Week.

Hear from our team regarding trends in privacy and online safety. We will discuss the following:

• Lessons from Safer Internet Day 2022;
• Tips to avoid privacy or data breaches; and
• What Victoria’s new Child Safe Standards mean for your organisation in relation to online safety in practice.

Data breaches are an increasing risk to schools and other education service providers, as the amount of information held digitally only keeps growing. With the addition of vaccination information, privacy and data protection are back in the spotlight.

In this webinar, Cecelia Irvine So and Grace Appleford present a data breach simulation, stepping you through:

• how to respond to a data breach;
• how to identify data protection problems and causes of data breaches; and
• practical steps to mitigate the damage of a data breach.

For further information about data breaches and vaccination privacy, see:

• Dangers of the “CC” – charity fined for data breach
• Privacy and data breaches spike following COVID-19
• Confused about privacy and vaccination information? Regulators come together for national guidance
• Health privacy: are you prepared to collect vaccination status and meet privacy obligations?
• Beyond the Privacy Act: Does your not-for-profit collect health information or receive state funding? State privacy laws may apply

Large underpayments by a range of employers have been made very public in recent years. Some of this publicity has come through investigation, and some through self-reporting. Either way, many of these underpayments are because of inadvertent, or unintentional breaches.

If you’re an employer, regardless of sector, industry or size, you have legal obligations to your employees. You may even get the first part right – identifying the applicable industrial instrument and comply with the wage obligations it contains. However, you have ongoing obligations to make sure you guard against non-compliance.

Have you thought about the controls, processes and systems you use and whether they are fit for purpose?

At our webinar, join Workplace Relations Practice Leader, Amanda Junkeer, and find out more about the ongoing employment obligations you owe to your employees and how to minimise non-compliance. We will discuss the emergence of wage theft legislation which criminalises some wage theft offences and what your organisation can do to improve its controls, processes and systems to embed ongoing compliance.

You can also find out more about complying with historical enterprise agreements and how they interact with awards to ensure you are getting it right.

A Testamentary Trust is created by a Will and comes into effect when a person dies. The rules of the trust can be flexible or more restrictive depending on the circumstances of the relevant beneficiaries.

Join Jennifer Jackson, Senior Lawyer, and Rowdy Johnson, Associate for our webinar where we will cover:

• The advantages and disadvantages of testamentary trusts.
• The tax treatment of testamentary trusts.
• Asset protection of testamentary trusts.
• Opportunities to use special purpose testamentary trusts, particularly when dealing with vulnerable beneficiaries.

It has been a rough 18 months for students, staff and parents, as we’ve navigated disruption and numerous lockdowns. We know many students have encountered mental health issues and have compromised wellbeing.

The return to campus raises its own issues of re-adjustment and lingering issues for students.

Join us, and leading child and adolescent psychologist Maree Dellaportas, as we explore:

• Issues to consider when students are adjusting back to attending school in person;
• Mental health issues staff should be on the lookout for;
• What Maree and her fellow psychologists are seeing with kids and teens in their work; and
• Building resilience, supports and coping skills in kids and teens.

We will also cover your core legal duties and documents and discuss:

• CCYP research into how kids fared in lockdown;
• School’s duty of care;
• Use of best practice mental health support plans, safety management plans and return to school plans.

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from Maree and set up your school and students for a healthy 2022.

About Maree

Dr Maree Dellaportas is a Clinical Psychologist who is an expert in mental health and specialises in supporting children, adolescents, parents, and families. Maree has worked in a variety of settings with young people over the past 19 years, including with the Royal Children’s Hospital Consultation and Liaison Mental Health Service supporting inpatients and their families and the Clinical Psychology Department for over 6 years. In her role as Senior Psychologist, she was involved in the teaching and clinical supervision of students completing their Doctoral Degree in Psychology at the University of Melbourne.

Maree has a Clinic in Kew an inner suburb of Melbourne, and provides assessment, therapy, parenting advice, and professional supervision in child and adolescent psychology. She is registered with the Psychology Board of Australia (AHPRA) and is a full member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) and the College of Clinical Psychologists.

There have been significant developments in recent weeks, with the NSW government’s return-to-school plan, and many other corporations, mandating vaccinations for staff.

As Victorian schools plan and hope for some kind of return to in-person learning in term 4, now is the time to determine the critical matters of vaccines and masks, and ensure you discharge your duty of care.

Join Amanda Junkeer and Cecelia Irvine-So, Practice Leaders at Moores, for our express lunchtime briefing covering your key considerations when navigating issues relating to staff, students, families and visitors, including:

• mask wearing;
• visitor rules;
• vaccine refusal; and
• mask refusal.

Be prepared and confident with Moores’ support.

All attendees receive our return to campus checklist.

In a rapidly changing area of law like child safety, there are inherent risks with taking a “set and forget” approach to compliance.

Without awareness of key developments in child safety, it can be easy to develop child safety blind spots.

Drawing from recent reforms, data, commentary and cases, this session will:

• explore some common child safety blind spots in governance, policies, human resource practices, reporting, risk management and empowering children; and
• provide practical tips to address those gaps.

In this session we will also hear from our special guest, Claire Rogers, Director of OHO, on strategies to close the window of risk associated with screening and monitoring workers.

The session will help you identify if your organisation has any child safety blind spots and how you can address them.