Today’s correspondent has:

… a question surrounding mandatory reporting. If a registered health care professional volunteers their time in a community organisation (non-clinical) and they hear a child make a disclosure… is it adequate for the clinician to follow the organisations reporting channels or is the clinician (who is not in a clinical capacity) still required to make their own report? I got asked this question and I didn’t know how to answer it. This question was asked in QLD.

This is mandatory reporting under the Child Protection Act 1999 (Qld), not mandatory reporting under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law.

The Child Protection Act says that a ‘relevant person’; that is:

(a) a doctor;

(b) a registered nurse;

(c) a teacher;

(d) a police officer who, under a direction given by the commissioner of the police service under the Police Service Administration Act 1990, is responsible for reporting under this section;

(e) a person engaged to perform a child advocate function under the Public Guardian Act 2014; [or]

(f) an early childhood education and care professional.:

is required to report a ‘reportable suspicion about a child in the course of the person’s engagement as a relevant person’ (s 13E(3)).   A ‘reportable suspicion’ is (s 13E(2)):

… a reasonable suspicion that the child—

(a) has suffered, is suffering, or is at unacceptable risk of suffering, significant harm caused by physical or sexual abuse; and

(b) may not have a parent able and willing to protect the child from the harm.

The first thing to note is that it’s not all registered health professionals. There are 15 registered health professions, but s 13E only applies to medical practitioners and nurses.  For those professionals the obligation to report arises if they form the ‘reportable suspicion’ ‘in the course of the person’s engagement as a …’ medical practitioner or nurse. What follows is if they form the belief whilst volunteering in another role, eg volunteering as part of their child’s sport team then the mandatory reporting obligations do not apply and it would be ‘adequate for the clinician to follow the organisations reporting channels’.

Where reporting is not mandatory, anyone can report a concern to the Chief Executive of the Department of Child Safety, Seniors and Disability Services (see s 13A).

POSTSCRIPT AND CORRECTION

Martin Welsh, in a comment, below, draws my attention to changes in ‘the legislation in Qld to make all adults mandatory reporters’.  He provided this link https://www.qld.gov.au/law/crime-and-police/types-of-crime/sexual-offences-against-children/failure-to-report.

He is indeed correct. These changes were made by the Criminal Code (Child Sexual Offences Reform) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2020 (Qld) and came into effect from July 2021.  This Act, amongst other things, introduced ss 229BB and 229BC into the Criminal Code 1899 (Qld).  

My post above discussed the Child Protection Act 1999 (Qld) because I was specifically asked about health practitioners and my search identified that Act as setting out their mandatory reporting requirements.  Having located that Act I admit that I failed to identify these provisions in the Criminal Code and I thank Martin for bringing them to my attention.

Section 229BB

Section 229BB(1) makes it an offence where an ‘accountable person’ who ‘knows there is a significant risk that another adult [who is associated with the institution] … will commit a child sexual offence in relation to a child’ and who has the ‘power or responsibility to reduce or remove the risk’, fails to take action to reduce that risk. An ‘accountable person’ is an adult associated with an institution. An institution is (s 229BB(4)) an entity that:

(a) provides services to children; or

(b) operates a facility for, or engages in activities with, children under the entity’s care, supervision or control.

Examples of entities that meet that definition are ‘schools, government agencies, religious organisations, hospitals, child care centres, licensed residential facilities, sporting clubs, youth organisations’. 

An adult is ‘associated’ with the institution (s 229BB(3)) if:

… the adult:

(a) owns, or is involved in the management or control of, the institution; or

(b) is employed or engaged by the institution; or

(c) works as a volunteer for the institution; or

(d) engages in an activity in relation to the institution for which a working with children authority under the Working with Children (Risk Management and Screening) Act 2000 is required; or

(e) engages in the delivery of a service to a child who is under the care, supervision or control of the institution.

It follows that nurse, doctor and in fact any adult ‘volunteers their time in a community organisation’ that deals with children is an ‘accountable person’.  They are required to take action if they have the ‘power and responsibility’ to do so if they believe another associated person will commit a child sexual assault.

Section 229BC

Section 229BC(2) requires any adult who ‘… gains information that causes the adult to believe on reasonable grounds, or ought reasonably to cause the adult to believe, that a child sexual offence is being or has been committed against a child by another adult’ to report that belief to police.

Discussion

The obligation under the Child Protection Act is broader than the Criminal Code provisions as it applies when there is a fear that the child ‘has suffered, is suffering, or is at unacceptable risk of suffering, significant harm caused by physical or sexual abuse’ (s 13E(2); emphasis added).  The provisions in the Criminal Code only apply to sexual abuse.

The provisions under the Child Protection Act and the Criminal Code s 229BC apply regardless of where the threat comes from. For example, a nurse or doctor has to report a concern where the threat comes from family members, or youth group leaders etc even where the doctor or nurse has no other connection with the child’s family or youth group.

The obligation under s 229BB only arises if a person – in context the doctor or nurse volunteer – perceives that the risk is coming from another volunteer or office holder in the institution.

What follows from all of that is my answer, above, is wrong.  The question I was asked was:

If a registered health care professional volunteers their time in a community organisation (non-clinical) and they hear a child make a disclosure… is it adequate for the clinician to follow the organisations reporting channels or is the clinician (who is not in a clinical capacity) still required to make their own report?

The correct answer is:

1. If the disclosure relates to a risk of physical, rather than sexual, abuse, the practitioner volunteer who is not volunteering in their capacity as a nurse or doctor, is not required by the Child Protection Act to report that to the Department of Child Safety, Seniors and Disability Services so following the organisations own channels is probably sufficient.
2. If the disclosure relates to sexual assault, then even though they are not required to report the matter to the Department of Child Safety, Seniors and Disability Services they are required to report their belief to police.  It is therefore incorrect say, as I said above, that “it would be ‘adequate for the clinician to follow the organisations reporting channels’.”
3. If they are volunteering as the team nurse or doctor then they would be required to report a belief of physical abuse to the Department, and a belief in a risk of sexual abuse to both the Department and the police.

This blog is made possible with generous financial support from the Australasian College of Paramedicine, the Australian Paramedics Association (NSW), Natural Hazards Research Australia, NSW Rural Fire Service Association and the NSW SES Volunteers Association. I am responsible for the content in this post including any errors or omissions. Any opinions expressed are mine, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or understanding of the donors.