Child Abuse (including grooming) – Identification and Response

Policy

The purpose of this policy is to:

• describe how school staff identify and respond to child safety concerns and child abuse, including grooming
• ensure staff use the 4 Critical Actions to identify and respond to child abuse, including grooming, based on the source of abuse
• ensure school staff are aware of and comply with their reporting and legal obligations, including mandatory reporting and reportable conduct obligations, to protect the safety and wellbeing of children and young people
• explain training requirements for school staff. For links to 4 Critical Actions posters, reference guides and training resources refer to the Resources tab.

Note: All references to 'schools' in this topic include school boarding premises.

Summary

School staff have a vital role in protecting students. School staff must know and comply with child safety frameworks and their legal obligations.

• School staff must use the 4 Critical Actions to identify and respond to concerns about child abuse, including grooming.
• Staff must ensure that the principal and school leadership team are made aware of any concerns about child abuse, including grooming, by reporting all concerns to their school’s nominated child safety contact listed in the school’s local Child abuse (including grooming) identification and response policy and procedures (staff login required).

Details

All school staff have an important role to:

• prevent child abuse (including grooming) in the school or during school activities
• identify and respond to child abuse.

Child abuse (including grooming) and reportable conduct can occur in any physical or online environment.

4 Critical Actions

All staff must use the 4 Critical Actions to identify and respond to child abuse. The 4 Critical Actions to identify and respond to child abuse are:

• identify child abuse
• support students in the school
• refer student to community services
• report abuse to authorities.

At all times schools must:

• respond to an emergency
• adapt to changing circumstances
• document their actions.

All staff must use the 4 Critical Actions based on the source of abuse:

• 4 Critical Actions to identify and respond to child abuse by an adult engaged by the school
  • Any allegation, complaint, disclosure or concern of abuse (including grooming) by an adult engaged by a school may be reportable conduct under Victoria’s Reportable Conduct Scheme and must be reported.
• 4 Critical Actions to identify and respond to student-to-student abuse
  • As soon as a school staff member forms a reasonable belief that a student has been, or is at risk of being, abused by another student, they must act.
• 4 Critical Actions to identify and respond to child abuse in the family
  • As soon as a school staff member forms a reasonable belief that a student has been, or is at risk of being, abused by someone in the family, they must act.
• 4 Critical Actions to identify and respond to child abuse in the community
  • As soon as a school staff member forms a reasonable belief that a student has been, or is at risk of being, abused by someone in the community, they must act.

Links to detailed guidance on the 4 Critical Actions for each source of abuse is on the Guidance tab.

Abuse by an adult engaged by the school (including grooming)

Schools must use the 4 Critical Actions in relation to any child sexual abuse allegations against any adult working at the school (whether as an employee, volunteer or contractor), or who previously worked at the school.

• 4 Critical Actions to identify and respond to child abuse by an adult engaged by the school

All allegations, complaints, disclosures and concerns of abuse (including grooming) by an adult engagement by a school must be reported to the Conduct and Integrity Division. Refer to: Reportable and Notifiable Conduct.

To make a report:

• Call: 03 7034 6788
• Email: employee.conduct@education.vic.gov.au

Allegations, complaints, disclosures and concerns that an adult in a school may be abusing a child must also be recorded as an incident by:

• logging an incident in eduSafe Plus (opens in a new window), or
• calling the department’s Incident Support and Operations Centre (ISOC) on 1800 126 126.

Relevant areas of the department, including the Sexual Harm Response Unit, will be notified when the school reports allegations to ISOC and the Conduct and Integrity Division.

Sexual Harm Response Unit

The Sexual Harm Response Unit ensures that appropriate supports are offered to impacted students, staff, and families.

Working with the relevant school/s and other areas of the department, the Sexual Harm Response Unit will assist with an appropriate community response where allegations against an adult who works or worked in a school result in criminal charges or where an allegation involving a sexual offence against, with or in the presence of a student is substantiated following a Reportable Conduct investigation. For example, where criminal charges are laid, the Sexual Harm Response Unit will ensure that appropriate communications are issued to the school community to notify them. In some cases, parents of former students will also be notified, where contact details are still available and where there is a risk that former students may have been impacted.

Taking a proactive, transparent approach to informing the school community about any criminal charges relating to child sexual abuse by an adult who worked in a school is an important part of meeting duty of care and child safety obligations.

Student-to-student abuse and harmful sexual behaviour

School staff may be the only adult in a position to identify student-to-student child abuse.

Schools must use the 4 Critical Actions to identify and respond to student-to-student abuse.

For harmful sexual behaviour see: Student-to-Student Abuse and Harmful Sexual Behaviour.

If you need advice about student-to-student abuse or harmful sexual behaviour, contact your local sexual assault or harmful sexual behaviour service.

They will provide advice and support to help manage incidents between students.

Family violence or significant concerns for the wellbeing of a child

Guidance on actions to take if there is family violence, a significant wellbeing concern, or the family is struggling with the care, wellbeing or development of a child is available at: 4 Critical Actions to identify and respond to child abuse in the family.

Historical sexual abuse

Guidance on responding to historical child sexual abuse perpetrated by an adult working at a Victorian government school is available at: Historical Child Sexual Abuse in Victorian Government Schools.

Local child abuse response policy and procedures

To meet the requirements of the Child Safe Standards, as set out for schools in Ministerial Order 1359, all schools must have a local document available on their website setting out their school’s procedures for responding to complaints or concerns relating to child abuse, including grooming.

Schools must adopt the department’s Child abuse (including grooming) identification and response policy and procedures template (staff login required). The template policy and procedures is available on the School Policy Templates Portal.

This local policy and procedures must be published on the school’s website.

In the school’s local policy and procedures, the school must identify their child safety contacts. Child safety contacts work with staff and school leadership to ensure the relevant 4 Critical Actions and PROTECT guidance are followed in response to any complaints, allegations or concerns of child abuse (including grooming).

Escalating concerns

Using the 4 Critical Actions ensures that school staff take all the necessary steps where there is a concern about abuse (including grooming).

If any staff member is concerned that these processes have not been followed they must:

• raise their concerns with the principal and escalate to the regional office via 1800 338 663 or email enquiries@education.vic.gov.au if they remain unsatisfied
• report concerns to the appropriate authorities (for example, Victoria Police or Child Protection) in line with their legal obligations and child safety frameworks.

To report any allegations or concerns of abuse (including grooming) by a child safety contact, staff must notify the principal.

To report any allegations or concerns of abuse (including grooming) by a principal, contact:

• Department of Education
  • Anyone can contact the Department of Education
  • Email: enquiries@education.vic.gov.au
  • Phone: 1800 338 663
  • For more information see: Report abuse if you're a current student
• Department of Education Speak Up service
  • Staff can use the Speak Up service to report improper conduct, fraud or corruption (including to make an anonymous report) or other improper conduct
  • Website: Speak Up
  • Email: educationspeakup@pkf.com.au
  • Phone: 1800 633 462

Child safety frameworks and legal obligations

School staff have a vital role in protecting students. School staff must know and comply with their legal obligations and child safety frameworks. These are outlined below.

Duty of care

• All school staff must take reasonable steps to minimise risks of harm to students in their care that are reasonably foreseeable.
• Refer to: Duty of Care.

Child Safe Standards

• Victoria's Child Safe Standards help schools create and maintain a child-safe organisation and protect children and young people from harm and abuse.
• All Victorian schools and school boarding premises must comply with Ministerial Order 1359 (PDF). Ministerial Order 1359 sets out the actions schools must take to implement the Child Safe Standards.
• Refer to: Child Safe Standards.

Reportable Conduct Scheme

• The Reportable Conduct Scheme is a child safety mechanism that provides central oversight of how organisations respond to allegations of reportable conduct by a person engaged by the school.
• Refer to: Reportable and Notifiable Conduct.

Mandatory reporting

• If a mandatory reporter, while doing their job, forms a belief on reasonable grounds that:
  • a child has suffered, or is likely to suffer, significant harm as a result of physical and/or sexual abuse and

  • the child’s parents have not protected or are unlikely to protect the child from harm of that type

    they must report to Child Protection as soon as practicable.

• Mandatory reporters include:
  • Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) registered teachers, including principals, and early childhood teachers
  • school staff who have been granted permission to teach by the VIT
  • registered medical practitioners, nurses and midwives
  • registered psychologists
  • youth justice workers
  • school counsellors, including staff who provide mental, emotional, or psychological support:
    • school health and wellbeing staff
    • student wellbeing coordinators
    • mental health practitioners
    • chaplains
    • Student Support Services staff.
• Refer to: Legal obligations and child safety frameworks.

Failure to disclose

• All adults must report to Victoria Police if they have a reasonable belief that an adult has committed a sexual offence against a child in Victoria.
• Refer to: Legal obligations and child safety frameworks.

Failure to protect

• The offence applies where there is a substantial risk that a child under the age of 16, under the care, supervision or authority of a relevant organisation, will become a victim of a sexual offence committed by an adult associated with that organisation.
• A person in a position of authority in the organisation will commit the offence if they know of the risk of abuse and have the power or responsibility to reduce or remove the risk, but negligently fail to do so.
• Refer to: Legal obligations and child safety frameworks.

Information sharing

• Victorian schools can share confidential information under the Information Sharing Schemes, including the Child Information Sharing Scheme (CISS) and Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme (FVISS).
• Under CISS, schools can share relevant information about any person to promote the wellbeing or safety of a child or group of children. Under FVISS, schools can share relevant information to assess or manage risk of family violence.
• Refer to: Child and Family Violence Information Sharing Schemes and Legal obligations and child safety frameworks.

Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management for family violence (MARAM)

• MARAM sets a consistent, shared approach across Victoria’s service system to identify and respond to family violence. The FVISS enables schools to meet their obligations under MARAM.
• Refer to: Family Violence Support.

For more information, refer to: Legal obligations and child safety frameworks.

Training requirements

Child Safe Standard 8 and Ministerial Order 1359 (PDF) require school staff to be equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children and young people safe.

Refer to the guidance page: Training requirements.

Refer to the Resources tab for links to posters and training materials.

Definitions

Definitions related to child safety can be found at: Child Safe Standards: definitions.

Related policies

• Child and Family Violence Information Sharing Schemes
• Child Safe Standards
• Duty of Care
• Family Violence Support
• Historical Child Sexual Abuse in Victorian Government Schools
• Legal Claims, Subpoenas, Summonses and Other Legal Documents
• Police and Child Protection Interviews
• Reportable and Notifiable Conduct
• Requests for Information about Students
• Risk Management – Schools
• Student-to-Student Abuse and Harmful Sexual Behaviour

Relevant legislation

• Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic)
• Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005 (Vic)
• Crimes Act 1958 (Vic)
• Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic)
• Education and Training Reform Regulations 2017 (Vic)
• Ministerial Order 1359 – Implementing the Child Safe Standards (PDF)

Guidance

This guidance contains the following chapters:

• Content warning and support for staff
• PROTECT guidance
• Recognising different types of child abuse
• Training requirements

Content warning and support for staff

Supporting students experiencing child abuse or who have been using harmful behaviours is stressful and hard.

It is important that you make time to care for your mental health and wellbeing. Seek help if you need too. This helps prevent secondary or vicarious trauma. It also helps you best support students

For further information on supports available to you, visit: Wellbeing support for school staff.

PROTECT guidance

PROTECT provides child safety information for teachers, educators and staff in schools.

It's designed to help schools:

• meet their child safety obligations
• identify and respond to child abuse, including grooming
• provide children and families with the right support at the right time.

Detailed guidance is available on:

• Identify and respond to abuse – determine the source of abuse
• 4 Critical Actions to identify and respond to child abuse by an adult engaged by the school
• 4 Critical Actions to identify and respond to student-to-student abuse
• 4 Critical Actions to identify and respond to child abuse in the family
• 4 Critical Actions to identify and respond to child abuse in the community
• Responding to an emergency
• Adapting to changing circumstances
• Documenting actions
• Legal obligations and child safety frameworks.

Recognising different types of child abuse

Types of child abuse include:

• child sexual abuse
• grooming
• physical child abuse
• child sexual exploitation
• emotional or psychological child abuse
• neglect
• family violence
• forced marriage
• change or suppression (conversion) practices
• exposure to violent extremism
• historical child abuse.

For more information, refer to: Types of child abuse and what to look for.

Training requirements

Child Safe Standards training

Annual child safety training for staff and school council members is mandatory under the Child Safe Standards. The Child Safe Standards also require schools to provide volunteers engaged in child-connected work with training to enable them to keep students safe that is appropriate to the nature and responsibilities of their role.

The department has developed training resources for schools to train staff, volunteers and school councils on the Child Safe Standards and Ministerial Order 1359.

Schools must deliver this training annually to all staff and school council members to meet the requirements to provide annual child safety training.

Child safety (including mandatory reporting) training

School staff can use the Protecting children – Mandatory reporting and other obligations e-learning module to learn how to protect the safety and wellbeing of children and young people. This module is available on LearnED which is accessed through eduPay (staff login required – type ‘child protection’ or ‘protecting children’ into the search function on LearnED).

This training package is being updated to reflect the new PROTECT guidance and will be available from Term 3, 2026.

Requirements – school staff

School staff who are:

• mandatory reporters must complete the module once per calendar year
• non-mandatory reporters are strongly encouraged to complete the module once per calendar year.

Requirements – region and area staff

Department staff who:

• are mandatory reporters must undertake the training once per calendar year
• have roles that engage with students or provide advice to schools about mandatory reporting or child safety are strongly encouraged to undertake the training once per calendar year.

Accessing e-learn modules on eduPay

The Protecting children – Mandatory reporting and other obligations e-learning module is available on LearnED, which is accessed through eduPay (staff login required).

Government school staff who are required to complete this course are automatically enrolled each year.

Alternatively, all staff can login to eduPay and search for 'Protecting Children' and self-enrol.

Staff can generate their certificate of completion in eduPay by selecting: My Learning, then History, then Select Course, then Print. This certificate will remain part of your learning record on eduPay.

For further advice, refer to: Online learning for schools.

Resources

4 Critical Actions reference guides

4 Critical Actions reference guides are for use in staff areas to provide a quick reference to guidance on the PROTECT website.

• PROTECT 4 Critical Actions reference sheet – for abuse by an adult engaged by a government school, including grooming
• PROTECT 4 Critical Actions reference sheet – for student-to-student abuse
• PROTECT 4 Critical Actions reference sheet – for abuse in the family
• PROTECT 4 Critical Actions reference sheet – for abuse in the community

4 Critical Actions posters

4 Critical Actions posters can be used in all areas of the school to promote the 4 Critical Actions and to encourage students to speak up if they don’t feel safe.

• PROTECT 4 Critical Actions staff poster
• PROTECT student poster – visual version
• PROTECT student poster – for younger students or lower reading level
• PROTECT student poster – for older students or higher reading level

4 Critical Actions templates

Templates to help you document your actions are available on PROTECT. Refer to Resources for schools.

Training materials

• Child Safe Standards training presentations – for staff, volunteers and school councils
• Protecting children – Mandatory reporting and other obligations e-learning module – for school staff to learn how to protect the safety and wellbeing of children and young people. This module is available on LearnED which is accessed through eduPay (staff login required – type ‘child protection’ into the search function on LearnED)
• Resources to support staff to identify inappropriate staff conduct including grooming. These case studies can be used in all-staff or sub-school team meetings, for example, to help staff understand how to identify potential grooming behaviours and the steps they need to take to report concerning behaviours:
  • Child safety case study – staff conduct (secondary school context) (DOCX) (staff login required)
  • Child safety case study – staff conduct (primary school context) (DOCX) (staff login required)
  • Child safety case study – potential grooming (DOCX) (staff login required)

Templates

Contextualise this template for your school and add your school contacts. Publish it on your school website.

• Child abuse (including grooming) – identification and response policy and procedures template (School Policy Templates Portal – staff login required)

Report abuse if you’re a current or former student

For information for members of the public about how to report abuse to the department, and options and supports available to victim-survivors, refer to: Report abuse if you’re a current or former student.

For information for former students who experienced child sexual abuse by an adult working in a Victorian government school, refer to: Victim-survivor support for former students.

Useful department websites

PROTECT – provides child safety information for teachers, educators and staff in schools. It's designed to help school staff meet their child safety obligations, identify and respond to child abuse (including grooming) and provide children and families with the right support at the right time. PROTECT includes links to:

• the 4 Critical Actions for each source of abuse
• 4 Critical Actions reference guides for each source of abuse
• staff and student posters
• templates to help schools document their actions
• guidance on implementing the Child Safe Standards in your school.

External websites

• Social Services Regulator – an independent statutory authority that safeguards the rights of children and young people as well as people who use social services in Victoria. It regulates the Child Safe Standards and administers the Reportable Conduct Scheme, Working with Children Check scheme and Worker and Carer Exclusion Scheme
• Commission for Children and Young People – an independent statutory authority that provides independent scrutiny of service systems, including child protection, out-of-home care and youth justice, and promotes improvements in policies and practices that affect Victorian children and young people
• Department of Families, Fairness and Housing Professional Reporter and Referrer Information Hub – contains essential information about making a report to child protection
• The Orange Door – a free service for adults, children and young people who are experiencing or have experienced family violence and families who need extra support with the care of children
• Department of Justice and Community Safety – provides information on protecting children and families, including details of the failure to disclose offence