Australian Capital Territory
Framework & Regulation
Notification Timeframes
Initial Notification 7 business days; Final Report as soon as practicable, keeping the Ombudsman updated on lengthy delays.
Training Requirements
Guided by the ACT Child Safe Standards. Annual compliance mapping recommended for high-exposure entities (health, education, religious institutions).
Child Safe Standards Induction
Foundational induction covering the organisation’s child-safe policy, code of conduct, professional boundaries, and how to raise a concern. Completion must be recorded against each worker.
Reportable Conduct & Threshold Recognition
Teaches the difference between a performance/HR matter and reportable conduct (sexual offences/misconduct, physical violence, significant emotional or psychological harm, and significant neglect of a child), and the legal duty to notify the regulator.
Mandatory Reporting & Identifying Harm
Recognising indicators of abuse and neglect and the separate obligation to report risk of significant harm to child protection or police, which runs alongside (not instead of) reportable conduct notification.
Code of Conduct & Professional Boundaries
Re-affirms acceptable and prohibited behaviours, online/communication boundaries, gift and physical-contact rules, and the consequences of breaches.
Cultural Safety & Inclusion
Culturally safe practice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children with disability, and children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, aligned to the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.
Respect at Work
Reportable Conduct Scheme program on preventing and responding to workplace sexual harassment and discrimination, and meeting the positive duty under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) introduced by the Respect@Work reforms.
Psychological Safety at Work
Reportable Conduct Scheme program on building a psychologically safe workplace and identifying and managing psychosocial hazards in line with WHS psychosocial regulations and codes of practice.
Psychosocial Hazards in the Workplace
Reportable Conduct Scheme program on identifying, assessing and controlling psychosocial hazards at work in line with the model WHS Regulations and the Managing psychosocial hazards at work Code of Practice.
ACT Child Safe Standards
Annual compliance mapping against the ACT Child Safe Standards, recommended particularly for health, education and religious institutions.
Briginshaw Standard in Decision-Making
Applying the civil standard of proof to a level of satisfaction proportionate to the seriousness of the allegation, as sampled in Ombudsman file audits.
Whistleblowing & Public Interest Disclosure
Handling protected disclosures under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2012 (ACT) for the public sector, including confidentiality, protection from detriment and reprisal, and the role of eligible recipients. It also covers the Commonwealth whistleblower protections in Part 9.4AAA of the Corporations Act 2001 (strengthened by the Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Whistleblower Protections) Act 2019) for companies and not-for-profits, and the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 (Cth) for the Australian Government public sector.
Investigations
External providers must comply with local commercial investigation licensing requirements. The ACT Ombudsman regularly samples and audits completed investigation files to ensure the civil standard of proof (Briginshaw principle) was correctly applied.
Audits & Processes
- Investigation file self-auditPer matter and annual sampling
Mirror the Ombudsman’s sampling by checking that findings correctly applied the Briginshaw principle and procedural fairness.
- Child Safe Standards mappingAnnual
Document compliance and improvement actions across the ACT Standards.