When a person working with children behaves in a way that causes harm — or even raises a serious concern — Victoria has a formal, legislated mechanism designed to ensure that conduct does not go unexamined. The Reportable Conduct Scheme, overseen by the Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP), sits at the centre of that accountability architecture, and understanding how it operates matters for every parent, carer, community member, and worker who moves through child-serving organisations across the state.
What is the Reportable Conduct Scheme? #
The scheme is established under the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005 (Vic) and places mandatory obligations on certain organisations to investigate and report specific types of conduct by their employees. Its purpose is not to replace criminal investigations or child protection processes; rather, it creates a parallel accountability layer focused on the behaviour of workers and volunteers within organisations — and on whether those organisations respond properly when concerns arise.
The Commission for Children and Young People is the independent statutory authority responsible for administering the scheme. The CCYP monitors how organisations handle reportable conduct matters, reviews investigations, and can direct further action if it finds an organisation’s response inadequate. It publishes guidance, conducts audits, and reports publicly on systemic findings — meaning the scheme generates not just individual accountability but sector-wide learning.
Which organisations are covered? #
Not every organisation that works with children falls under the scheme. Coverage is tied to a defined list of mandated organisations, which includes a broad cross-section of the services that children and young people encounter in their daily lives.
Mandated organisations currently include:
- government schools and registered non-government schools
- early childhood services, including kindergartens and long day care centres
- out-of-home care providers and residential care services
- child protection services operated by the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing
- disability services that engage with children
- youth justice centres and youth residential centres
- hospitals and community health services that provide services to children
- religious organisations that provide services to children or have a child-connected work function
- sporting, recreational, and other bodies that engage in child-connected work, in certain circumstances
The breadth of this list reflects a deliberate legislative choice: children come into contact with trusted adults across an enormous range of settings, and the scheme is designed to follow that contact wherever it occurs within organised, supervised environments.
What conduct is actually reportable? #
The scheme covers five categories of reportable conduct involving employees (including paid staff, contractors, and volunteers) of mandated organisations. Those categories are:
- a sexual offence committed against, with, or in the presence of a child
- sexual misconduct committed against, with, or in the presence of a child
- physical violence committed against, with, or in the presence of a child
- behaviour that causes significant emotional or psychological harm to a child
- significant neglect of a child
Importantly, the threshold for reporting is not a finding of guilt or even a formed belief that the conduct occurred. An organisation is required to report to the CCYP as soon as a reasonable belief arises that an employee has engaged in reportable conduct — or that a reportable allegation has been made. This low threshold is intentional: the scheme is designed to capture concerns at the earliest stage, not after an internal finding has already been reached.
The organisation’s head — typically the chief executive or equivalent — carries personal responsibility for notifying the CCYP. Failure to notify is a criminal offence under the Act.
How does an investigation actually work? #
Once a matter is notified to the CCYP, the organisation is generally responsible for conducting its own internal investigation, subject to CCYP oversight. This is a deliberate design feature: organisations are best placed to understand their own context, gather evidence quickly, and manage the immediate welfare of any children involved. However, the CCYP does not simply take an organisation’s word for it.
The CCYP may review the investigation process, request information, and assess whether the organisation’s findings and response are adequate. Where the CCYP determines that an investigation was flawed — that it was too narrow, improperly conducted, or reached a conclusion unsupported by the evidence — it can direct the organisation to conduct a further investigation, or it can investigate the matter itself.
Organisations must provide the CCYP with a final report on the outcome of every investigation, including what disciplinary or protective action, if any, was taken. The CCYP tracks those outcomes and publishes de-identified data on trends across sectors.
Where does the scheme meet police investigations? #
One of the most consequential — and sometimes confusing — aspects of the scheme is its interface with criminal investigations by Victoria Police. The two systems run on parallel tracks and serve different purposes, but they can and do overlap.
Where reportable conduct may also constitute a criminal offence, the organisation’s internal investigation does not take precedence over a police investigation. Organisations are required to consult with Victoria Police and, where directed to do so, to pause or limit their internal investigation to avoid compromising any criminal inquiry. This is a critical safeguard: poorly timed or intrusive internal investigations have historically disrupted criminal proceedings, and the scheme’s framework is designed to prevent that.
Victoria Police may also notify the CCYP directly when it becomes aware, through its own investigations, of conduct that appears to fall within the scheme’s scope. Similarly, mandatory reporters within organisations retain separate obligations under the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 to report child abuse to child protection authorities — the Reportable Conduct Scheme does not displace or reduce those obligations.
The practical reality is that a single incident may trigger three separate processes simultaneously: a Victoria Police criminal investigation, a child protection response by the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, and a Reportable Conduct Scheme investigation by the employing organisation under CCYP oversight. Coordination between those three streams is essential and, where it breaks down, can leave children unprotected and perpetrators unaccountable.
Limitations and ongoing concerns #
The scheme has attracted sustained scrutiny from child safety advocates and the CCYP itself. Key concerns raised in successive CCYP annual reports and sector reviews include the quality and timeliness of internal investigations — particularly in smaller organisations with limited human resources capacity — and the ongoing challenge of ensuring that findings from investigations are shared across organisations when a worker moves between employers.
Victoria does not yet have a comprehensive, searchable register of workers found to have engaged in reportable conduct that all mandated organisations must check before hiring. Pre-employment screening requirements have expanded significantly — particularly in the wake of recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse — but gaps in information-sharing remain a live policy concern.
The CCYP has also consistently highlighted that cultural change within organisations is as important as procedural compliance. Organisations that view the scheme as a box-ticking exercise rather than a genuine child safety tool are more likely to conduct inadequate investigations and less likely to make structural changes that prevent future harm.
What to do if you have a concern #
If you have a concern about the conduct of an employee of a mandated organisation toward a child, you do not need to wait for the organisation to act. You can contact the Commission for Children and Young People directly, or report to Victoria Police if you believe a crime may have been committed. If a child is at immediate risk of harm, contact Victoria Police on 000 immediately.
For broader child protection concerns, the Child Protection Crisis Line operates 24 hours a day on 13 12 78.
If this article raises concerns for you, support is available around the clock:
- Child Protection Crisis Line: 13 12 78
- Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000
- 1800RESPECT (sexual assault and family violence): 1800 737 732
- Safe Steps (family violence, 24/7): 1800 015 188
- Sexual Assault Crisis Line: 1800 806 292
- Lifeline: 13 11 14
- Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636
- 13YARN (First Nations crisis support): 13 92 76
