Understand your Obligations

Introduction Child Safe Prinicples Mandatory requirements Obligations Child safe Policy Child Protection, Child Safe and Child Safeguarding: What’s the Difference? Child Protection Policy Posters Quiz

Understand your obligations

​​This section sets out your legal obligations in further detail, including:

Duty of care obligations - all staff

Duty of care is a common law concept that refers to your responsibility to adequately protect children in your care from harm. It applies to all staff members within any Victorian early childhood service and it is usually expressed as a duty to take reasonable steps to protect children from injury that is reasonably foreseeable.
The courts will objectively determine what constitutes “reasonable steps”. This will depend on the individual circumstances of each case, including the nature of the service and your role within it. The courts have found that the standard of care owed by early childhood service providers to children is high.
You may breach your duty of care towards a child if you fail to act in the way a reasonable or diligent professional would have acted in the same situation.
In relation to suspected child abuse, examples of “reasonable steps” within an early childhood service will vary depending on the nature of the service, but at a minimum would likely include:
  • Acting on concerns and suspicions of abuse quickly and in the child’s best interests
  • Seeking appropriate advice or consulting when unsure
  • Reporting suspected child abuse to Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Child Protection and/or Victoria Police
  • Sharing information, upon request, to assist DHHS Child Protection or Victoria Police to investigate the suspected child abuse and protect and/or promote the wellbeing and development of a child
  • notifying regulator where appropriate or required.
    To ensure that you fulfil your duty of care obligations for all children who are involved in, or affected by, the suspected child abuse, it is strongly recommended that you follow Four critical actions for early childhood services (pdf – 208.11kb)
For services working with children 10 years and over you must also be aware that your duty of care extends to children who may engage in a sexual offence.
For more advice, see Problem sexual behaviour.

Criminal offences - all adults

In response to the Betrayal of Trust Report, the Victorian Government has introduced new criminal offences to protect children from sexual abuse. Under these reforms a failure to report, or take action in relation to suspected child sexual abuse can now constitute a criminal offence, including the following failures.

Failure to disclose

This offence applies to all adults (not just professionals who work with children) who form a reasonable belief that another adult may have committed a sexual offence against a child under 16 years of age and fail to report this information to Victoria Police.
Failing to disclose a sexual offence based on concerns for the interests of the perpetrator or organisation (concerns about reputation, legal liability or financial status) will not be regarded as a reasonable excuse.

Failure to protect

This offence applies to a person in a position of authority within an organisation who:
  • knows of a substantial risk that a child who is under 16 years and in the care and supervision of the organisation may become the victim of a sexual offence committed by an adult associated with that organisation (an employee, contractor, volunteer or visitor)
  • fails to take reasonable steps to remove or reduce the risk.
Within an early childhood service a position of authority includes local service managers and staff in management positions within licensed or approved services.
For further information on these offences, see:

Child protection in early childhood: online learning

​​​​The Protecting Children – Mandatory Reporting and Other Obligations for the Early Childhood Sector eLearning Module supports all professionals in early childhood setting​​s to increase their capacity to respond effectively to children whose safety, health or wellbeing may be at risk. ​
The module is available at no cost to participants and provides a certificate on successful completion.
Please note, a username and password are no longer required.
All early childhood professionals are strongly encouraged to undertake this module.
To complete the module, see: Mandatory Reporting eLearning Module
This training module is hosted by a third party provider. DET employees MUST create a different password to their current Edumail password.