Reporting

Citipointe has a legal obligation to safeguard children in our care. The findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has made it mandatory for churches to report any suspicion or disclosure of sexual or physical abuse to a child under 18 yrs of age.  It's important that all staff understand what they should do in the event they receive a disclosure or suspicion regarding the sexual or physical abuse of a child under 18yrs. 

Note that the focus of child protection is to report concerns about risk of harm, and focus on the needs of the child in our decision making.

Our volunteers and leaders who are under 18yrs of age are not obliged to report the abuse of a child. 

In responding to concerns about children at church it is important to remember that the church has legal, pastoral and organisational responsibilities to fulfil and as such please report all concerns according to procedure.

Reasonable excuse for not reporting

A reasonable excuse includes if:

• you have already reported the offence to an appropriate authority (e.g. Child Safety) or you know another person has or will report it—for example, if you are

  • a nurse and have already reported it to Child Safety

  • a teacher and your school principal or another teacher has already reported the offence according to other laws

• you believe the information has already been given to a police officer

• you received information about the victim who is now an adult and you reasonably believe they don’t want to reveal it to the police

• you believe reporting the offence would endanger you or another person (other than the alleged offender) and that failure to give the information to police is reasonable.

However, a 'reasonable excuse' is not defined exhaustively and may include other circumstances.

Reporting of offences that occurred in the past

If you receive information after 5 July 2021 that leads you to reasonably believe a sexual offence has been committed against a child and you don’t have a reasonable excuse for not reporting, you must report it—even if the abuse happened a long time ago.

If you received the information before 5 July 2021, you do not have to report it under the new laws. However, if the victim is currently under 18, you may need to report it under other reporting obligations, such as to Child Safety. Please speak to your Contact Office or Safe Church Liaison Officers. 

https://www.qld.gov.au/law/crime-and-police/types-of-crime/sexual-offences-against-children/failure-to-report