Refer: respond to abuse by an adult engaged by a government school

Matters involving allegations of sexual offences

For matters involving allegations of sexual offences, the Sexual Harm Response Unit will work with regional health and wellbeing staff and the school to make sure impacted students and their families are referred to appropriate supports.

Support may include connecting the student and family with their local specialist sexual assault service, or other counselling or support service within the community.

Continue to help students after a referral

If your school helps to refer a student to a specialist support service, that service may inform you of the outcome of the referral.

If you are not part of the referral, you may still learn the outcome through an information sharing request. For example, this could happen if the student self-refers.

The service may tell you:

• what services the student has been connected to
• if they were unsuccessful in contacting the student - they may ask for your help
• if the student or their parents or carers declined support.

If they decline

If a student or their parents or carers do not want to engage with a service at this time, you can give them the list of services, helplines and websites.

By giving them this list, the student or their parents or carers can directly connect with further support and information when they’re ready. This is another way to help them feel empowered and make it more likely that they seek help, even if it’s not immediate.

Follow up with the student or their parent or carers to ensure they can access the services they need. If the student is unable to access a service, consider alternatives that may be available.

Continue your responsibilities

At all times, you should continue to:

• support the student
• monitor the situation
• follow the 4 Critical Actions to respond to new information or risks.

This should be in collaboration with:

• the student
• their parents or carers
• relevant authorities
• any specialist support services.

Next steps

Review

After any significant child safety incident, your school must:

• review its child safety policies, processes and practices
• make improvements where needed.

This is required under Ministerial Order 1359, which sets out how the Child Safe Standards apply in schools.

For more details, see reviewing child safety practices. This includes:

• an optional template schools may use to record the review
• template communications to the school community.

Government schools

In matters involving sexual offences, the Sexual Harm Response Unit and School Compliance Unit support schools to:

• complete post-incident reviews
• communicate the outcome to the school community.