Registration to Work with Vulnerable People

A regulated activity refers to certain activities and services that involve working or volunteering with vulnerable people, including children.

These are activities where vulnerable people may be at greater risk of harm or exploitation from those who work or volunteer with them. For example, activities where vulnerable people are dependent on workers and volunteers for their care, or where they engage with workers or volunteers one on one.

Find a list of regulated activities here.

If you are still unsure whether your work or volunteer in a regulated activity, it is recommended that you seek your own legal advice.

Incidental contact refers to unplanned contact with children that may occur during a person’s work or volunteer duties. An example of incidental contact in a regulated activity includes:

A person works as a payroll officer in the Head Office of a company that runs childcare centres across Tasmania. As part of their normal work duties, the person does not have any contact with children or communicate with children. So, the person does not need to register to work with vulnerable people.

If a group of children visits the Head Office on a school tour, where the person tells the children about their job, they still do not need registration. This is considered incidental contact.

If the person visits some of the childcare centres to pick up papers from the ‘back of house’ area every so often, they still do not need registration. This is also considered incidental contact.

But, if the person is promoted to the role of Centre Manager where they regularly go into the childcare rooms to direct staff, the person will need to be registered. This is considered more than incidental contact.

Reportable behaviour

Reportable behaviour is a specific term used under the Registration to Work with Vulnerable People (RWVP) Scheme. It refers to behaviour that poses a risk of harm to vulnerable people. Under the scheme, reporting bodies (i.e., Tasmania Police or Child Safety Services) are required to notify RWVP when they become aware of reportable behaviour.

By receiving these reportable behaviour notifications, RWVP can monitor registered individuals and conduct risk assessments when new information is received.

Reportable Conduct Scheme

The Reportable Conduct Scheme is overseen by the Office of the Independent Regulator. This scheme ensures that reportable conduct is investigated properly and in a child-centred way.

It does this by requiring leaders of specific organisations to:

• report concerns of conduct relating to child abuse that involve a worker or volunteer in their organisation to the Independent Regulator, and
• investigate these concerns (or engage an independent investigator to do so).

This scheme, together with the Child and Youth Safe Standards, makes up the Child and Youth Safe Organisations Framework.

The Tasmanian Government is expanding the scheme to provide better protections to children and vulnerable adults in Tasmania.

The expansion also allows the Government to respond to relevant recommendations from recent inquiries. These include the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings, as well as two Federal government inquiries including the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety and the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.

Implementing the recommendations from the State and Federal inquiries ensures that Tasmania’s Registration to Work with Vulnerable People Scheme is consistent with national approaches to worker screening.

If you are a worker or volunteer who currently uses the 7-day exemption you will need to apply for registration to work with vulnerable people if you are working in a regulated activity once the amendment regulations commence.

Individuals who use the emergency worker exemption will not need to apply for registration to work with vulnerable people once the amendment regulations commence.

People who are visiting Tasmania and are volunteering or working with children (i.e., at a sporting event) who have a registration to work with children in another state or territory will not need a Tasmanian registration.

It is important to understand that registration will only be required if an individual’s work or volunteer duties meet the requirements of a regulated activity that results in more than incidental contact with a child or vulnerable adult.

After the public consultation period, a commencement date for the amendment regulations will be announced. Once the amendment regulations come into effect, the 7-day exemption will no longer exist and individuals who used this exemption and continue to participate in a regulated activity will need to apply for registration to work with vulnerable people.

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