The chair of the Bishops Commission for Professional Standards and Safeguarding, Bishop Greg Bennet, has written to Attorney-General Michelle Rowland in support of a national approach to working with children and vulnerable people checks.

The letter reiterates the position of the bishops held for over a decade, since the hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, but comes as attorneys-general from across Australia consider ways to improve the checking system.

Dear Attorney-General,

Recent discoveries of child abusers in childcare centres have highlighted deficiencies in Australia’s system for protecting children, including the lack of a national approach for working with children and vulnerable adult checks.

During the operation of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the Catholic Church made clear its support for a national approach to screening people who work with children.

Those checks and processes should also be extended to help protect vulnerable adults.

The Royal Commission subsequently recommended that the Commonwealth Government should facilitate a national model for working with children checks.

Whilst a Working with Children Check is not a safeguarding strategy on its own, it must be part of an integrated approach that includes robust recruitment, ongoing supervision, clear standards of behaviour, and effective complaint and investigation processes.

Such reforms are just one part of the broader conversation about safeguarding children and vulnerable people that is desperately needed.

You may know that the Catholic Church runs an Australian Catholic Ministry Register as part of our obligation to ensure that clergy and religious have satisfied working with children checks and other internal requirements to ensure the safety of children and vulnerable adults.

This system is greatly complicated by the different checks required in each state and territory, so a national registration system for children’s service workers, an investment in training and supervision, and specialised abuse intervention and prevention services would be very welcome.

A national model would help prevent perpetrators from crossing state borders to offend again.

I write to encourage you and your colleagues to work to meet the Royal Commission recommendations, so Australia has an effective and national system of checks to help protect children and vulnerable adults.

LETTER ENDS.