Managing Conduct and Unsatisfactory Performance
Updates to the Department of Education’s Guidelines for managing conduct and unsatisfactory performance in schools and new Conduct and Integrity Division phone number.
The Department has updated the Guidelines for managing conduct and unsatisfactory performance in schools.
The refreshed Guidelines provide:
- Clearer guidance for principals on managing child safety incidents and when they must contact Conduct and Integrity Division and other parts of the department. They also outline the advice and support the department’s new Sexual Harm Response unit provides to principals
- Supports available to employees and how to access them. This includes support available to principals, and other professional support.
- Clearer guidance on communicating with parents and carers where a principal becomes aware of a complaint, concern or allegation that an employee has behaved inappropriately towards a student
- Flowcharts for the existing 3 processes under the Guidelines that identify the key steps and how these interact with the Reportable Conduct Scheme. These are intended to help principals find where they are at in a process and understand what the end-to-end process looks like
- A demonstration of the department’s commitment to improving the time that processes take under the Guidelines. Indicative timelines have been included for local resolution processes (3 months) and misconduct processes (4 - 7 months).
- A streamlined misconduct process. Employees under investigation will be asked to provide a response to the investigation report when they are provided with a preliminary view from the decision maker. This change is in line with legislation and is expected to make the misconduct process more efficient, which benefits respondents, complainants and schools.
Please also note, the phone number to reach the Conduct and Integrity Division has changed to 03 7034 6768. While schools transition to the new number, the old number will still work.
Please update the old number if it is listed anywhere and share the new number with staff.