The Office of Safeguarding can be contacted in multiple ways:
The Office of Safeguarding is located at 50 Crebert Street, Mayfield. Our office hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays).
The Police are responsible for investigating criminal conduct. Where the alleged abuse involves criminality the Office of Safeguarding (OoSG) reports the allegations to Police and the Diocese provides all possible assistance to the Police should they conduct a criminal investigation.
However, there are a broad range of risky, even dangerous behaviours that are not criminal but can cause harm to children and vulnerable adults. The Bishop has empowered the OoSG to investigate allegations that the Police or statutory child protection authorities are not empowered to. This is part of the Diocese’s commitment to safeguarding. Also, the Diocese is required to undertake investigations of diocesan ‘workers’ under the reportable conduct scheme. This scheme is imposed by NSW law and is oversighted by a statutory authority (the Office of the Children’s Guardian).
There are a broad range of risky, even dangerous behaviours that are not criminal but can cause harm to children and vulnerable adults, including ‘reportable conduct’. Bishop Michael Kennedy and the diocesan leadership have empowered the OoSG to ensure that diocesan ‘workers’ act in accordance with safeguarding legislation, church derived standards and diocesan codes of conduct and policies as they relate to children and vulnerable adults.
The OoSG is authorised to investigate diocesan workers, which means any person engaged by or acting on behalf of the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, including employees, volunteers, contractors, clergy and religious. There is a detailed description of what constitutes a ‘diocesan worker’ on this website.
The ‘investigators’ within the OoSG are professionals with appropriate tertiary qualifications and drawn from a range of backgrounds, including law enforcement and statutory child protection. OoSG personnel are employed by the Diocese and answerable to the Director of Safeguarding.
Part 4 of the Children’s Guardian Act 2019, defines Diocesan schools as a ‘designated non-government agency’ and as such we must have systems for preventing, reporting (to the Children’s Guardian), and investigating reportable conduct. All staff and volunteers in Diocesan schools fall within the scope of Part 4 and may be investigated for alleged ‘reportable conduct’ which includes sexual offenses, misconduct, assault, ill-treatment, neglect, and behaviour that causes psychological harm to children. The Office of Safeguarding is the Diocese’s specialist service that works with the Office of the Children’s Guardian to ensure the Diocese meets its obligations under Part 4.
The length of the process varies depending on a range of factors including the nature and seriousness of the allegations. Generally speaking, in matters that require a statutory response such as Police or the Department of Communities and Justice will take longer than matters that are less serious.
The OoSG is empowered to investigate allegations of reportable conduct or breaches of professional standards against diocesan workers. A parishioner is not a diocesan worker, neither is a parent of a child attending a school. However, the Diocese has thousands of lay people as ‘workers’, as well as religious and clergy.