2021 Annual Progress Report Released - Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Last published on 17 Jan 2022 

The Annual Progress Report highlights the activity undertaken by the NSW Government to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission and reflects the Government's ongoing commitment to  keep children and young people safe. 

Throughout 2021, NSW continued to implement major reforms to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse and support survivors. 

Highlights in the 2021 Annual Progress Report include: 

• Introduction of new laws establishing the Child Safe Scheme, a regulatory framework requiring certain NSW child-related organisations to implement Child Safe Standards.
• A new child protection audit tool to drive continuous improvement in the quality of child protection casework.
• Development of a new framework for preventing and responding to problematic and harmful sexual behaviour in children and young people. The Framework sets the vision and priorities for a whole of government and community approach focusing on preventing harmful sexual behaviours before they occur, enabling early identification of behaviours and pathways into support and treatment for children, young people and their families.
• Completion of the residential care workers register build. When commenced, the register will support agencies making decisions about the suitability of an individual to provide care to children and young people in residential care. 
• LINKS Training and Support resources continue to be utilised widely by carers and caseworkers. 
• Boosted protection for young people in detention, including expanding support services, trauma-informed counselling, and embedding a youth-centric and child safe approach in every Youth Justice centre.
• Collaborating extensively with the Commonwealth and other states and territories to develop the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse.   

As the NSW Government continues to implement its response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission, there may be further changes to the way that DCJ carries out its work. These changes will be incremental to allow everyone time to adapt to new systems, practices and policies. 

DCJ will continue to work with other NSW government agencies, the Australian Government, other state and territory governments and non-government organisations to progress this important work in 2022. DCJ staff will be kept informed about developments, including the residential care workers register and Child Safe Scheme.  

A final update on implementation of the NSW Government response to the Royal Commission's recommendations will be provided in December 2022.

If you have any questions in relation to the Annual Progress Report or the implementation of the NSW Government response to the Royal Commission's recommendations please email RoyalCommission-Implementation@facs.nsw.gov.au.