​Royal Commission Toolkit

This toolkit helps Tasmanian organisations to implement the five recordkeeping recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Royal Commission). These recommendations, along with others not covered in this toolkit, will help organisations make sure they are safe for children.

This toolkit can be used by government and non-government organisations. 

Background

In 2012, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that a royal commission would be held to investigate the institutional responses to allegations or incidents of child sexual abuse. The Royal Commission ran for five years, and heard statements from nearly 8000 survivors. Nearly one third of the survivors told the Royal Commission they were abused in an institution under government management, most commonly schools, out-of-home care, youth detention and healthcare facilities. [1]

"The Royal Commission has heard from countless survivors about their painful experiences with poor records and recordkeeping practices in institutions. Many have told us that they had difficulty accessing records, including those who were unable to find records about themselves."

"The consultation paper revealed that good recordkeeping practices contribute to survivors' sense of identity, knowledge of past experience and memories and information about their families, culture and community. Good records and recordkeeping practices also assist in better handling of child sexual abuse complaints, redress and criminal proceedings." [2]

Please email us at osa@education.tas.gov.au if you have any questions.

Title
​Description ​Date of Publication

​Disposal Schedule for Records Relating to Child Abuse (DA2520)

Disposal Schedule for records relating to child abuse, and our reasons for retention decisions.

December 2019

Disposal Freeze for Records Relating to Children

​Formal notification of our Disposal Freeze for Records Relating to Children

December 2019

Child Abuse Disposal Schedule and Freeze FAQs
Information on the Disposal Schedule and Freeze

December 2019

​Approval Process to Destroy Temporary Child-Related Source Records
​Instructions and form to use to destroy child-related source records during the Freeze
​December 2019
​How to Identify Records
​Step by step guide to finding records that relate to the Disposal Schedule and Freeze
​August 2019
​Record Types
​Examples of record types that may be relevant to the Disposal Freeze
​August 2019
The Royal Commission's final report - Recordkeeping and information sharing (Volume 8)
​Volume 8 of the Royal Commission's final report examines recordkeeping and information sharing in institutions, and how they can be improved
​December 2017