Queensland State Archives (QSA) has released draft disposal authorisations and guidance on creating records relating to the safety and wellbeing of children for consultation in response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Royal Commission).

Background

The Royal Commission recognised that inadequate records and recordkeeping practices ‘contributed to delays in or failures to identify and respond to risks and incidents of child sexual abuse’.

Under the recommendations of the Royal Commission, QSA has direct responsibility to develop advice and disposal requirements for all Qld public authorities on the creation and management of records relating to the safety and wellbeing of children, specifically around child sexual abuse. We have drafted a new disposal authorisation and guideline based on these recommendations.

The draft guideline and disposal authorisation address recommendations 8.1-8.4 of the Royal Commission and take a child centric approach to the management of these records to reinforce the role good recordkeeping plays in relation to the safety and wellbeing of children.

Consultation scope

Implementation of this new disposal authorisation and guidance will have implications for the management of records within all public authorities, including agencies without specific child safety related functions (i.e. child safety is not their core function,). Specifically, agencies that:

• provide, or have at any time provided, activities, facilities, programs or services of any kind that provide the means through which adults have contact with children, including through their families
• run regular or irregular programs or services that may involve direct or indirect contact and interaction with children e.g. tours of facilities where children may attend, administering a program that is operationalised by another public authority
• are a reporting/responding institution that responds to allegations in other institutions e.g. police services.

Consultation is open to all Queensland public authorities until 31 July 2019.

How to submit feedback

QSA is seeking a formal response from public authorities on the draft consultation version of the disposal authorisation, disposal justifications (appraisal log) and guideline.

Feedback is to be submitted using the consultation feedback form. This feedback should be endorsed by your CEO or executive officer prior to submission.

More information

For more information contact the Government Records Innovation team by emailing rkqueries@archives.qld.gov.au.

Please note: until the draft guideline and disposal authorisation is finalised and authorised by the State Archivist, the disposal freeze for records that are relevant to, or may become relevant to, an allegation of child sexual abuse, is still in place.