New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS (CARE AND PROTECTION) ACT 1998 - SECT 27

27 Mandatory reporting

(1) This section applies to--

(a) a person who, in the course of his or her professional work or other paid employment delivers health care, welfare, education, children's services, residential services, or law enforcement, wholly or partly, to children, and

(b) a person who holds a management position in an organisation the duties of which include direct responsibility for, or direct supervision of, the provision of health care, welfare, education, children's services, residential services, or law enforcement, wholly or partly, to children, and

(c) a person in religious ministry, or a person providing religion-based activities to children, and

(d) a registered psychologist providing a professional service as a psychologist.

(2) If--

(a) a person to whom this section applies has reasonable grounds to suspect that a child is at risk of significant harm, and

(b) those grounds arise during the course of or from the person's work or role specified in subsection (1),

it is the duty of the person to report, as soon as practicable, to the Secretary the name, or a description, of the child and the grounds for suspecting that the child is at risk of significant harm.

(3) A person to whom this section applies satisfies his or her obligations under subsection (2) in relation to two or more children that constitute a particular class of children if the person reports that class of children to the Secretary together with--

(a) a description that is sufficient to identify all the children who constitute the class, and

(b) the grounds for suspecting that the children of that class are at risk of significant harm.

(4) In this section--

"children's services" means either or both of the following (subject to the regulations)--

(a) an education and care service within the meaning of the Children (Education and Care Services) National Law (NSW) ,

(b) a State regulated education and care service within the meaning of the Children (Education and Care Services) Supplementary Provisions Act 2011 .