The then District Governor and District
Secretary in 2001-02 obtained verification from the NSW
Commission for Children and Young People that the requirements of
the Child Protection Act 1998 apply to members
and associates of a Rotary Club. There was some uncertainty
on this point as much of the guide information, and the
Declaration Form referred to below, uses language about "employment",
but it definitely applies to voluntary service
situations as well.
The Act applies in respect of any
number of circumstances where a Rotary Club is responsible for a
child and when any member,
or member's partner, or member's family member who is 18 or over, comes
in contact with that child. This would naturally apply
to any Rotary Youth Exchange student's host family, or even
persons hosting a student for an outing. This would also extend
to persons transporting RYLA attendees, MUNA attendees and the
like, to their event venue.
Accordingly, as your
first responsibility:
Your club must appoint a member as your Child Protection Officer.
The responsibility of the Club's Child
Protection Officer is to distribute the declaration form
("Attachment 4 - Prohibited Employment Declaration"
- get it via
the "Resources Page" link at below) to all club members, and keep a confidential register
of Rotarians and their family members who have completed the
required declaration. If any member of your Club wishes to be
involved in youth activities, they must complete and lodge the
form with the Club's Child Protection Officer, before
they can have any such involvement, and the same applies to any
family member aged 18 or over.
The forms do NOT have to be submitted to the Commission, but must
be available should they be requested at any time.
If for ANY reason a member of your Club does NOT
wish to complete the declaration, that is allowable, and no
explanation is required. However if no declaration has been made,
the Club must NOT allow that person to participate in activities
involving children.
Resources Page: http://www.kids.nsw.gov.au/check/resources.html and select the link to
the declaration form Prohibited
Employment Declaration (Attachment 4)
which was near the top of the Resources Page at time of writing. This link provides the latest
version of the form.
The declaration form page and the guide documents are PDF
files, so you will need Adobe
Acrobat reader . On some systems the declaration form
page may not load into the browser window properly with a simple
click on the link. If this happens to you, just return to the
Resources page, Right-Click on the link and select "Save-As"
and save the file to your hard disk, and then open it from there.
below) to all club members, and keep a confidential register
of Rotarians and their family members who have completed the
required declaration. If any member of your Club wishes to be
involved in youth activities, they must complete and lodge the
form with the Club's Child Protection Officer, before
they can have any such involvement, and the same applies to any
family member aged 18 or over.