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To work or volunteer in education you must do mandatory notification training about child protection in education.
The training is called Responding to Risks of Harm, Abuse and Neglect – Education and Care (RRHAN-EC).
Two types of courses
There are 2 approved RRHAN-EC courses:
Fundamentals course Masterclass course
The course you need will depend on your role.
Fundamentals – shorter course that covers the essentials
Many people only need to do the fundamentals course. This includes:
- staff with a current certificate who need to update
- volunteers
- work experience students
- students on professional placement (not pre-service teachers or placement in a preschool or school)
- bus drivers
- canteen workers
- people bridging from the full day Safe Environments – Through Their Eyes training completed in the last 3 years
- corporate staff who do not work with children and young people
- sector office education staff (non-government schools) who do not work with children and young people.
To receive full RRHAN-EC certification, some staff must also do the masterclass.
Masterclass – 4 hour facilitator led workshop with more advanced knowledge
Masterclass is only for specific staff who work directly with children and young people and either:
- are new
- have an expired certificate.
Not all staff need to do the masterclass. You can answer some questions to check what course is right for you.
Online update training
You must keep your RRHAN-EC training current. The online update course is available in plink until 31 December 2024. Complete this training before your certificate expires to avoid any gap.
If you do not have a current certificate, check what training you need to do.
If your role changes you may need more training
If your situation changes your training needs might change too.
For example, volunteers only need to do the fundamentals. If a volunteer is later employed in a school, they need to do the masterclass as well.
Always check with your employer or potential employer if things change.
Why we need this training
RRHAN-EC training is how we make sure we:
- all have the same information about mandatory notifications
- understand our role working together to safeguard children and young people.
To help you understand why mandatory notification training and reporting is important, Haylee, a person with lived experience, has shared their story. Watch the video to help you understand:
- preschools and schools are protective places for children and young people
- how educators and support staff can connect with children and young people and keep them safe through mandatory notifications.
Links in the video (QR codes)
During the video there are QR codes for the following:
Safeguarding children and young people video transcript
Hi everyone. I'm here today on Kaurna land. Protecting children and young people from harm is a fundamental legal and moral responsibility. We all know that preschools and schools are protective places for children and young people, and that educators and support staff are well placed to recognise, report and respond to kids who may be at risk of harm. We need action and effort from people inside and outside of the school gates. Early intervention and supportive responses are crucial to preventing and minimising harm and the risk of harm to children and young people. When you take action to intervene, you could save a life.
There was this nine-year-old girl who was in year four at her local primary school. She lived in a nice house, had birthday parties, wore nice clothes. She had two parents, a sister and from the outside her life looked normal. She was always the chatty student where her report card said that she could achieve more if she didn't talk so much to her best friend. One day, around 11 AM, while the class were outside for a fitness break, the nine-year-old girl shared her soul to her friend. She finally let her walls down. She told her friend that her father was sexually abusing her and had been for years. Her friend had no idea what to do, so she did the thing that they thought was right and told her teacher. That day, the nine-year-old girl's life changed forever. Her teacher reported it, and later that day, the police came to school and interviewed the nine-year-old girl. She was taken away to live with their grandmother five hours away from the life she knew. I tell you this story because that nine-year-old girl was me. I was removed from my mother's care, but it was my teacher that saved me. I can honestly say that she saved my life because without her, I couldn't see any way out. I was a voiceless nine-year-old girl who lived in a society where children should be seen and not heard, which is why I'm here today. I will be heard. I ask you to please listen to your students. Please be the adult that they need you to be.
People in school settings, and in settings where children are regularly are really important people in children's lives. They get to see children daily. They can often monitor a child's wellbeing in a way that other agencies can't when they only see children occasionally. So the information that educators and volunteers and people in a school setting have to offer can be really important for children's safety and wellbeing. It's really important for us to gather all of the information that is available. When we gather all of the information, what we then do is look back on a child's history and a family's history so that we just have a sense of the child's world and the child's life, and whether there have been previous concerns of a similar nature raised. When a mandated notifier makes a notification, it takes us some time to assess the information that's provided to us. So you might not get an immediate response to what's going to happen as a result of the information you've provided. It's always open to a notifier to recontact the Child Abuse Report Line and speak to one of the social workers to see what's happened to the information that's been provided.
Knowing your students and paying attention to potential indicators could sharpen your ability to identify harmful situations. These might be physical, behavioural, social, and emotional. If a child or their caregiver's behaviour causes you to suspect that the child is at risk or a child tells you they know someone who has been harmed, as in the case we've just heard, this is reasonable grounds to report. The importance of the teacher-student relationship and a mandated notifier's duty of care is not over when you make a report to the Child Abuse Report Line. If you make a report, consider how you can continue to support and respond to the needs of the child and their family. Working together with your site leader is important to make sure that children and young people are safe from harm, are part of a safe and supportive environment, are learning and developing skills, and can speak up and are heard. You can act alone if the matter is an emergency but you don't need to act alone if you're not sure. Keeping our kids safe is everybody's business.
End of transcript.
