Audit of primary school-based sexual abuse prevention policy and curriculum: Volumes 1 to 5

Abstract

Report prepared for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. In late 2013, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse sought an audit of primary school–based sexual abuse prevention policies and curricula for children aged five to 12 years relative to the current international evidence base. We developed an audit tool for this project based on a comprehensive search of the literature on guidelines for effective school-based child sexual abuse prevention education. Academic databases, agencies and institutions, and grey literature were searched. No guidelines were found. The audit tool was adapted from evidence-based frameworks in related areas including primary prevention, health promotion and safe schools. We distilled 10 criteria and relevant guiding questions. We conducted the audit against the 10 criteria from January to April 2014, by searching: (i) publicly accessible text, including print documents traceable via electronic means, located on 32 school system websites (eight state and territory departments of education; and 24 Catholic education offices representing 28 Catholic education dioceses)1 (ii) documents provided to the Royal Commission by the Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory and South Australian government departments of education in response to a Notice to Produce pursuant to subsection 2 (3 A) of the Royal Commissions Act 1902 (Cth) (iii) documents provided to the Royal Commission by the New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmanian, Victorian and Western Australian government departments of education, and Catholic diocesan education offices and Catholic education commissions through the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, in response to a request for information. A total population sampling frame was used. We sampled all Australian state government departments of education and all Catholic diocesan education offices in a type of purposive sampling approach. The audit, therefore, includes the two largest schooling bodies in Australia, comprising almost 90 per cent of Australian schools (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014). The audit excludes non-government independent schools. In early 2015, we conducted a review of supplementary material provided to the Royal Commission by state and territory departments of education and Catholic diocesan education offices in response to the circulation of a draft copy of this report. We carefully assessed the additional supplementary material to determine whether it fell within scope of the original audit. We concluded that much of the supplementary material was out of scope of the existing research (for example, because it had been developed since the audit period), or we were unable to determine if the material was within scope (for example, it was available exclusively on a staff intranet and therefore not publicly accessible or accessible to the researchers). One state department of education and several Catholic diocesan education offices provided supplementary material that was already included in the original audit. Findings of the review of supplementary material can be found in Volume 5.