Child Protection Reform and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2022
The Child Protection Reform and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 (Bill) was introduced into the Queensland Parliament on 15 September 2021.
The Bill received assent and became an Act on Friday 20 May 2022 (Child Protection Reform and other Legislation Amendment Act 2022 (the Act)).
The Act makes amendments to the Child Protection Act 1999 (CP Act) and the Working with Children (Risk Management and Screening) Act 2000 (WWC Act). It also makes minor consequential amendments to the Disability Services Act 2006 and technical amendments to the Adoption Act 2009.
The amendments address recommendations from the Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the Queensland Family and Child Commission’s Keeping Queensland’s children more than safe: Review of the foster care system report and previous consultation conducted by the Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs.
The Act aims to:
Some amendments in the Act commenced on assent, including those made to the Disability Services Act 2006, the Adoption Act 2009 and some of the amendments being made to the WWC Act. Other amendments in the Act will commence on a date to be fixed by proclamation.
We are currently working to ensure the amendments to the CP Act are implemented ahead of it taking effect. The Department of Justice and Attorney-General is responsible for implementing the blue card related amendments.
Contemporary child protection laws are an important part of the Supporting Families Changing Futures reform program to ensure children and young people are safe, protected and supported to reach their full potential.
The Queensland Government prepared further changes to the child protection legislation to build a stronger framework for protecting children and supporting families.
Between July and September 2019, public consultation was held through targeted workshops, written submissions and surveys received through the Youth eHub for people under 25 and Get Involved.
A discussion paper, Rethinking rights and regulation: towards a stronger framework for protecting children and supporting families Rethinking rights and regulation: towards a stronger framework for protecting children and supporting families proposed options for changes to the legislation in three focus areas:
Through consultation, we heard about the importance of ensuring children are aware of their rights and how to exercise them, the need to actively listen to children and facilitate participation in a way that is appropriate to their needs, and the importance of ensuring carers and care services are supported to deliver the highest standard of care possible.
The final consultation report final consultation report provides more information about the outcomes of consultation.
We considered the results of consultation and how we could incorporate this feedback to support a stronger legislative, policy and practice framework for the child protection and family support system.
The final stage of amendments commenced on 29 October 2018.
A comprehensive review of the Child Protection Act 1999 (the Act), as recommended by the Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry was undertaken between 2015 and 2017.
The Queensland Parliament passed the Child Protection Reform Amendment Act 2017, to progress priority changes to the Act.
On 29 January 2018, some of the changes commenced to allow us to provide more information to:
These changes included the establishment of the Time in Care Information Access Service.
The second stage of amendments commenced on 23 July 2018, with changes made to:
For more information on these changes, please see the July amendments fact sheet July amendments fact sheet .
The third and final stage of amendments commenced on 29 October 2018. Changes that commenced at that time related to:
The review of the Child Protection Act 1999 commenced in September 2015 to identify the role and purpose of the legislation in improving opportunities and life outcomes for children, young people and families in contact with the child protection system.
Between September 2015 and December 2016, public consultation was held across Queensland through community forums, written submissions, meetings, focus groups and small group sessions to identify the priority changes needed to keep children and young people safe and able to reach their full potential, and to support families and communities to safely care for their children.
Through this consultation, we found that Queensland’s child protection legislation was generally operating well, however priority amendments and opportunities for broad legislative reform were identified.
The final consultation report consultation report provided more information about the findings from the public consultation.
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