Parent rights have never been more eroded, than they were in 2018. Then Area Executive Directors Christopher Thompson, Bernie Boulton and Regional Director Stephen Gniel have been acting in accord when it comes to responding to parents. All three regional staff have denied parents incident reports. Parents are directed to the FOI Unit, which coincidently in 2018 decided to break with any precedent in the past, and deny parent incident reports through the FOI process. This continued to happen to parents of children at Latrobe SDS. As of 2024, there is no sign of change.
The FOI Unit is now an active part of the obstruction of parents obtaining information in relation to their children. Records kept by the website author over the last 15 years show a steady increase in the refusal by the FOI unit to provide documents and to provide them in a timely manner. This has not been in response to any changes in the Freedom of Information Act. Indeed any questioning of the changes results in the same obstruction.
The obstruction by the FOI Unit is more likely to affect parents that have made a complaint under discrimination law against DET. For example at the same time one family was told they could only have three months of documents (21 documents), another family received approximately 200 pages at the one time. The only discernable difference was that one family had a discrimination complaint, and the other did not.
When DET commits in writing to providing information to families, Regional Directors such as Stephen Gniel (now at VCAA) have supported schools not providing such information. A complaint to the Victorian Ombudsman in 2018 had Mr Gniel/his representative advise the Ombudsman that while DET had a written commitment to providing such information, a new policy on the website (“Information”) was in conflict and therefore it was right and proper that the family not receive it.
The DET complaints process provides that complaints should be made firstly to the school, then to the Region, then to the relevant Deputy Secretary.
In actual fact, Departmental staff, obstruct, and contradict each other in relation to what the process actually is, regardless of the documentation.
For example on 1 April 2022, a Senior Dispute Resolution Officer at the Complaints and Improvement Unit wrote to a parent and specifically stated that that unit “does not manage complaints about staff conduct.”
On 28 September 2022, Regional Director Karen Money wrote to a parent and specifically stated “I am sorry that I cannot comment on responses from school-based staff, as mentioned in your email of 11 August 2022, as I have no jurisdiction over them.”
On 28 July 2023, Area Executive Director Anne Cunniff wrote to a parent “… the regional Director is the principal’s line manager and is able to investigate and respond to complaints made regarding a principal at a Victorian government school.”
“Independent” investigations
Parents can ask for an independent investigation, however there seem to be no advantages in doing so. Parents report that “independent investigations” have been undertaken by ex-DET employees, or in one case a lawyer who previously worked for a law firm representing DET. Note the following:
Mr Ian Claridge is often employed by DET as an “independent” investigator. He worked for DET for many years and was pivotal in the changes to the Severe Language Disorder criteria which saw most children previously in receipt of individual funding lose that funding.
Mr Peter Hibbins also, ex Manager Conduct and Ethics.
Work Logic do a lot of investigations for the Department of Education. They were contracted by the Department to complaints at Latrobe SDS.Despite the overwhelming evidence of sexual assault, discrimination, injuries and staff WorkCover claims, the investigation yielded virtually nothing. Terms of reference were denied.
Any investigation where there is a lawyer involved means that you will not be able to obtain the results through Freedom of Information or even court processes, as the Department of Education will label all documents “legally privileged”.
The time frame for investigation of a complaint used to be 20 days. However the latest version of the Parent Complaints Policy (2019) document for parents has taken out any timeline, except for two business days for an initial response. Often, a Regional Director will not respond to an email for over a month, because they send the complaint to the Legal Division who ultimately control the complaint.
The evidence is that there is no impartial rigourous independent avenue for complaints however the Department of Education is involved. Therefore if you suspect your child has been the victim of something discriminatory or illegal, just see a lawyer.
One school in North-West Region admitted to a parent in 2015 that every e-mail they received from him was sent to the Legal Department for response. This was prior to any legal complaint. This indicates the futility of any expectation that a complaint be dealt with by DET, taking into consideration the best interests of the child. The Legal Division’s primary interest is in protecting DET’s legal position in the event of a legal complaint, as opposed to the welfare of students.
All complaints of restraint and seclusion to date have been refuted and/or defended by Regional Offices and Deputy Secretaries, as being proper and appropriate. Therefore making internal complaints about restraint and seclusion is futile.
While there have been a number of changes to Deputy Secretaries in the restructure following the critical Independent Broad Based Anti-Corruption Committee findings, one of the new acting Deputy Secretaries is the former head of the DET Legal Division, so it is unlikely that the shifting of positions will provide better results for parents and students.
Despite claims of a new era, reports of victimisation continue and the Legal Division appears to continue to control most complaints processes.
An investigation into Bendigo Special Developmental School in late 2015 supported the contention that it is not possible for DET to conduct an honest and transparent investigation, despite the involvement of contracted lawyers.
Investigation into Bendigo Special Developmental school
Independent Complaints Panel
In November 2014, the Labor Party, just before the State election committed to investigating the establishment of an independent Schools Commissioner. Instead, they established what they refer to as an “Independent Panel for Dispute Resolution”. This panel is not independent as it was appointed by the Minister and can only make recommendations to the Deputy Secretary. Such recommendations can be ignored. The Panel has no powers.
Given the attitude that DET has as a whole towards parents and complaints, the Panel simply provides a voluntary mediation service. Representatives of the Panel have been known to advise parents in writing that they should simply go back to the school and have a Student Support Group meeting to sort out their issues.
Victorian Disability Workers Commission
In 2020, for a short period of time, students with disabilities had some protection under the disability workers Code of Conduct pursuant to the Disability Service Safeguards Act 2018. This was short lived as the Department of Education lobbied to have teachers removed from the Code of Conduct an order that they could treat as they have in the past. Powers were removed from the Victorian Disability Workers Commission to investigate the code of conduct in relation to teachers in 2023. Now there are no specific standards of conduct in relation to students with disabilities, except for those under the Education and Training Reform Act, which have allowed students with disabilities for decades to be abused and assaulted in schools by staff with protection.
However the Department of Education were not able to remove the Commission’s powers to hold Integration Aides to account under the Code of Conduct. Therefore you should familiarise yourself with this Code https://www.vdwc.vic.gov.au/disability-worker-code-of-conduct. If an Integration Aide breaches the code of conduct, rather than make an internal complaint, which as you can see by the evidence above will not result in any useful action, go straight to the Victorian Disability Workers Commission https://www.vdwc.vic.gov.au/about/contact-us.
Victorian Institute of Teaching
This Institute is on the Department of Education Organisational Chart, reports to the Secretary of Education, and has the Secretary on its Council. No independence in that regard, which is very clear if you make a complaint, particularly if there is a legal complaint running in the background. Complaints have been known to take three years to process, or VIT has not processed the complaint at all, simply ceasing the process without explanation or notification. VIT has refused to provide the complaints process for their own operations. The aforementioned is all documented.