Debelle school abuse inquiry lists department failures
The Debelle inquiry into sexual abuse in South Australia’s schools has concluded the Education Department failed in its duty to parents and to the Education Minister.
The inquiry, headed by Former Supreme Court Justice Bruce Debelle, looked into a 2010 rape of a student at a western suburbs school by an after-school-hours-care worker.
Other parents at the school were not informed of the case until 2012.
The report says the Education Minister at the time, now-Premier Jay Weatherill, wasn’t informed of the case. The report says the Education Department had failed in its duty to the Minister.
The report also details numerous other failings on the part of the Education Department, including failing to inform parents that the accused man had been committed for trial, providing misleading information, and a failure to seek legal advice on the case.
Weatherill’s chief-of-staff at the time, Simon Blewett, was sent an email by the Education Department about the case. He did not inform the Minister of the email or of the case, nor did fellow adviser Jadynne Harvey, who also received the email from the Department (neither recall receiving the email).
The report says: “Mr Blewett’s judgement was sadly at fault”.
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“Mr Blewett was entitled to take the view that this was an operational matter for the Department to manage and to assume that the Department was acting appropriately,” the report says. “Nevertheless, it was always a matter of which he should have informed his Minister. Furthermore, given that the email referred to the sexual assault of children, Mr Blewett ought to have asked the Department to let him know how many children and told the Minister what he had learned. In the absence of such an enquiry, he simply had no idea how grave the offending might have been.”
The email advised that an arrest had occurred and that the parents were being informed – something that did not occur until the issue became public last year.
Current Education Minister Jennifer Rankine said the Education Department’s practices and processes would now be reviewed.
“It is very clear that mistakes were made and people were let down,” Rankine said in a statement.
“The school had a right to tell parents about this man’s offending and conviction. The Government is extremely sorry the Governing Council constantly received the wrong information.
“This review of the Department will be conducted by a person independent of Government and will make recommendations to the Minister.”
This afternoon Weatherill told media the the Government supported in principle the report’s 43 recommendations.
“We will begin work immediately on implementation of the recommendations,” Weatherill said.
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He apologised to the school community and particularly the school governing council for the Government’s mistakes.
Weatherill said his own advisers had accepted they had made a mistake in not informing him about an email from the department in relation to the case. He gave no indication that Blewett or any other ministerial staff would face any further action.
However, he said the Chief Executive of the Department for Education and Child Development, Keith Bartley, was examining Debelle’s material to see whether disciplinary action should be taken against Departmental staff.
When asked if the senior management of the department retained her confidence, Rankine noted that Bartley was going through the report carefully.
“There are some damning reports in there in relation to individuals, so I expect him to take this very seriously, and I’ll be awaiting with interest his report,” she said.
The report contains a chapter listing the Department’s failings in the matter, including
- The failure to inform parents after the school worker had been committed for trial
- An “inadequate letter” sent to parents of children in the OSHC service in which the man worked
- The “compounding of misleading information” that the man was on leave
- A failure to take legal advice
- The “failure of the Department to reconsider its position”
- The failure to “monitor the prosecution” of the charged man.
The report says there was a “failure adequately to manage the events and circumstances” following the arrest of the man.
Debelle also slates a lack of attention to detail apparent in the Department’s handling of the case.
“A lack of accuracy is another striking feature of written briefs delivered either to the Minister or to other officers of the Department,” the report says.
The report proposes a series of guidelines to manage allegations or charges of sexual misconduct in schools and to ensure parents are informed.
Read the report here.
Whatever happened to Ministerial responsibility? More analysis of the Debelle inquiry in tomorrow’s edition of InDaily.
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