The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hold a public hearing in Sydney on Monday 16 September 2013.
The public hearing will run for up to a week and will look at how organisations including Scouts Australia, Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services and the then Department of Community Services responded to information and allegations concerning Steven Larkins, the former CEO of Hunter Aboriginal Children’s Services.
The scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:
how information was shared between the various organisations;
how the Working With Children Check was conducted and assessed; and
whether organisational factors may have influenced responses to allegations and information.
Royal Commission CEO Janette Dines said that it was important to remember that the Royal Commission has not been set up to examine individual cases of alleged abuse.
“The Royal Commission has been asked to look at where systems have failed children in the past and identify what institutions and government should do to better protect children in the future,” said Ms Dines.
