Examining Best Practice to Ensure You Meet Your Obligations, Minimise Legal Exposure and Can Defend Your Legal Position
Date | 21 March 2024 |
Time | 12.00pm-3.30 pm AEDT (Syd/Mel time) |
Format | Live Online & Recorded. The recording can be viewed until 21 April 2024 |
Pricing | $440. Prices includes gst. |
CPD | This PD addresses 7.2.2. of the Standards |
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Program
12.00 LawSense Welcome
12.05 Chairperson’s Introduction
Nikki Kirkup, Principal & Chief Executive, The Knox School
12.10 Note-Taking in Schools: Examining Best Practice and Case Studies to Ensure You Meet Your Obligations, Minimise Legal Exposure and Can Defend Your Legal Position
Legal Obligations and Key Principles
- Outlining note-taking and record keeping obligations and guides affecting schools, including the impact of recommendations on note-taking and record keeping from the Royal Commission
- Examining key aspects of note-taking to meet legal risk and avoid criticism by Courts:
- level of detail or clarity
- ensuring you cover key aspects
- “loaded” words from which inferences could be drawn about the writer
- writing what you observe versus what you think is happening
- properly and clearly setting out the basis of any opinions expressed
- accurately recording conversations, including hearsay
- making changes to notes after they were originally written
Case Studies and Examples – Best Practice Notetaking in Different Areas
- Student disability:
- examining what you should record for legal protection and funding audits:
- recording diagnosis/diagnosis management and assessment
- evidence of assessment of adjustments
- evidence of parent consultation
- liaison with external experts
- Student discipline and expulsions – case studies and examples:
- identifying particular considerations in taking notes of conversations with students of different ages
- exploring important aspects to record where there is a serious discipline issue
- Conflicts with parents – case studies and examples:
- examining how parents can use notes or other communications between staff as evidence in action against the school
- outlining how school staff records can be used in Family Court proceedings
- exploring what to record in dealing with difficult parents
- Performance management and dismissals – case studies and examples:
- understanding when you should be documenting and dealing with informal conversations
- outlining key aspects to record regarding:
- incidents of poor performance
- complaints from other staff or parents
- informal conversations
- formal performance management meetings
- show cause meetings
- examining what you should record for legal protection and funding audits:
Morgan Smithe, Associate, Russell Kennedy Lawyers
1.10 Break
1.20 Conducting Effective Student and Staff Investigations: Navigating Grey Areas, Managing Fallout and Responding to Complaints
Key Laws, Planning, Steps and Considerations in Investigating
- Outlining the legal framework applying to workplace investigations and identifying common circumstances that led to them in schools
- Understanding differences in legal requirements between student investigations and staff investigations
- Examining the Rules of Natural Justice and procedural fairness obligations and how they apply at different points in the process
- Assessing when to use an external investigator: who should conduct the investigation if you decide to do it internally?
- Examining what evidence you should consider obtaining and understanding the value of different types of evidence – hearsay versus “first hand” evidence, independent and corroborative evidence
- Dealing with contradictory evidence
- Managing communications, confidentiality, and privacy rights
- Assessing the evidence and making findings – what level of evidence is enough? When can you accept a version of events without corroborating evidence?
- Acting on investigation findings
Responding to Claims/Complaints Regarding the Investigation
- Examining and responding to claims that can be made by staff regarding the investigation:
- lack of procedural fairness – exploring case studies and scenarios
- a failure to seek or properly assess evidence
- bias and discrimination
- psychological stress/injury resulting from the way the investigation was conducted
Megan Kavanagh, Partner, Colin Biggers & Paisley Lawyers
2.20 Break
2.30 Best Practice Interviewing to Optimise Effectiveness and Your Legal Position
- Reviewing the circumstances in schools where you may need to conduct interviews – student discipline or incidents, staff investigations, parent complaints
- Examining key laws to consider in interviewing:
- procedural fairness
- privacy
- laws applying where other regulatory bodies or police could potentially be involved
- contracts or EBA’s where staff are involved
- Optimising information gathering:
- considering objectives for the interview and interview planning
- foundation for questions – who, what, when, where, why
- learning from case studies and scenarios
Support Persons and Parents
- Understanding when a support person is required or recommended– student interviews, staff interviews
- Informing parents and dealing with parents wanting to be involved in any interview
- When should you involve the wellbeing team with student or staff interviews?
Recording of Interviews
- Examining how interviews should be documented. Should interviews be recorded? What if the interviewee seeks to record the interview?
Student Interviews
- Exploring particular considerations in interviewing students – duty of care, child protection, privacy and confidentiality
- Dealing with requests from the student to not reveal them as a source
- Approaches to questioning, using scripts, examples of questions to ask and practical tips
Staff Interviews
- Ensuring you provide procedural fairness
- Are you obliged to reveal the source of allegations of information in your interview?
- Approaches to questioning, using scripts, examples of questions to ask and practical tips
Amy Walsh, Special Counsel, MinterEllison
3.30 Closing Remarks
3.30 Event Close
Presenters / panelists include: