Managing Staff & Pay, Medication Management, Declining a Student from Participating, Risk Warnings, Consent Forms & Waivers
| Date | 11 November 2025 |
| Time | 12.00pm-4.45pm AEDT (Syd/Mel time) |
| Venue | Live Online with recording (recording access expires 11 December 2025) |
| Pricing | $440 Prices includes gst. |
| Sector | Non-State Schools |
| CPD | Addresses 7.2 of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. |
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Program
12.00 LawSense Welcome
12.05 Chairperson’s Remarks
12.10 Staffing Camps and Trips: Navigating Risk, Obligations and Pay Issues
Assessing Risks for Staff, Including Psychosocial Hazards
- Exploring best practice in assessing and managing particular hazards for staff, including psychosocial hazards
Staff Ratios
- Implementing best practice approaches to assessing required staff ratios for different types of excursions, camps and trips and different student cohorts
- Understanding and managing particular considerations in having volunteers such as parents in the staff mix
Staff Skills & Assessment
- Exploring the extent of your obligations:
- evaluating staff fitness to participate in the relevant activities, including navigating privacy obligations in collecting medical information
- assessing staff skills mix is required and evaluating the relevant skills and experience of school staff and volunteers
- in implementing staff training and induction
Assessing & Managing Staff from External Providers
- Understanding the extent of your obligations in assessing, managing and supervising staff from external providers
Staff Pay
- Determining staff hours on a domestic or overseas trip – what time can reasonably be claimed as time at work
- Understanding pay obligations, including possible obligations to pay overtime at an hourly rate
- Exploring options to optimise staff pay arrangements to maintain the financial viability of domestic and overseas trips
Emily Haar, Partner, Piper Alderman
1.10 Break
1.20 Exploring Best Practice Medication Management on Excursions, Camps and Trips
Outline of Key Relevant Laws
- Understanding key laws relevant to medication management in schools
Students Self-Administering
- Exploring obligations where students self-administer medication:
- when should you allow this
- to what extent should you monitor students to ensure they have the relevant medication and are taking the medication
Administration of Medicines by Staff
- Examining the rights, obligations and risks in allowing medication administration by non-clinical staff
- Exploring the level of qualifications or training non-clinical staff should have
Chronic Conditions and Exploring Limits of Reasonable Adjustments
- Students with a disability, chronic illness or medication requirements:
- exploring the limits of reasonable adjustments required regarding medication on school camps
- learning from case studies, scenarios and work-arounds involving medication management
Monitoring Side Effects and Panning Regarding Adverse Effects or Medication Errors
- Examining obligations to monitor side effect or adverse effects of medication
- Obtaining information and planning for side-effects, adverse reactions or errors
Storage of Medicines
- Examining key legal requirements in medication storage and implementing best practice
Nevena Brown, Consultant, Health and Insurance, Meridian Lawyers
2.20 Break
2.30 Implementing Effective Risk Warnings and Consent Forms and Navigating Waivers for The School and From External Providers
Limits of Legal Protection of Risk Warnings, Waivers and Disclaimers
- Outlining the legal effect and protection offered by risk warnings, waivers and disclaimers in consent forms.
Collecting and Including Adequate Information
- Collecting information to assist in risk management and the development of appropriate consent forms, risk warnings and waivers for the school
- Exploring what information about the activity and risks should be provided
Best Practice Wording, Examples
- Exploring best practice wording of risk warnings, waivers and disclaimers
- Learning from examples showing the extent of information required about the activity and risk
Waivers and External Providers
- Risk warnings or consent forms from external suppliers and venues – understanding how these should be considered and incorporated into what the school provides to students and families
- Exploring when you should “push back” on waivers from external providers and exploring work-arounds
- Learning from examples
Leighton Hawkes Principal, McCabes Lawyers
3.30 Break
3.40 Declining a Student from Participating in an Excursion, Camp or Trip – Examining Defensible Reasons, Including Navigating Discrimination
Exploring Basis Upon Which You Can Consider Declining Student Participation
- Behaviour and performance
- Disability – unable to make reasonable adjustments and unjustifiable hardship
- Parent/carer failure to provide adequate information
Outlining the Relevant Legal Framework
- Reviewing the current laws affecting students with a disability participating in excursions, camps and trips
- Outlining the school’s rights and obligations where there is no disability
- Examining the school’s rights and obligations to require information about students and staff
Declining Participation Based on Reasonable Adjustments and Unjustifiable Hardship
- Examining when you can participation based on inability to make reasonable adjustments for unjustifiable hardship. What is ’unjustifiable’?
- Balancing the impact on:
- other students – to what extent does this factor into ‘unjustifiable hardship’ or ‘reasonable’ adjustments?
- impacts on staff – understanding what to consider
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- factoring in limitations on resources as a result of already supporting a number of students with a disability
Parents Not Disclosing or Providing Adequate Information
- Exploring your rights and options to decline participation where you consider the parents/guardian are not cooperating or providing adequate or correct information
Implementing Effective Documentation to Defend Your Legal Position
- Examining best practice documentation and communication to support your decision to decline participation
Ben Tallboys, Principal, Russell Kennedy Lawyers; Legal Counsel, Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA)
4.40 Closing Remarks
4.45 Event Close
Presenters / panelists include:
Ben Tallboys provides sector-specific, practical legal solutions to schools across Australia. Ben is a passionate and effective advocate for principals dealing with complex matters relating to parents, staff and students, as well as their own employment.
Jason Newman's practice includes the defence of claims in the education sector. He has advised many insurers, schools and teachers on claims and potential claims against them. His clients include Catholic Church Insurances, several major brokers and Lloyds Syndicates.
Nevena Brown brings a common-sense confidence to her work, and more than 25 years’ experience. Her experience with liability claims is enhanced from having worked as a senior solicitor at NZI/CGU Insurance Ltd for five years. Nevena has advised and defended claims for GIO General Ltd, Vero Insurance, NZI/CGU Insurance Ltd, QBE Europe and other major insurers.
Leighton Hawkes commenced his career in claims management and other technical roles with a major Australian insurance, working on claims for the NSW Treasury Managed Fund (TMF). Leighton has acted for the NSW Department of Education for a significant number of years. Presently he acts in a diverse range of matters, including claims arising from public liability, property damage to NSW schools, historical sexual abuse, discrimination (employee and disability), and Coronial enquiries.