Strengthening investigation and enforcement at the Office of the Children’s Guardian
The NSW Government has funded a new Investigations and Enforcement team at the Office of the Children's Guardian (OCG) to better protect children across the state.
This follows recent reforms of the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012, which introduced a new internal review process for Working with Children Check decisions, transferring review functions from the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal to the OCG.
To support this reform and sharpen its compliance work, the OCG will consolidate its compliance capability spread across the organisation into a new Investigations and Enforcement Directorate.
The new directorate will strengthen the OCG’s ability to:
- conduct investigations in line with legal and policy frameworks
- manage and prioritise caseloads
- support internal reviews through stronger evidentiary and regulatory oversight
- take proportionate enforcement action to reduce risk to children and hold non-compliant organisations to account.
Approved for an initial 2 years, the funding will enable the OCG to build specialist capability and demonstrate strengthened regulatory outcomes for children, families and the broader community.
The OCG will continue to work closely with child-related organisations so that investigations and enforcement activities are transparent, fair and focused on improving child safety.
